Solved Hard Drive Crash - Trying to connect as external drive crashes all

[Mangum]

I got errors from Google that my computer had a virus but nothing I ran could find a virus, then the machine would not boot. It would get to point about the time windows tried to load and hit a blue screen. When it rebooted it would ask if I wanted to boot normal or safe mode and then start the whole fail blue screen over. I tried taking the drive out and connecting to my other machines as an external hard drive. When the drive connects to my other machines it brings the other machines down hard - blue screen exactly as if I had tried to boot on the original machine.

The goal is to get the files off the bad drive. I was just shocked that connecting it to my laptop or my other desktop took those machines down just like I was trying to boot the bad drive from the original machine. I am open to suggestions on recovery of any kind.

The original machine is a Dell XPS 8300 Intel Core i5-2320 processor Windows 7 64 bit
The drive is a Seagate 1 Tb 7200.12
The machines I tried to connect faulty drive to as external hard drive were both Win 7 64.
The external hard drive bay is Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive

Thank you

 

[paul1149]

There may be a couple of vectors to the virus. One for the boot sequence, another as an autorun in its root folder. I would try usb tethering the drive to a machine on which autorun or autoplay is completely turned off (as in, no exploration), or maybe better, run a Linux live session off a usb stick or dvd. I recommend LinuxLite.

 

[jumanji]

I go with paul1149's idea of trying with Live Linux.

As of this moment we really do not know what ails your HDD.

Put the HDD back into its original location that is your Dell desktop.

Prepare a Live Linux pen drive. I would recommend Lucid Puppy ( because that is the one I had used and you have some guide on using it here in SevenForums )

Download lupu-528.005.iso (132.6 MB) from http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported%20Puppy.htm#lucidpuppy

Create your bootable Lucid Puppy pendrive with this ISO using Rufus 2.2 (808KB) https://rufus.akeo.ie/ (All data on the pendrive will be lost when rufus formats the pendrive before writing the ISO and so backup any data on the pendrive elsewhere before running Rufus)

Boot your PC with this pendrive using the onetime boot menu Check whether that faulty drive is shown and you can access it and see your data. If seen copy all data to the empty drive.( You must have plugged in the empty drive before booting into Lucid Puppy)

Guide on how to use Lucid Puppy :Go to the topic Recovering files from the non-bootable Internal Drive: in my thread
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html

By the way, do you have the Recovery CDs for your DELL desktop?

 

[Mangum]

Success - Thank you

All

The advice given was just what I needed. I hate to admit but I have lost my touch for recovery of broken machines and the step by step guide was greatly appreciated. I was able to access and recover the needed files. I wish I could find and fix the infected files but I will buy a new drive and set-up the system new to avoid the virus.

I did not have restore CD/DVD so best I can do is start over I am afraid.

Thanks again!

 

[jumanji]

Glad to note that you were able to successfully recover all/most of your data.

But as you yourself know that is only part of the story.

You reported BSODs when booting. You also posted one large file in your first post ( That was Greek and Latin for me. ) Please raise a query in the BSOD Help and Support sub-forum with that file or any other recent file and may be the BSOD team of experts can help you straighten out your HDD and bring the system back alive.

That apart, if you are still thinking of a new HDD and a fresh install ( you can as well wipe your HDD clean and do a fresh install after checking the health of your HDD with the manufacturer's diagnostic/repair utility including the clean wipe), try to obtain the DELL OEM Reinstall DVD for your system. Even if your system is out of warranty, DELL may concede to your request. Just tell them that your HDD got corrupted by a severe virus attack and your dog scratched your Recovery Disks beyond redemption ( the dog story only if they ask, otherwise spare your dog ) and you are out on the street.Talk to their Tech Support or make a request online

How To Request Backup CDs for Your Dell Computer | Dell US= .

If they agree you may get it in two or three days and a clean install with the OEM installation Disk will auto activate. Otherwise you have to activate it with the product ID in the COA sticker on the machine. Check whether it is legible and readable.

 

[Mangum]

Follow up so others may learn from my mistakes

Jumanji

Once again, thank you for your help.

As a follow up. I found the Recovery DVD/CD's I created on first install for recovery of the system. This was a great idea. Unfortunately I only copied the most critical files to my external drive before finding the Recovery Disks. The recovery disks seemed to be able to save the files and recover the disk and all would be well/could be. That is not what happened and with hindsight I wish I had backed up the whole drive to an external drive before trying the restore because the restore failed and all files on the drive (except critical ones I copied off) were lost.

I did run a disk check on the disk prior to trying recovery and it said all was well. The recovery hung after backing up all the files and installing windows and when it was supposed to be copying the backed up files back to the drive. When I rebooted after the hang and tried to start the process again it could not find the saved files and wiped everything from the disk and re-installed the OS. After trying to find the files on the disk and then using Seagate tools to see if files were still accessible for recovery from the disk (very few) I bought a new disk and restored the system to a new disk. I am still going to try and recover some of the files with tools from old disk. But the sad story is my anxiousness and trust in recovery was my downfall.

The good news is I have a machine that runs again, just lost most everything. My backup system (Just Cloud) had stopped working on this machine and as it is not the one I use and no one told me it was not running there and the machine had not backed up for a long time, one more of murphy's laws that just adds to the folly of the events.

And that is the rest of the story.
Thanks again