[mcqueen]

Hopefully someone will be able to help me with this situation. My brother's computer (Gateway laptop, Windows 7) crashed about a week ago. BSOD shows unmountable boot volume. I assumed the boot.ini file was corrupted so I changed the BIOs to boot from a CD first, put in the recovery disk (which had to be made from my computer since it's the same, but they're both new enough that recovery files don't come on CDs anymore), and had at it. No matter how I boot the computer (repair, safe mode, service recovery, etc) it always ends up going to a black screen with "please wait a moment.." across the middle. And it just sits there. I pulled the hard drive out and booted the computer with just the recovery CD. It booted up, took me to the "please wait a moment.." screen for a few seconds then moved on to the recovery process. Unfortunately with no hard drive, there's no recovery to be done and putting the hard drive back in returns me to square 1.

Computer repair is definitely not my specialty so any help would be appreciated.

[4.6DreameR]

Windows install disk? Is that what you are calling your recovery CD?

[ReverendDexter]

Get a Linux live CD. One that is probably going to be the most helpful is GParted (GParted -- About); it's specifically designed for data/disk rescue. However, use what you're most comfortable with.

Boot up in Linux, check out the drive with fdisk, and see if you can mount it.

It's possible that it's the MBR that's hosed, not anything to do with Windows.

[mcqueen]

Originally Posted by 4.6DreameR Windows install disk? Is that what you are calling your recovery CD?

Basically. I've never had a computer come with the actual Windows disks, just what the computer manufacturer calls "recovery disks."

Originally Posted by ReverendDexter Get a Linux live CD. One that is probably going to be the most helpful is GParted (GParted -- About); it's specifically designed for data/disk rescue. However, use what you're most comfortable with. Boot up in Linux, check out the drive with fdisk, and see if you can mount it. It's possible that it's the MBR that's hosed, not anything to do with Windows.

Thanks Rev, I'll look into that

[dr.gonzo!]

I would take the hard drive out and use anotther computer to back everything up like pictures and docs and porn. yes porn. then put back into the laptop and re install the same exact version of windows so his key will work. you can download the Windows software on a torrent, its fine as long as he is using the same key provided with the laptop. when manufactures try to use a different partition to recover from it always tries to override you. pisses me off. I would stay away from the bloated oem recovery bullshit.

[SS Ball3r]

it sounds like you have a bad HDD

[Ace417]

back up data and blow it away. if you have trouble backing up data on an ubuntu disk. buy a new hard drive

[dr.gonzo!]

you can back it up to any computer running Windows too. look up taking ownership if it was password protected