PC Data Recovery

RedDelicious

A little over a year ago I purchased a MacBook and have barely touched my old PC and have so far done a terrible job of transferring data over to my new computer. Earlier today I tried to boot the thing up and have been receiving this message every time I do so:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

\windows\system32\config\system

Not a great sign!

My question is, what are my options at this point for recovering all the music and video files I have on the old PC? I've never done any data transfer between machines without a large flash drive. Any and all help here is appreciated

ronya

You should still be able to get data off, although obviously you should do so ASAP. Roughly how old is your old PC, anyway? The hardware on it may limit your options.

The gist of the error message is "your data is still there, although Windows is borked". So you can try to use another operating system to access your data (running off a USB stick or a CD drive, say) or you can pry out the disc entirely and connect it to another computer. Either case depends on what tools you have available to you.

RedDelicious

The PC was purchased in the fall of 2003. It actually lasted a good long while (roughly six years) before I picked up my MacBook and it runs/ran Windows XP. I really have no tools at my disposal but I'd be okay with purchasing the odd tool or two given how much music is on there.

ronya

You don't have a USB stick? :P

RedDelicious

I mean, sure, but how can I go about accessing any of my files if I can't even get my OS running?

Joe Camacho MKII

Use a linux livecd boot cd, such as Knoppix, you can download and burn the image with your macbook.

That's what I used when my laptop's OS died and I wanted to recover some data; it will load a GUI and give you a set of tools you can use to recover data, if you have any questions about how to use it, there are a lot of guides online or you could ask the fine PA gentemen around here (I'm not that familiar with Knoppix, or even linux, but when I did the data recovery, I had another PC with online guides to help me during the process, it is not that hard).

ronya

Ubuntu. Use your MacBook to check the intarwebs while doing it, in case you can't get internet access set up.

Be warned: Ubuntu live will be slow as molasses on old hardware. The idea is to boot from disc, locate your files, and copy them off (to your Mac via your wifi network, or to an external flash drive, say). Hard drive errors like that can be the unimportant "let's blame the cosmic background radiation" stuff, or "your drive is dying and it's letting you know now" sort - so copy your files off ASAP.

A problem is that you can't fix file system errors in a NTFS drive, as yours likely is, from Ubuntu - meaning that if the file corruption is affecting your desired files, you'll have to find a way to get a Windows system attached... but that's only a possible problem. Try Ubuntu first, it's easiest.

RedDelicious

How will my computer read the Ubuntu/Knoppix disc if it can't even start up? I've never done anything like this before.

ronya

Turn it on, put the disc in, turn it off, turn it on again. If you didn't change it, your computer should check the disc drives before looking into your hard drive for an operating system (if you hear CDs spin up when you turn on computers, that's why).

If not, look for any BIOS setup messages that may appear on the screen before anything Windows-related does. Press the appropriate keys, and change the order of boot devices so that your optical/CD/DVD drive comes first. This varies from computer to computer so I can't give you precise instructions, just look for the words.