Yes, my laptop came with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit installed. I used a disc for that particular OS to try and recover. So what files are different on my disc? How do I go about doing anything recovery wise at this point?
As we speak, I have my HDD connected to this pc that I am using and I can browse everything and see all files. They are all okay. That is what makes me sure that my HDD is okay.
The Win 7 that comes installed on PC's are called OEM copies of Win 7. The ones you buy in stores on a disk are Retail Copies of Win 7. The files that are put on your PC by the manufacturer are different than what is on a Disc you buy. The PC should have had a Recover Partition that has everything you need to restore you files back to how they were. You do not need to be concerned with that at this point. Your HDD is fine. The first thing I would do is backup your files using Macrium Reflect Free It makes an image of your HDD so that if in the future there is a problem, you just take 15 minutes to restore the image to you HDD and you are in business again. You do not need a Win 7 disc or a Recovery Partition. You use your Macrium image of your HDD and restore it and things are just as they were before. All of your personal files and Win 7. If you have an external HDD to store your images on, that is what you need because the images can not be on the same HDD as your Win 7. Before we get back to fixing your PC, lets get the image of your files made so that they are safe. Macrium gives you a choice of a "Clone" or an "Image". The image is better as it takes up less space and is more reliable as a backup. When you get the image made, the software will ask "Do you want to make a Restore Disk". You need to do that. It is a CD that will allow you to boot your PC so that you can restore your image if your PC is completely dead. == If you could do that and get back to me or ask any questions before you do it, that will save your files.
Yes, my laptop came with Windows 7 professional 64 bit installed.
I know my HDD is working because of 2 reasons:
- I have a usb thing that I can use to connect 2.5 inch HDDs to other computers and use them as external drives. I used that on my HDD and could access everything.
- I just used a Ubuntu live disc to boot up my computer and it is working fine! I can even browse the files on my C drive using that!
Is that not evidence that windows is more dysfunctional than my machine?
Your reply in Post 13 was the same as in Post 11. In my post 12, I told you what to do to save your files.
I didn't get the part I highlighted in red.
This is what I think you are asking me to do:
- Use the Macrium software to create an image of my HDD.
- Once that is done, use that to restore the computer???
I am confused about that bit. How would it work? I'd just have an image of my HDD. How does that lead to a recovery?
I am a bit confused about how the recovery bit will take place. Or are you suggesting that the recovery disc that I will make with that software will be able to restore my Windows installation?
I am trying to get you to make a backup of your files so you will have that. You do not want to restore anything at this point, but you do need a backup of your files. You don't have one. We will work on getting your PC going after you do this. Just follow my message above make the Image of your HDD and make the Recover Disk and then we will work on getting your PC going.
Alright, I need some help with the back up. This is the problem:
The laptop I can use right now for the back up thing doesn't have more than one functioning USB ports!! There are two others that just doesn't work for some reason. I will do a fresh installation of windows on this one after I am done with my laptop. Anyway, this laptop doesn't have enough space for me to save the disk image on this laptop. Therefore, this is what I was thinking about doing:
- Use the Ubuntu Live CD to boot up my Thinkpad
- IF IT IS possible, connect the external HDD to my Thinkpad and save the disk image of Thinkpad on the external HDD.
- Once that is done, I can do a fresh windows install on my Thinkpad.
- Once Windows is up and running on it, I can plug my external HDD back into my Thinkpad and just copy paste files from there to my new windows.
Is this doable?
I really don't think it is your Win 7 that is the problem. There is something in the Bios that is messed up. I was just trying to get a backup of your files, but that is not working. You might be better off just Googling "ME in Recovery Mode" and see if you can find anything. I have about come to the end of my knowledge base on this.
There is only one usable drive on my Thinkpad. That is the C drive with both windows and all my stuff in it. The other is a recovery partition.
Edit: What would happen if I just used Ubuntu to simply copy the entire C drive onto my external HDD? Would things like the files inside program files, documents, pictures/etc survive? I won't be using this back up to restore anything anyway. I am expecting to manually install all my programs in my fresh windows install anyway. I'd be fine as long as I can access the AppData, Program files, saved docs/images/etc. For example, I'd love to retain various config files of certain software, icons/logs/etc that are now present inside the AppData folder.
Last edited by MSKHAN; 10 Jan 2016 at 10:44.
That would work to save your Personal Files. As I said, I do not think Reinstalling Windows will help your problem. == So that you will not be exposing your personal files in the future, you should put you Win 7 and programs on the C: drive and make another partition to put your personal files on. This way you can reinstall Windows at anytime and not worry about your personal files. == When you get this problem corrected I suggest strongly that you start using Macrium Reflect to make an Image weekly so you do not risk losing your files again. Good Luck
Quote