Posted April 19, 2014 OK, so I will describe the situation to you guys as best as I can. So after you read it, tell me if you think there is still anything that is recoverable. Keep in mind that, the main 3 things I want to recover if possible are: all the pictures in pictures folder, System image that is on another partition on the single hdd in the laptop, and anything in the downloads folder. However, if you can, please do give an explanatio9n because no one at their house is tech savvy AT ALL, and they will most likely want an eplanation of somekind. So if you do give an explanation, please make it as accurate and reliable and easy to understand as possible. Thanks!!!! My step brothers girlfriend asks me to help speed up her computer. I accept. I download malwarebytes pro from their site. I disable Norton antivirus for several hours (because apparently more than 1 antivirus doesn't go well together), I run malwarebytes virus scan (which takes SEVERAL HOURS), it pickup infected reg keys rootkits in sector 0 of the mbr (2 rootkits that is) a forged physical sector (i believe in the same sector of the mbr), I quarantine all of it (though I don't remember if it tried and failed or tried and successfully removed all the infections), it reboots computer to finish, After reboot it goes to load win7 for 1-3 seconds then bluescreens and restarts (this goes on until you force it to shutdown), When they get home she goes to startup repair and does something (idk what that something is because I wasn't in the same room), when she calls me back I see on the screen that it now says insert boot media device. Now here is the question: After reading and knowing all of that, is there any chance that there is still something on the hdd to recover using linux? If so, would linux mint 16 or ubuntu 13.10 work fine? Also, if I am able to recover the system image, would I be able to use the recovery DVD I made and restore the system image to make her win7 laptop bootable again? Lastly (hopefully that is....) If there is anything recoverable in Linux, would I be able to use my 4TB external seagate hdd with no problem to move everything from her laptop to my hdd? Thanks for any help!!!!!!!! I7-6700k, Asus Maximus VIII Formula, 2 x 8GB Corsair Dominator Plantinum ram, ASUS GTX 960 STRIX, sound blaster zx, 1TB boot drive ssd, 128GB/256GB storage ssd, 1TB storage HDD, 4TB of storage (backup),Windows 10 Pro,1000w psu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Sounds like the mbr got deleted, you should be able to fix it using a windows 7 cd Linux "nerd". If I helped you please like my post and maybe add me as a friend :) ^_^! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Author Sounds like the mbr got deleted, you should be able to fix it using a windows 7 cd Yeah well, the problem with that is that she lost her win7 installation DVD. But what I wanted to know, was the questions above. So, do you have an answer to any of the questions above? I7-6700k, Asus Maximus VIII Formula, 2 x 8GB Corsair Dominator Plantinum ram, ASUS GTX 960 STRIX, sound blaster zx, 1TB boot drive ssd, 128GB/256GB storage ssd, 1TB storage HDD, 4TB of storage (backup),Windows 10 Pro,1000w psu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Depends. If she formatted the drive, there are still ways of recovering data, but it gets pretty complicated. If she didn't, just throw the drive into any other computer and see if you can access it and if there is anything left on it. Chances are, if she didn't format it and instead just messed up some windows files, all your data will be there. Make sure you remove any infections before you move the files to any other storage device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Yeah well, the problem with that is that she lost her win7 installation DVD. But what I wanted to know, was the questions above. So, do you have an answer to any of the questions above? If you have a linux usb or cd just create a windows 7 usb after you boot into linux (as long as she has a legit key I see no problem torrenting it) You can also do what @nj4ck said Linux "nerd". If I helped you please like my post and maybe add me as a friend :) ^_^! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Author Depends. If she formatted the drive, there are still ways of recovering data, but it gets pretty complicated. If she didn't, just throw the drive into any other computer and see if you can access it and if there is anything left on it. Chances are, if she didn't format it and instead just messed up some windows files, all your data will be there. Make sure you remove any infections before you move the files to any other storage device. Ok, if she does format it, what steps are there to recover as much as possible? I7-6700k, Asus Maximus VIII Formula, 2 x 8GB Corsair Dominator Plantinum ram, ASUS GTX 960 STRIX, sound blaster zx, 1TB boot drive ssd, 128GB/256GB storage ssd, 1TB storage HDD, 4TB of storage (backup),Windows 10 Pro,1000w psu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 it sounds like all the data is still there. you need to get a live disk. i would suggest hiren boot cd. but any similar disk should work . then you just need to copy the files of to a external hd or usb. then you will need to reinstall windows again unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Ok, if she does format it, what steps are there to recover as much as possible? First check if the drive is actually formatted. If so, look around for recovery software, there are many tools to help recover data from a formatted drive. Here's an example: http://www.formatted-recovery.com/format-recovery-external.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 First check if the drive is actually formatted. If so, look around for recovery software, there are many tools to help recover data from a formatted drive. Here's an example: http://www.formatted-recovery.com/format-recovery-external.html I don't think its formatted mainly as its not an option in the start up repair unless you opened the CDM and typed the commands. if you know how to do that you would not be asking about how to recover data. In ether case the Hiren's BootCD will let you boot the pc and see whats on the drives and does have format recover utilitys. but if it has been formatted the file recovery rate is not that great and it not a fun proccess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 I don't think its formatted mainly as its not an option in the start up repair unless you opened the CDM and typed the commands. if you know how to do that you would not be asking about how to recover data. In ether case the Hiren's BootCD will let you boot the pc and see whats on the drives and does have format recover utilitys. but if it has been formatted the file recovery rate is not that great and it not a fun proccess. oh I see, it's been a while since I've had to use start up repair well in that case, the answer to OP's question is most likely yes, you're data can be saved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 19, 2014 Author oh I see, it's been a while since I've had to use start up repair well in that case, the answer to OP's question is most likely yes, you're data can be saved. I don't think its formatted mainly as its not an option in the start up repair unless you opened the CDM and typed the commands. if you know how to do that you would not be asking about how to recover data. In ether case the Hiren's BootCD will let you boot the pc and see whats on the drives and does have format recover utilitys. but if it has been formatted the file recovery rate is not that great and it not a fun proccess. If you have a linux usb or cd just create a windows 7 usb after you boot into linux (as long as she has a legit key I see no problem torrenting it) You can also do what @nj4ck said Im curious about one quick thing. If I place her hdd in my computer and use aomei PA Pro to rebuild the mbr, could that make her computer bootable again? I7-6700k, Asus Maximus VIII Formula, 2 x 8GB Corsair Dominator Plantinum ram, ASUS GTX 960 STRIX, sound blaster zx, 1TB boot drive ssd, 128GB/256GB storage ssd, 1TB storage HDD, 4TB of storage (backup),Windows 10 Pro,1000w psu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted April 20, 2014 Im curious about one quick thing. If I place her hdd in my computer and use aomei PA Pro to rebuild the mbr, could that make her computer bootable again? you can do that with any windows disk and its free. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/how-to-manually-repair-windows-7-boot-loader-problems/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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