Recover a Dead Windows Machine

Bring your Windows PC back from the dead. This process may take up to one or two days of exasperating labor. Try the following steps in the order given to complete tasks ranked by easiest and least likely to lose data, all the way to challenging, with high risk of data loss.

Steps

  1. Back up your work before troubleshooting. The first step in any restore is to back up your data from the hard drive. If your machine runs well enough attempt recovery, then you may be able to plug a USB2 hard disk and back up your files. You'll have peace of mind and a safety net if the a process below fails, leaving your PC in a state of limbo. A failing hard drive may work intermittently enough to copy data from it, but is at continually at risk of a critical failure.
  2. Create a new user account to use. Sometimes a system that partially boots and/or misbehaves badly, or has a 'dead' application that can't be run anymore can be 'recovered' simply by creating a new user account and logging in as that new user. A corrupted registry is the most common culprit for 'dead' Windows machines, and a large subset of these potentially corrupt entries are in your user profile.
    Click on the "Start" button and go to the "Control Panel" ("Settings" -> "Control Panel"), then select "User Accounts".
    Create a New Account and give it a name.
    Give it 'Administrator' privileges.
    Reboot or log out and login as the 'new' user.
    Verify that the system is stable. If the system is stable, you will still have to restore all of the settings you had on the old account, and move the 'My Documents' contents from the old account to the new one.
    Back up your work.
    Avoid using the old account. Windows will just try to re-use the same corrupted data again.
  3. Use System Restore if available. Windows Me, XP, and later have a System Restore feature that will recover your system configuration (drivers, settings, and shared files) from the last configuration that worked. This feature must be enabled prior to encountering a configuration problem in order to use it. To enable it, right click on "My Computer", select "Properties", and click on the "System Restore" tab.
    • If you're unable to boot into Windows:
    • Boot your PC. If Window recognized that it was unable to load and if System Restore has a valid restore point, you'll have a chance of recovery.
    • Press the key prompted by Windows when you receive the message "Boot to last known, good configuration".
    • Follow the advice given, and Windows will restore your Windows to a last known, good configuration, then automatically reboot your PC.
    • Try booting to "Safe Mode", then following the steps below. Do this by repeatedly pressing F8 immediately before Windows will start to load (after your hardware information is displayed). When you see a boot menu for Windows XP, select either Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking for network and Internet access.
    • If you're able to boot to the Windows desktop:
    • Click on the "Start" button and go to "Programs" or "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools", then select "System Restore".
    • Leave the radio button on 'Restore my computer to an earlier time'.
    • Click on 'Next'.
    • Pick a date before the bad system behaviors began.
    • Reboot and see if it works better.
    • If it does not, try again with an earlier restore point.
    • Go through your documents and files. You'll discover 'versioned' file names of various files that were modified between now and your restore point. Delete or remove the 'old' files and make sure the 'newest' or most correct versions of files exist. Windows XP does not come with a tool to browse the old restore point files to individually recover them, even though that would be super handy. The Windows XP boot disk does not have a 'System Restore' tool to restore Windows to earlier states like this, so your computer must boot to use this method. If the machine does not boot, try one of the methods below to recover your data and your machine.
  4. Perform a reinstall from a Microsoft retail or OEM Windows disc. This is only possible if your computer came with a shiny Windows CD or DVD that has a hologram-like surface. Also, this will not work for CDs create using nLite. A Windows reinstall will only replace system files. Your data, settings, and installed applications should remain untouched.
    Verify that your PC attempts boots to the optical drive by default. Enter your BIOS and look under a "Boot" menu or "Advanced Settings" section to find the system's boot order. Set the first device to "ATAPI CD", "Optical", or similar selection. Exit the BIOS and save your settings.
    Insert the Windows disc into your optical drive.
    Press any key if prompted to do so when your PC prompts you to boot from a disc. Some will boot to an optical disc without any user interaction.
    When prompted by the Windows installer, select "Reinstall". Make sure you don't accidentally select "Recover Console" prior to this menu.
    Perform Windows updates once you've completed the reinstall. You may also need to update your hardware drivers as well.
  5. Use an OEM recovery partition of a Windows installation.
    Many manufacturers don't give you a Windows boot disc anymore instead you get a 'Recovery Disc' or a 'Recovery Partition' that contains an image of the boot partition in the state hey shipped the machine.
    Put the disc in (or boot off the 'recovery partition'), follow the prompts, and the version of Windows with all the right drivers and all of the default unlicensed bundleware that came with the PC will be restored and ready to go and need licensing (or deletion) again. These restores will not restore other applications, licenses, or drivers that were installed since the system was initially used. This restore will most likely wipe any data on the Windows partition, including including personal information, documents, and settings, which includes your 'My Documents' and anyone else's 'My Documents' on the computer.
  6. Boot with Linux to to correct major issues with a Windows installation such as a corrupted partition or boot table.
    Download and burn a Linux boot disk from your favorite Linux distribution. You may need to use another computer if you have not done this already. As an alternative, use a GParted LiveCD image which includes a very basic copy of the Gentoo Linux distribution.
    Boot from the Linux CD.
    Mount the Windows partition.
    Using Linux, back up your data from the damaged partition onto a USB drive, or the network, or burn a CD.
  7. Use a third party boot disk to perform maintenance and clean-up a Windows installation.
    Try 'UBCD' (see link below), a free ISO of a self-booting CD image accompanied by a big pile of tools and utilities.
    Various hard disk tools like 'Partition Magic' or 'Norton Utilities' come on a bootable CD that will let you tinker with 'bad' drives. It is best to back up any intact data before attempting to 'recover' lost data.
  8. Remove the hard drive and troubleshoot it on another PC.
    Pull the hard drive out of the dead PC if the computer can't be made to boot, restore or install its operating system.
    Install the drive in an external hard drive enclosure (USB, Firewire, and/or eSATA), then attaching in to anther computer. Nearly every external hard drive enclosure can be used temporarily if needed. Otherwise, purchase or find an unused external hard drive enclosure.
    Try installing the drive into another computer. Make sure to change any settings in the BIOS to avoid booting to this drive.
    Backup the data from the mounted drive. If the drive won't mount, then try data recovery software or professional data recovery services. If that doesn't help, the data on the drive may be permanently lost.



Tips

  • The partition (or separate hard disk) with your data and work files should be formatted 'FAT32' and have 'System Restore' turned OFF. That way, if you have to mess with or re-format or restore a backup copy of a mangled Windows partition, you don't have to overwrite all of your current work, and you can get that drive mounted by nearly any other OS.
  • Make two partitions when you partition and format a hard disk, or buy a second hard disk. One partition gets Windows and the software installations. One partition gets the data and work files, like the contents of 'My Documents'. When you need to STOMP the Windows partition, the other data can remain safe and relatively untainted. A second hard disk can even be UNPLUGGED so the Windows install or other system recovery software can't "accidentally" reformat it "for you".
  • A USB2 backup drive that's probably twice as big as the hard drive in your computer can be had dirt cheap. It's a good investment for backing up data. After the initial, time consuming backup, incremental backups take only a few minutes. Then the backup drive can be unplugged and put away somewhere safe, preferably where the same kinds of physical disasters that kill your computer won't get it, too.
  • What drives 'System Restore' operate on can be configured from "Start->Settings->Control Panel->System", then picking the 'System Restore' tab.
  • CMOS is relatively easy to 'fix', just go into the BIOS settings for the motherboard and reset it and then set the time and reconfigure it back the way it used to be.
  • Save your passwords, registration codes, receipts, etc. When you make logins/passwords, or receive registration codes, record them somewhere safe.
  • If you have system restore, be sure to save everything, and create a new, named checkpoint just before you install a new piece of hardware or a new driver. There will usually be a lot less mess to back out of when you need to.
  • To a degree, the 'two partitions or two drives' thing applies to Linux and other operating systems. For straight-forward recovery after a little mishap or major disaster, you seriously don't want OS/programs and your personal documents and work intermixed.
  • Get some real system recovery software, like Norton Ghost (formerly PowerQuest Drive Image), and make hard drive image backups of your own boot drive with ALL of your software and drivers installed. It turns a day-long, maybe even week-long ordeal into a mere 45 minute cuss-fest when ANY version of Windows self-destructs and croaks on you. Especially useful if your living is based on your PC. It also means that you don't have to "live with" a Windows installation that has gone 'senile' from all the viral and spyware junk that crawled into it, or got wrecked when you bought a new piece of hardware that installed 100 megs of buggy garbage into the OS to 'extend it', instead of a simple device driver.
  • A text file on a cheap little USB thumb drive can be used for saving information like logins, passwords, utility company addresses, online accounts, etc. and whatever other 'private' things, like tax records. It can sit in a box, or a safe only to come out when you NEED it, and keep all those private things will be off-line and unavailable to the various frightful things that get into Windows. Anyway, if the computer takes a dump all over you, then all that stuff you lazily and insecurely left on the PC for anyone ELSE to steal will not die with it. Grow a carpal tunnel and type those passwords when you're prompted. You won't forget them so much.
  • Back up your work! When the hard disk physically crashes, your work is probably lost, no matter what. Even investing thousands of dollars for data recovery might not get much more than file fragments back. Back up early, back up often. An ounce of backup is worth a TON of re-creating things from scratch.
  • Nothing you do with the software can really damage modern hardware. However, sometimes things like the CMOS memory can be overwritten, and (if you leave jumpers set the wrong way) even EEPROM BIOS on the motherboard can be stomped.
  • EEPROM BIOS being clobbered, well you'll have to order a new chip from the manufacturer and swap it out. Some flash-able BIOS chips have a ROM backup that they can always revert to. If not, and it's soldered to the motherboard, then the motherboard will need to be replaced. If the BIOS can be flashed, find out which jumper (if any) disables flashing the BIOS and make sure that's disabled, and you should never have this problem.

Warnings

  • Only when the documents, internet shortcuts, mail, work files, etc. that the user used to have are safely and securely backed up onto another hard drive and/or burned to a CD or DVD, should you attempt to format or reinstall Windows.
  • Don't get carried away. Think first, and evaluation your situation and the consequences before continuing. Is your data more important than getting the PC to boot?

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  • ultimatebootcd.com A collection of diagnostic, benchmarking, and partitioning tools available as an ISO image.
  • gparted.sourceforge.net GParted is an open source Partition manager that offers an ISO image to use as a "LiveCD".
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