recover files

[smf]

i have a fried who's laptop crashed "windows vista" and cannot get important photos and files how can they get the important stuff they had in the laptop i have a dos boot disc but really don't know how to recover files with it and if i did how would i get them off the laptop and on to a usb flash drive or cd?

[macdad-]

ok since you have the dos boot disc your in good shape, first pop in the boot disc and follow the instructions on the DOS boot disc. then once you get into dos and get at the command prompt then type in the following codes, after you plug in the USB Drive.

1.xcopy C:\(were ever the files were located) E:\

2.(you may see a confirmation asking about this and if you see this then type y)

3.(after it finishes copying, wait a min or two and then unplug the Flash Drive)

this should work, but if you have any probs then plz dont hesistate to reply back.

[Dusty]

Dos boot disk to access files on a hard drive where the file system is most likely to be NTFS and Dos support for a usb flash drive?

Please tell us it worked!

[macdad-]

finally someone agrees with me

a new goal for Mac!
 
Stewie:Victory is Mine!
srry just finished watchin a Family guy episode.
 

[patio]

Hate to disappoint you macdad but this will NOT work...

[macdad-]

but he said he can still get to DOS after the bios on his comp boots up. so if he uses XCOPY to copy all the stuff from his C drive to his Flash Drive,he can still get the data.

[patio]

but he said he can still get to DOS after the bios on his comp boots up. so if he uses XCOPY to copy all the stuff from his C drive to his Flash Drive,he can still get the data.

Nope.....Sorry.

[Dusty]

Dos boot disk to access files on a hard drive where the file system is most likely to be NTFS and Dos support for a usb flash drive?

Please tell us it worked!

macdad- I hate to tell you this but Dos cannot access files in the NTFS system, Dos cannot interpret the MFT.  As for Dos accessing usb peripherals, Dos was developed way before usb was thought of so there are no inbuilt drivers for usb devices.

My quoted post is a question, I hoped you had some gem of info to get your suggestion to work.

The OP did not state what type of crash occurred or give any details, it's possible that files can be recovered by repairing the system or slaving the laptop hdd in another pc (I favor the last option).  Without further info it's hard to give any advice.

[macdad-]

yes dusty, thank you for the lesson but now it seems that the only way to get the files of that HD is to either reinstall the OS.