Can I recover my Window 7 OS after a hard drive crash?
I have a Toshiba laptop Satellite S55. Recently the hard drive crashed BIG TIME. Obviously I'll need to replace it.
I hate to say this, but it seems that I do not have a backup for everything on the drive, just programs and data that I saved to an external hard drive.
The computer came with the Windows 7 built-in, no installation disk. Is the OS ON the crashed and worthless drive or is it stashed away someplace else on the computer so recovery is possible? There's a permanently attached label on the bottom with a Microsoft product key on it.
I hate to say this, but it seems that I do not have a backup for everything on the drive, just programs and data that I saved to an external hard drive.
The computer came with the Windows 7 built-in, no installation disk. Is the OS ON the crashed and worthless drive or is it stashed away someplace else on the computer so recovery is possible? There's a permanently attached label on the bottom with a Microsoft product key on it.
SOLUTION
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John
If they did not ship recovery media, then they either (a) put it on the hard drive or more likely (b) provided a way for you to make a recovery DVD. You apparently did not do that (most people do not), so as per above, contact Toshiba Support and get them to ship you recovery media. You will need this for their drivers.
If you just want to reinstall your OS you can download it from Microsoft so long you have a valid Windows 7 product key. Go here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7. You can download you .ISO form Microsoft for free.
Is the OS ON the crashed and worthless drive or is it stashed away someplace else on the computer so recovery is possible?If there was any Recovery partition, it was located in HPA (host protected area) on your Hard drive.
if the HDD is still working and if you detach the old drive and attach it to another computer and try to clone / Drive Copy the HDD to your new one, it might transfer everything including Recovery partition to your new HDD.
What do you mean by crash? Does your BIOS detect it? Does Windows on another machine detect it?
ASKER
CRASH means after taking it to a repair shop I know from experience is reputable that the hard drive is beyond repair. They tried to get it to reboot and after many failed attempts, that was it. There is no hard drive in the computer right now.
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Comments on the answers so far:
The issue of tech vs everyday user language rears its ugly head again. To me, " MAJOR CRASH" means (at first glance, anyway) that there is something physically wrong with the drive that will prevent it from working again....that that drive will not be able to be physically used in the computer again. I have found that the differences between techspeak and userspeak often cause confusion if not downright wrong messages.
I did in fact send the drive to Gillware and they report that they will be able to retrieve 90% of the information on it(!) for the sum of $700. It will be delivered today BUT the data will be on a new external hard drive.
More to come...breakfast awaits.
The issue of tech vs everyday user language rears its ugly head again. To me, " MAJOR CRASH" means (at first glance, anyway) that there is something physically wrong with the drive that will prevent it from working again....that that drive will not be able to be physically used in the computer again. I have found that the differences between techspeak and userspeak often cause confusion if not downright wrong messages.
I did in fact send the drive to Gillware and they report that they will be able to retrieve 90% of the information on it(!) for the sum of $700. It will be delivered today BUT the data will be on a new external hard drive.
More to come...breakfast awaits.
For tech guys the major crash is not a description of the problem, you are right. We are interested usually in details such as: not spinning, not detected in Windows, not detected in BIOS, gives no life signs etc.
nice that Gillware could recover the data. As I wrote in my previous comment, in future, before getting into panic check the drive yourself. And only then decide to use an expensive data recovery approach.
nice that Gillware could recover the data. As I wrote in my previous comment, in future, before getting into panic check the drive yourself. And only then decide to use an expensive data recovery approach.
ASKER
Breakfast finished. Back to biz....
The repair shop ran a program that apparently checks as much as any such program can and the results were a highly questionable (their words) indication that IF data could be retrieved, it would take 10 DAYS of continuous running the program to maybe get however much data there was on the drive.
From what I found, Gillware's quote for the quantity of data retrieved was one of the lower ones offered by such services. I usually back up once a week but had not done a backup for about a month thanks to a lot of traveling. The crash came at the end of an intensive 3-day catch-up period which included several VB scripts I had put together to perform 67 file deletions and replacements to one of my websites across as many files on an FTP connection. Among other things, I did not want to have to do that work all over again. It was bad enough to do it manually last night!
Because of this hassle, I hope to set up a daily backup for changed files AND add a continuous cloud backup for an off-site backup as well.
I'll visit the place I bought the computer and after that, award points and wrap things up for this question here.
The repair shop ran a program that apparently checks as much as any such program can and the results were a highly questionable (their words) indication that IF data could be retrieved, it would take 10 DAYS of continuous running the program to maybe get however much data there was on the drive.
From what I found, Gillware's quote for the quantity of data retrieved was one of the lower ones offered by such services. I usually back up once a week but had not done a backup for about a month thanks to a lot of traveling. The crash came at the end of an intensive 3-day catch-up period which included several VB scripts I had put together to perform 67 file deletions and replacements to one of my websites across as many files on an FTP connection. Among other things, I did not want to have to do that work all over again. It was bad enough to do it manually last night!
Because of this hassle, I hope to set up a daily backup for changed files AND add a continuous cloud backup for an off-site backup as well.
I'll visit the place I bought the computer and after that, award points and wrap things up for this question here.
i know gillware as one with fair quotes, and good results, and service
Clients have had good results with https://300dollardatarecovery.com
Their YELP page has hundreds of 5 star reviews.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/300-data-recovery-los-angeles
Their YELP page has hundreds of 5 star reviews.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/300-data-recovery-los-angeles
If you have an older backup image of the hard disk, you can restore that to a new drive. It should resolve the issue of getting the system up and running. Then, connect the external drive with the files recovered by Gillware to restore those files that were not previously backed up. You can use a tool like freefilesync to compare the Gillware recovered directories to what was restored by the backup image and sync those folders. see: https://www.freefilesync.org/
Note: Make sure the new drive is same or better larger than the old drive. Most Image backup programs will not restore to smaller disks -- Paragon is one that will. Most will also not expand to use the larger disk, but any decent partition manager will do that once you have the system restored. I like minitool Partition wizard. see: https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
Note: Make sure the new drive is same or better larger than the old drive. Most Image backup programs will not restore to smaller disks -- Paragon is one that will. Most will also not expand to use the larger disk, but any decent partition manager will do that once you have the system restored. I like minitool Partition wizard. see: https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
ASKER
I do appreciate the replies. The final outcome: I tried the Microsoft link provided in the replies and entered the product number. The response was that that number was a number given to the manufacturer, who installed the OS on the computer along with their choice of programs and sold it via Micro Center, so I'd need to contact Toshiba.
When I entered the number on the Toshiba website, no problem....EXCEPT for my having to choose the other software that was also on the computer (which I had no idea about) from a LONG list of drivers, etc.
I called Toshiba support today and the bottom line was (1) No problem with the OS being provided and (2) a charge for the drivers, etc, which they would put along with the OS on a USB stick and send to me for $39.95. It seemed to me that that was a relatively small price to insure that I would get exactly what I need for a computer which is going to primarily be used as part of a backup plan. So I said OK and it'll be here in a few days.
When I entered the number on the Toshiba website, no problem....EXCEPT for my having to choose the other software that was also on the computer (which I had no idea about) from a LONG list of drivers, etc.
I called Toshiba support today and the bottom line was (1) No problem with the OS being provided and (2) a charge for the drivers, etc, which they would put along with the OS on a USB stick and send to me for $39.95. It seemed to me that that was a relatively small price to insure that I would get exactly what I need for a computer which is going to primarily be used as part of a backup plan. So I said OK and it'll be here in a few days.
tx for feedback
Run away from spammers. There are a lot of fake companies around.
"I just don't want our customers to think we have wasted their time by saying we might be able to recover, then immediately referring to you (it's like a bait-and-switch). I think in most, if not all, cases the customer will be happier that we opened the drive because they know we actually put some effort into recovering the data."
Check this link out.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/300-dollar-data-recovery/studio-city-california-91604/300-dollar-data-recovery-300dollar-data-recovery-is-a-scam-studio-city-california-1000296
"I just don't want our customers to think we have wasted their time by saying we might be able to recover, then immediately referring to you (it's like a bait-and-switch). I think in most, if not all, cases the customer will be happier that we opened the drive because they know we actually put some effort into recovering the data."
Check this link out.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/300-dollar-data-recovery/studio-city-california-91604/300-dollar-data-recovery-300dollar-data-recovery-is-a-scam-studio-city-california-1000296
https://www.yelp.com/biz/300-data-recovery-los-angeles
The person behind the link has a number of similar links online, I would tend to trust the YELP page a bit more.
The person behind the link has a number of similar links online, I would tend to trust the YELP page a bit more.