Dell :: Recover Windows 8 After Changing Hard Drive
Feb 18, 2014
I have an Inspiron 14Z 5423, and my hard drive crashed, after running the dell diagnostic tool, it pops up an error code 2000-0142 when it starts analyzing the hard drive, but despite this, i can still access the hard drive using Ubuntu Live DVD ...
Any ways, i noticed there is a second hard drive/partition of 32 GO which i think is supposed to contain the OS image or something similar, so if i buy a new hard drive, could i recover my original windows OS ?!
I had Windows 8 32 bit installed on a WD5000AAJS 500 GB hard drive that died on me. I had a backup of it made using the free version of Paragon Backup & Recovery. Apparently there is something wrong with the disk image so I am unable to recover from it (spent the past week trying everything I can think of or find on the internet to get the image to work). Anyways, there are some files on the hd that I would REALLY like to recover.
I can connect the HD to another PC running Win 7 and it starts to spin (no noise or excessive vibrations). The PC sees the HD as an unallocated drive with 134217728 GB when I look in Computer Management. I read somewhere that this represents the largest possible size for a Win 7 HD (something like that - I'm sure I'm wrong, though). Anyways, I was thinking that since at least the HD spins and the PC can see it, there must be some way to recover the files off of it. There is a MySQL db on there that I would like to recover and some batch and vbscript files I would like to recover.
A while back, I changed the internal drive in my laptop and restored Windows 8 using the recovery tools on the installation DVD. After reboot, windows was still activated and everything was working fine. Then I resized and moved the partition on the same new drive and activation was still ok.
I just tried a slmgr.vbs /ato and Windows got de-activated!
Edit: Tried re-activating but failed with an error code, then tried phone activation, got a confirmation id but when I clicked next in the activation wizard it said not genuine.
I had to restore a backup of my data.dat file from Linux and my activation came back.
Is this normal?
I am using Windows 8 Professional x86 and added the free Media center Pack.
I have 2 hard drives and 1 is a lot bigger than the main one. I was wondering if I changed them around would my computer run faster and how I would go about doing this, what I mean is make my larger hard drive my default disk C if possible? [URL] ....
I'm trying to recover lost partition and files from external USB hard drive (Maxtor Portable 250GB). I'm using disk Internals sofitware and the software finds the files, but when I try to save them on the drive, each time I get a watchdog, or another BOSD error.
What is the procedure for walking in a unit to Dell Canada for repair? How do I protect my confidential data? Will Dell repair my two month old machine if i walk in without their OEM hard drive?? I hope to they do. What if it were stolen? I don't care about the cost and don't want anything for free, I just want to get my system working so I can rebuild it. I am only on an iPad.
whenever i connect my samsung 1TB portable Hard drive on a Dell xps 15inch laptop running windows 8 pro, it completely freezes the whole system. i can move the mouse but i cant click anything or go to task manager using ctrl alt delThese are the things i have tried:tried different cablestried different usb portsRemoved usb driversChecked event logs(the laptop crashes when i launch the event logs)Ran CCleaner cleaning registryAll the above did not work. i even tried to roll back to a previous restore point and that did not work either.I tested the hard drive on my brother in law's laptop and it worked fine. it is a acer laptop running fresh copy of windows 7.Is this a windows 7 error? do i have a virus maybe?(i am going to do a full system scan soon)What other things can i try?
I got the replacement hard drive from Dell that I was told would come with Windows 8 and drivers preinstalled. Well I installed the hard drive and it tells me that NO OS can be found. I didn't have a chance to make backup discs of my own but Dell sent a Windows 8 Recovery Media CD with the laptop and now with the replacement hard drive.
When trying to install Windows 8 onto the new hard drive I get to the part where it tells me to choose a partition to install Windows 8 on and none of them will let me. There are 5 to choose from and I don't know what to do to get past this. The biggest partition which is 5 has about 934GB of space left out of 1TB but as I mentioned I can't choose it or any of the other ones for installation.
I've never had trouble like this reinstalling other versions of Windows.
I recently purchased a dell inspiron 14 5000 with a windows 8.1 preinstalled; I would like to reinstall the operating system and partition the hard, but I didn't get a copy of Windows (and a disc would not be actually useful since the laptop doesn't have a CD unit) which is the easiest way to reconfigure my laptop?
I am thinking of installing a new hard drive to my Dell XPS 8500 (replacing the one that came with my system).
I have made DVD's that will install the factory image using Dell backup. If I install a new hard drive can I use these DVD's to install Windows 8 (the factory image) to my new hard drive?
I recently called Dell support about my Inspiron 15R SE not booting and they determined my hard drive had crashed. They shipped a new hard drive to me and got me to install it but I had problems installing windows 8 as it was factory installed using UEFI.
Windows 8 setup would start but immediately gave an error about missing a media driver. The driver and utility discs I was provided did not seem to work at all. I called Dell support again but the guy I was talking to just told me that UEFI was confusing and told me to go into bios and change to legacy boot, which worked and I am now running windows 8 in legacy boot mode.
But is there a way I can reinstall in UEFI? From my brief research, it seems to be more efficient... Is there a driver I am missing that wouldn't be on the windows or driver and utilitys discs?
Doesn't seem like phone support people know much about UEFI ...
I got a new Toshiba Satellite L50-B notebook with Windows 8.1 64-bit installed. As I need to go a special place, I passed the notebook to a IT guy and have the whole disk encrypted using DiskCryptor. The guy told me that he cannot boot the OS, even he entered the correct password. And one more nice thing. The guy did NOT make recovery discs first!
Since the hard disk is encrypted I cannot boot it. Also I cannot do a system recovery. I booted the notebook into Linux and copied all the content in the recovery partition to a USB drive.
Now, I would like to know if I can get my machine up and running again. I don't mind all my content will be lost as it is a new machine.
How to make a set of custom recovery disc out of the content in the recovery partition? Do I need to format my hard disk in UEFI mode? if so, how?
I have a new Dell 5537 comes with Windows 8.1. Day before, I tries to create a new partition in C: where is the the OS sits. After created an unallocated partition, I did not format it, jjust restart my laptop. Then it won't start. Even I use its Recovery disks, it cannot recover my system. NOW, I can see the Partition detail: 1: ESP Total 500MB Free 494MB SYSTEM2. DIAGS Total 40MB Free 35MB PRIMARY3. Total 128MB Free 128MB MSR(RESERVE)4. Total 2GB Free 1.7GB RECOVERY5. Total 920.6GB Free 920.4GB PRIMARY6.PBR IMAGE Total 8.2GB Free 4.3GB RECOVERY#5. Partition is where I have created a new partition but not format yet. Now I have a new Widnows 8.1 image file and tried to install in this partition, but it gave me an message: "WINDOWS CANNOT INSTALL, IT IS OF GPT PARTITION STYLE". so that I can install my new Windows 8.1 in this partition.
I used four drives in my hard-disk. I needed to extend volume for my C drive. So using the Disk management utility I was trying to shrink the drive F (as it was very next to C, as in Disk management). But something happen accidental here. I found that two of my drives E & F went missing after the operation. Also my laptop suddenly restarted (after perform a checking task). I am not sure how this happened and looking for a way to recover the lost partitions as they are seen still exist, including the data.
I was only trying to shrink around 283 mb of volume from a drive with 138 gb, as an experiment basis, to see it work. On that process the drives were lost and those are not shown into my windows now. Using a software EaseUS Partition Master, I could still see the drives still exist as they contain the data as used spaces, and also show the unallocated space of 283 mb but I am not finding a way how could I recover my partition without affecting the data.
Alright I did a back up of my system on flash drive but now i have to use it... How do I have to have the bios set up? So I can load this up right now my computer says operating system not found...
I've edited the host file with notepad with administrator permissions 192.168.118.129 localhost But localhost is still resolving 127.0.0.1
I am not using a proxy. I had McAfee (Firewall, antivirus) but I uninstalled it. I don't have any program like box.com / dropbox, IIS, Apache installed yet. I tried to temporary disable some service but without success.
I'm booting off my SSD which is drive C: and I have games and programs on an extra hard drive which was origanally drive H: but after a restart it switched to I: and when I go into Disk Management to change it Drive H: isn't there.
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Essentials, it's filled with tons of old photos, movies, docs, games, and I'm scared to think of what else. The SATA to USB connector broke on it, so I took the drive apart and put it inside my computer. I opened up device manager because it wasn't showing up automatically and the 2TB is showing up as unallocated, I'm freaking out now because I'm scared the data was somehow deleted.What do I do?
edit: I realize also this isn't directly related to Windows 8 (besides the fact it's the OS I'm on), but I don't know where else to post it. I'd also like to say that I had a really deep feeling the drive was going to break continually for about two weeks before it happened, so if you have a similar feeling about something, don't ignore it!
I know there is good software out there to clone/image my hard drive and restore it to a new SSD drive. I'm just wondering though, since my laptop is brand new, I made a full recovery to a USB drive and included the OEM recovery partition.
Couldn't I just swap out the old HDD with the new SSD and boot with the recovery stick and do a full recovery back to the new SSD?
Also, however I do this, recover or image backup/restore, do I need to do some type of SSD alignment? I can't find a clear answer on that.
I have an SSD drive with 2 partitions on it. 1st partition has Win 7 on it as drive letter C. 2nd Partition has Win 8 on it as Drive letter W. At 1 point in time if I booted to Win 8 the drive letter would dynamically change from drive letter W to Drive letter C and make Win 7 drive letter W. The revers was true if I booted to Win 7. Something has changed somewhere, where this dynamic drive letter changing is no longer working. When I boot to Win 8 the drive letter remains to be drive letter W & Win 7 is still drive C. This is causing problems when I'm booted to Win 8 with regard to installing & using apps while in Win 8 since the C drive is really the Win 7 system drive.
How can I fix this to get back the dynamic flip flopping of drive C? I confess to being somewhat ignorant when dealing with this particular area of things.
I am new to Windows 8, and first time with a laptop. I have 1tb hard drive (minus a few gb) in c drive. d drive is being used as recovery
This is how it was setup. What I would like to do is to partition the amount of space i have from c drive into another drive.
Can manage to partition some hard drive space over to another driver letter, if i do a fresh install of windows, will this new drive be formatted too?
(Just asking this because when I owned a desktop computer, I had two drives. A c-drive and a d-drive. When I re-installed windows 7 on the desktop, all my files were still available on the d-drive, hence asking the above last question).
A few months ago my laptop broke and it needed repairs. The HDD was replaced and i got my laptop back with one new HDD inside and one "broke" HDD in a bag. Later the "Repaired" Laptop crashed again so i bought a new one and took the HDD out of the old laptop. I bought a HDD case with USB connection and both of the HDD's where intact. The oldest HDD contained windows 7 and the replaced contained windows 8. Now i want to sell the Windows 8 HDD so i want it to be clean of personal files but i want it to keep windows 8. I thought the solution was to run the windows 8 on the HDD so i can use the program deletation program of that windows 8. The problem is i dont know how to run windows 8 of a hard drive. I have searched the internet but with no success.
My wife just got a new PC running Windows 8.1 Pro and she wants to re-connect her external hard drive that has all her game files on it to the new PC.
While the new PC recognizes the drive it states that it needs to be initialized , doing so would wipe the data currently on the drive which would be unacceptable. How to get the new PC to recognize this drive and its data?
I have just tried to Refresh my Windows 8.1 installation, but when running the refresh Windows 8.1 came up with an error I have not seen before, let alone do the refresh.
It displayed a message saying "The Drive is Locked, you will have to unlock the drive to continue" so HOW do you unlock a Hard Drive?
How to do this before I either pull my hair out, or start from scratch and re-format the drive and do a complete new install of Windows 8.1
One thing I have done about a week ago which may be causing this problem is I converted the Drive from MBR to GPT and if this has locked the drive.
I have just bought a 4TB external USB 3.0 hard drive. The plan is to copy all of the data from my current internal 2TB drive to the 4TB, then I'm going to crack the case of the external hard drive open, take the drive out, and put it in my PC to replace the 2TB drive that's in there now (which I know will void the warranty). This isn't going to be a boot drive as I have an SSD for that.
I had read that Windows does not support large drives of this size and that it would show up as 2 partitions, so I was prepared to convert the drive to GPT in order to have 1 large partition. However, I connected the drive up to my Windows 8.1 machine and it shows as 1 large partition of 3.63TB, which is about what I expected.
Does this mean I don't have to convert the drive after all? Can I do what I'm planning to do and everything will work fine? Or do I need to convert it to GPT before I copy all of my data over and if so, how do I do that exactly?
My pc got stuck on a black screen after i restart it one time. When it finally lets me log in after turning the computer on and off manually, all of my programs were deleted, i couldn't access my computer's hard drive(?)(c:windows) , and i couldn't access system restore (or msconfig / any of the advance system tools). Any other way to do a full system restore without any of the pre mentioned options?
