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Author Topic: Corrupted external drive and computer in continuous reboot, please help!  (Read 5697 times)

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Lexx

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    Hello everyone! I am so desperate at this point, having tried whatever I could with the little knowledge I have about computers. For starters, I accidentally plugged out my 2tb external drive while the computer was scanning it. After that I was told that my drive was corrupted. So I ran chkdsk on my drive and I was able to get some items back, but not all, I have missing folders. Also, trying to open a folder makes my computer freeze up, but I'm sure its not a virus. All of this started when I got the corrupted message. Trying to fix this problem, I set my external drive as active, thinking this would fix the problem.  When I saw that it didn't fix the problem, I was unable to mark it as inactive. I went through all the prompts in the chkdsk black screen only to get stuck at the last prompt. Now I'm having an even bigger problem because my computer is doing this continuous boot. When it boots up, it attempts to go to the blue chkdsk screen for like 1 second and then it boots as normal. When it asks me what mode to boot up in, no matter what mode I select (safe, normal) it reboots all over again. I have also tried to do a repair using my Windows disc, but when asked to select my c drive, I see no letter next to the drive, so I can't select it. I am at my witts end with this issue, trying to handle it myself with no avail. I really need your help, anybody! You would make me so happy, I'll have all my sentimental things back and I'll be able to go back to creating music. I've had this problem for almost a year now and don't know where else to turn. Thank you so so much in advance!

    patio

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    I'm glad you got most of your persoanl stuff from the external...
    However it's time to move on as it sounds like chkdsk or whatever you had running on the external is now affecting the regular operation of your PC.
    Boot normally...go to disk management and do a full format of the external HDD.

    Format it NTFS and you should be good to go from there...
    " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

    Lexx

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      Hello patio. I can't get to my desktop at all. The computer is in continuous reboot. As far as the rest of the stuff on my external drive goes, I really need them back. Lots of sentimental things such as my late grandmother's pictures and videos. Losing them is not an option for me, i'm looking for a way to retrieve it. Thanks Patio.

      truenorth



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        I know that you probably know that interrupting a process on an external device by unplugging/shutting down the device is an absolute no no. patio is happy that you were able to retrieve some of your data but is suggesting that you will NOT be able to retrieve any other. As a preliminary step before reformatting the external (which is solely for the purpose of hopefully being able to use the drive again --but as if it were a brand new unused drive) just to confirm that you can use the external on another computer to see if it presents in a different fashion--but that is doubtful. There are free software programs that can be tried to retrieve more data from the drive. However when a similar issue arose for me the one i tried did not access any additional data. For the moment because of the impact this drive is having on your computer it is necessary to disconnect it from the computer and attempt to regain use of the computer. I have the impression that even when the device is removed that you still cannot get into safe mode is that so? truenorth

        patio

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        Hello patio. I can't get to my desktop at all. The computer is in continuous reboot. As far as the rest of the stuff on my external drive goes, I really need them back. Lots of sentimental things such as my late grandmother's pictures and videos. Losing them is not an option for me, i'm looking for a way to retrieve it. Thanks Patio.

        Have you tried to hook up the external to another working PC ? ?
        " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

        Lexx

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          Yes Truenorth, I can't even get it to boot in safe mode. And Patio, I've tried hooking it up to my other pc, and when I do, I get the blue screen. Loosing the data on my external is not an option for me, I'm looking for a solution to get all my data back. If no one has a solution for that then I'd rather just focus on how to get my pc to start up, is there anything I can do in BIOS? Thank you for your replies!

          truenorth



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            If you can get into the bios you will have 3 choices.
            1.start normally
            2.start in safe mode
            3.start with command prompt
            As i understand from your initial post none of those choices alter the situation. But you do not specifically mention choice 3. If you have not done that one do so and tell us where the process stops or if the reboot automatically occurs. If you can get into the BIOS chose "restore defaults" and tell us the results. You could also try removing the CMOS battery for about a minute and reinsert. If you try that process be sure the power connection is removed from the wall and that you touch the case BEFORE removing the battery to discharge static electricity. You state that NOT retrieving the HDD data is NOT an option.Here is a list of free data recovery software that you can try.
            http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/8348/free_hard_disk_utilities_recover_deleted_files_and_lost_data.html Here is a link that offers the service (very expensive) with no fee if data not recovered. May not be relevant to your geography but will give you an idea of what your facing via that route.
            http://www.gillware.com/?campaign=google1&gclid=CJ-9kJuwyK8CFQ0DQAod_BucZQ
            Good luck and keep us informed please as to your progress.truenorth

            Lexx

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              Good morning Truenorth. I am like all smiles right now because I got my computer to boot to my desktop! What I did was go into Bios and set cd Rom as my main boot, then it loaded the disc's contents and I pressed r for repair, then it took me to the command page where I pressed chkdsk /p. It checked my c drive and then I exited. When restating the computer, it loaded up with no problems. Thank you so much, that's one problem tackled!

              truenorth



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                An excellent choice. By the way ensure that your optical drive is retained as initial boot priority as in future instances of this nature it will (as you now know) make recovery more available. Some days are cherries some days are the pits. Glad to see today was a cherry for you. Decided what your going to do re the file retrieval on the external? truenorth

                Lexx

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                  A definite cherry Truenorth!  :D. I decided to do a backup of my entire c drive. It says it will take 7 days to complete, but I doubt that, its only 150gb. When that's done, I plan to find a way to set my external drive as inactive before I try to retrieve the rest of my data. The way I see it, anything's possible, so I'm sure I will get all my folders back, I just need to keep trying different ways. When I try to set it as inactive, it goes through all the prompts like it's attempting to mark it as inactive, then it just stops at the last prompt. Do you know why that might be happening?