I screwed up my Vista - can I save the data

This all started when I forgot my password for a HP laptop running Vista
Home Premium. I had the "power Suite" by Spotmau disk, so I ran
their password reset program and blanked the password. It reported it
was successful. When I try to reboot, the computer hangs between the
"microsoft corporation" logo at the bottom of the screen and the Welcome
screen. When it hangs the screen is black except for a cursor arrow
which I can move around with the mouse.

I contacted Spotmau and they have said their software works on their
machine and they don't know why this happened to me or what I can do to
fix it. I have the OEM recovery disks which I am prepared to use to
reimage the box, BUT I do not want to lose my data. Is there a way I
can get to the data without Vista running? Or, any ideas on what is
causing it to hang and how I can fix it?

Any help will be much appreciated.

LM


--
LM604

Hi,

Saving the data would involve pulling the hard drive out and slaving it in
another machine to cherry pick data. There are adapters available for this
purpose.

According to Spotmau's site:
http://www.spotmau.com/products/package/full.htm this disk should also allow
you to recovery data. Personally, based on your experience thus far I would
be wary of any claims they make, but you may want to ask them exactly what
changes were made to the system when you used the password reset tool. It
may not be as Vista-compatible as they claim.

Depending on the amount of damage, you may be able to access the system in
one of the safe modes and run System Restore to recover the system.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"LM604" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> This all started when I forgot my password for a HP laptop running Vista
> Home Premium. I had the "power Suite" by Spotmau disk, so I ran
> their password reset program and blanked the password. It reported it
> was successful. When I try to reboot, the computer hangs between the
> "microsoft corporation" logo at the bottom of the screen and the Welcome
> screen. When it hangs the screen is black except for a cursor arrow
> which I can move around with the mouse.
>
> I contacted Spotmau and they have said their software works on their
> machine and they don't know why this happened to me or what I can do to
> fix it. I have the OEM recovery disks which I am prepared to use to
> reimage the box, BUT I do not want to lose my data. Is there a way I
> can get to the data without Vista running? Or, any ideas on what is
> causing it to hang and how I can fix it?
>
> Any help will be much appreciated.
>
> LM
>
>
> --
> LM604

Thanks for the response. I did ask them what changes their program mad
and they have not answered that question. Spotmau asked what m
hardware setup was and claimed they replicated it and their progra
worked. They said their programer had no idea of why it didn't work o
my setup. They offered a refund. I suppose that is quicker or easie
than trying to actually work through the problem. They must not car
that much about their program otherwise simple intellectual curiosit
and avoiding future issues should have compelled them to figure out wha
went wrong. I am sure I am not the only one who has had or will hav
this problem with their software.

Since I had nothing to lose, I did try their data recovery program an
it comes up with a double pane window with source on one side an
destination on other. But the source side is empty. It does not se
any of the folders or data on the C drive.

I had not thought about removing the hard drive. I do have an externa
usb IDE case for a 3.5 hard drive. I do not know if the laptop driv
would fit, but that might be a solution

In fooling around with the SpotMau disk, I found a way to get to the c
prompt and I can find the most important data files using a dir command
This laptop does not have a floppy drive. I do have a thumb drive I ca
plug in. Is there a command that I could use to copy to the thum
drive? How do I determine if the thumb drive is recognized and has
drive letter?

Thanks for your help

L

--
LM604

There are external USB cases made specifically for 2 1/2 inch laptop drives.
The case you have will not be suitable due to the different interface.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)


"LM604" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Thanks for the response. I did ask them what changes their program made
> and they have not answered that question. Spotmau asked what my
> hardware setup was and claimed they replicated it and their program
> worked. They said their programer had no idea of why it didn't work on
> my setup. They offered a refund. I suppose that is quicker or easier
> than trying to actually work through the problem. They must not care
> that much about their program otherwise simple intellectual curiosity
> and avoiding future issues should have compelled them to figure out what
> went wrong. I am sure I am not the only one who has had or will have
> this problem with their software.
>
> Since I had nothing to lose, I did try their data recovery program and
> it comes up with a double pane window with source on one side and
> destination on other. But the source side is empty. It does not see
> any of the folders or data on the C drive.
>
> I had not thought about removing the hard drive. I do have an external
> usb IDE case for a 3.5 hard drive. I do not know if the laptop drive
> would fit, but that might be a solution.
>
> In fooling around with the SpotMau disk, I found a way to get to the c:
> prompt and I can find the most important data files using a dir command.
> This laptop does not have a floppy drive. I do have a thumb drive I can
> plug in. Is there a command that I could use to copy to the thumb
> drive? How do I determine if the thumb drive is recognized and has a
> drive letter?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> LM
>
>
> --
> LM604

Thanks Richard. When I am looking at the command prompts that I get to
through Spotmau I assume they are the dos prompts. Is there a way to
use a usb thumb drive to copy data to from these prompts? Again thanks
for the insight.

LM604


--
LM604

Hi. Sorry to hear about your problem.
One solution might be to build a BartPE bootable CD. You could do this if
you have another WXP computer, or perhaps you could have a friend do it.
GROUPS.google search for BartPE in Microsoft's Vista & WXP newsgroups. This
boots up a windows preinstall environment which resides in memory and
doesn't disturb the hard drive until you want to access it. PE can present
thumbdrives as drive letters and of course accesses all the common Windows
drive formatting. There is an ISO (CD image that can be burned to replicate
the original CD) called ultimate boot disc, freely available on the net, and
an ISO burner freely available from M$, which also may give you access to
your NTFS partition and thumbdrives as drive letters. These are handy discs
to have in your computer toolbox.

-Paul Randall

"LM604" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Thanks Richard. When I am looking at the command prompts that I get to
> through Spotmau I assume they are the dos prompts. Is there a way to
> use a usb thumb drive to copy data to from these prompts? Again thanks
> for the insight.
>
> LM604
>
>
> --
> LM604

Thanks Paul, I am working on the UBCD now. I tried the BartPE and could
get it to boot, but could not find my files that I know or on the C
drive. I am hoping the more complete tools of UBCD will do the trick.

LM


--
LM604

Update. The Ubcd4win worked and I have been able to copy the essential
data to a thumb drive. Thanks for all the help.
LM


--
LM604

Thanks for the update. It's always good to hear success stories.

-Paul Randall

"LM604" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Update. The Ubcd4win worked and I have been able to copy the essential
> data to a thumb drive. Thanks for all the help.
> LM
>
>
> --
> LM604