Windows XP File System Issue

By yeoo_andy_ni
in Microsoft (Windows)

 Share

Recommended Posts

Mentor

yeoo_andy_ni

Posted
Posted

Hi,

I've decided to ask on the forums here as I'm totally stumped as to what to do next.

A girl in work recently had her PC BSOD. Took the disk out and put it into an identical machine, but it did the same thing. So, I slaved it off the identical machine and was able to see that all the files/folders (bar 3) were hidden. Weird. So I unhid them and ran a chkdsk on it. No corruptions were found. I was now however able to boot from the drive in both computers. Before I removed the disk, I rebooted and cloned the drive using the Easeus disk clone application/tool.

Now, here's the stranger part. All the files/folders are date back to May 2011. So any work that had been done between now and then is gone, can't be seen or found. My first instinct was to send the disk away to a recover company as I didn't want to muddy the waters any by trying to recover files or folder and maybe messng the disk up any more. So off it went, and the report came back this week. All this recovery crowd can see from the disk is the May 2011 files, but nothing after. I know disk recovery companies are generally first class at recovering data from a drive or disk that has failed or died, but in this instance, even though I explained the situation to them, is there any chance that they have missed something? Is there anything I would be able to try, even on the cloned disk as it was a sector by sector clone, so it will be the same data I'm reading.

Cheers!

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1074419-windows-xp-file-system-issue/
Share on other sites
Collaborator

g0dzilla

Posted
Posted

Are you able to boot the machine up using a Linux (Fedora etc.) or other Live CD (e.g. Hiren's Boot CD using Mini XP Mode) so that you can just view the raw hard disk files; not from within a Windows environment?

Are there any dump files in the C:\Windows\Minidump folder of her hard drive that can be analysed to work out what caused the Blue Screens? If it was because of a hard drive failure, then it's highly possible that the drive has many bad sectors where that missing data was being stored on and was not able to be recovered (worst case scenario!).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Windows 11's big performance boost is finally available for all

      By +Good Bot, Bad Bot · Posted

      I agree when are you going to read this (really poor BTW) article? Here is a better article so you actually know what is going on and answers questions you had in other comments --> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/05/speed-boosting-low-latency-profile-is-one-of-the-improvements-coming-to-windows-11/ It is unclear if one will be able to disable the new profile at this point but I am not seeing any reason why one would.
    • Euro-Office must default to ODF to be considered "genuinely European", LibreOffice argues

      By Snake Doc · Posted

      I disagree; they come off very "bitchy" and "whiny". Make a great product and combine that with a great price (free) and people will come over to your side. Or build it and they will come as they say. Constantly trying to get attention by complaining all the time, will turn people off to your product.
    • Euro-Office must default to ODF to be considered "genuinely European", LibreOffice argues

      By +Eternal Tempest · Posted

      It use to be a nightmare, with LibreOffice supporting a newer draft ODF standard by default, and Microsoft Office supporting the older non-draft standard. Now that they both support the same version of ODF, they should be interoperable.
    • Brave Browser 1.91.171

      By Copernic · Posted

      Brave Browser 1.91.171 by Razvan Serea Brave Browser is a lightning-fast, secure web browser that stands out from the competition with its focus on privacy, security, and speed. With features like HTTPS Everywhere and built-in tracker blocking, Brave keeps your online activities safe from prying eyes. Brave is one of the safest browsers on the market today. It blocks third-party data storage. It protects from browser fingerprinting. And it does all this by default. Speed - Brave is built on Chromium, the same technology that powers Google Chrome, and is optimized for speed, providing a fast and responsive browsing experience. Brave Browser also features Brave Rewards, a system that rewards users with Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) for viewing opt-in ads. This innovative system provides an alternative revenue model for content creators and a way to support the Brave community. SlimBrave Neo takes all the good things about Brave and makes them even better by keeping everything clean, light, and privacy-focused. It removes the extra clutter, turns off features you might not need, and cuts down on anything that could slow you down or collect unnecessary data. Because it relies on simple settings and policies instead of modifying the browser itself, you still get full Brave compatibility—just in a smoother, lighter, and more privacy-friendly package. Brave Browser 1.91.171 changelog: General Fixed Cardano not being disabled on upgrade to Brave Origin. Upgraded Chromium to 149.0.7827.103. Origin Removed “Survey Panelist” setting from brave://settings/privacy. Fixed P3A and usage ping under brave://settings/privacy being displayed on first launch on Linux. Upgraded Chromium to 149.0.7827.103. Download: Brave Browser 64-bit | 1.2 MB (Freeware) Download: Brave Browser 32-bit View: Brave Homepage | Offline Installers | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Can't access the forum on mobile

      By RaidenX · Posted

      Hi. As the title suggests, I can't access the forum on my phone. I'm using Edge on Android and when I try to navigate to the forum I get a "we value your privacy" popup and none of the buttons are clickable. It effectively stonewalls me from reading any forum content.

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Jamswaz earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Jamswaz earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      Marzoid went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Community Regular
      coch went up a rank
      Community Regular
    • One Year In
      slackerzz earned a badge
      One Year In

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      519
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      190
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      156
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      84
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      75
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!