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Recover files from Windows Vista hard disk using Puppy Linux

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Looking for Windows XP version of the article? Click here then.
Looking for Windows 7 version of the article? Click here then.

If nothing from previous articles helped to get Windows Vista starting and working properly and you do not have a recent backup (why don't you?!), you can still recover your important files if your hard drive is still fine. Please note that Puppy Linux cannot help you if your hard disk is unreadable or otherwise badly damaged!

There are several tools available for the job, but we will use Puppy Linux, because it does not require you to have the original Windows Vista DVD and it is a relatively small download (around 130 megabytes, compared to Ultimate Boot CD 250+ megabytes and required Windows Vista DVD). Puppy Linux has low system requirements and works pretty fast. Forget the common Linux versus Windows nonsense, this is never really relevant - both Windows and Linux are good operating systems. Full stop.

You will need a CD-writer and a program capable of writing CD images (ISO). You can use the free CDBurnerXP for this task. As your Windows Vista computer is broken, visit a friend of yours and create the Puppy Linux bootable CD there.

Make sure you have a USB flash drive or external hard drive that has enough free space for the files you want to recover.

If this article is of no help, try using the www.winhelp.us Data Recovery CD that has tools for fixing serious file system errors, duplicating disks, restoring deleted files and partitions, recovering data from hard disks with unreadable clusters and even resetting Windows passwords.

Downloading Puppy Linux

Open Puppy Linux download page and find "Download from ibiblio.org". Click lupu-<version number>.iso link (for example, "lupu-520.iso").
Note that there might be some other Puppy distros on the page (such as Slacko Puppy), but you need Lucid Puppy (lupu), the Ubuntu-based one. Always make sure you start downloading a file that starts with "lupu"!

Click Open in Internet Explorer download dialog.
Please note that you must have CDBurnerXP or some other CD-writing software installed for this to work!

After download is complete, Internet Explorer Security dialog will open and warn about opening a program on your computer outside Protected Mode. Click Allow.

Creating the Puppy Linux bootable CD with CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP opens with Write ISO Image dialog. Insert a blank CD or CD-RW now.
Click to check the Verify data after burning box. Then click Burn disc.

If you inserted a CD-RW with some files already written on it, CDBurnerXP will ask whether you want to erase the whole disc contents or not. Make sure you do not have anything important on the disc and click Yes.

Leave Fast selected and click Erase.

CDBurnerXP is like your mom and wants to be sure you want to erase the disc. If you want to turn the "mom" off, check the Never ask again box. Click Yes.

After erase is complete, CDBurnerXP will tell you about this. Check the Never tell again box, if you don't want the program to be like your mom anymore. Click OK.

The disc burning will start. It will take several minutes until the burning is complete. CDBurnerXP will notify you with "Writing process is successfully completed" message. Click OK.

Click Close to exit the Write ISO Image dialog.

Click Exit to shut down CDBurnerXP.

Starting Puppy Linux in LiveCD mode

Make sure that your computer is configured to boot from CD first, insert the Puppy Linux bootable CD in your CD or DVD drive and restart your computer. Remember that in LiveCD mode Puppy Linux will not write to or change anything on your hard disk(s), so it is a completely safe option.

After your computer boots from the CD, you'll see Puppy Linux boot options screen. You do not need to do anything here except waiting for 5 seconds for Puppy Linux to start. Or you can press Enter key on your keyboard to launch Puppy right away.

If you do run into trouble later (screen is unreadable or blank, or no hard disks detected), reboot your computer and press F2 key while the screen above is displayed. First, try typing puppy acpi=noirq and pressing Enter to see if everything's working fine after this. If not, reboot again, press F2 key and type puppy acpi=strict instead.

After that Puppy Linux will load essential files, that might take several minutes.

Then Desktop with icons appears and Personalize Settings starts. As you do not need high resolution for recovering files, just choose your keyboard layout (the default is US) and click OK.

In case you changed the layout, test it out by typing some characters and click OK again.

The personalization part is now done. Let's get to work!

Mounting drives and partitions in Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux 5 looks pretty nice, despite being optimized for reasonable performance on older machines.

One quick note to those not accustomed to Linux - most items open with just one mouse click, not double-click.

By now you should have noticed icons on the bottom left of Desktop, just above the menu button. These are your floppy (FDD) drives, partitions on local hard disks and CD/DVD device(s). Floppy discs start with "fd", partitions on local hard disks start with "sd" and CD/DVD devices start with "sr". Each one has a partition number. This is the way Linux distinguishes between different devices - so if you have one hard disk with two partitions, they would be named "sda1" and "sda2" - "a" for the first physical hard disk and "1" and "2" for the partitions on it. If you have two hard disks, both containing one partition, they would be called "sda1" and "sdb1". If you have just one hard disk with one partition, there will be only one icon - "sda1".

To distinguish easily between different hard disks and partitions, hover your mouse over an icon and check out the partition's filesystem type and size.

In Puppy Linux you have to mount a disk first to start using it. To do that, click on some icon starting with "sd" - "sda1", for example. After a few seconds, contents of the disk will open in new window.

As Linux does not use different drive letters, such as "C:" or "D:" to distinguish between disks, all mounted disks will be put in a special folder named "mnt", short for "mount". You can see that from the picture above - the sda2 partition mounted appears as /mnt/sda2 in Puppy Linux.

On Desktop you will see a green ring on a mounted partition icon. I have also connected my USB flash drive and this has been named "sdd1". Why not "sdb1"? Because it is a removable flash drive, not a hard disk. Linux essentials!

Connect your USB flash drive or external hard disk and wait for the icon to appear on Desktop. Then click its icon to mount it. Please note the name of the mounted drive, such as "sdd1" or "sde1", you will need it soon.
Do not close the mounted drive windows yet. If you have to, just click the mounted drive icon on Desktop again and the contents will open again.

Running a basic disk check on partitions in Puppy Linux

In case you just want to run a disk check to see if Windows is able to boot after it, make sure none of the partitions is mounted - you cannot run a check on a mounted disk. If one is, click to open Mount on the top left of Desktop.

Then click the Unmount button for the disk or partition you want to check. Verify that the green ring disappears.

Exit Pmount by clicking the Quit button.

Now launch Console from the top row of Desktop.

Now type ntfsfix /dev/sda<number> where <number> is the partition you want to check. For example, ntfsfix /dev/sda1 or ntfsfix /dev/sda2. Press Enter key to launch the check. Please make sure you are using only lowercase letters in the command, as in Linux "ntfsfix" does not equal "Ntfsfix" and "/dev/sda1" does not equal "/Dev/sda1" - Linux is very case-sensitive.
The actual check takes normally very little time because ntfsfix is nothing as thorough as Windows' Check Disk. Do not expect it to fix everything!

In case you see an error message stating "Refusing to operate on read-write mounted device" instead, the partition is still mounted and you must unmount it first.

If you have more than one partition, run ntfsfix on these, too. To finish and close Console, type exit and press Enter.

Now you can try booting Windows again to see if the problem was fixed. Please be aware that ntfsfix also forces a full Windows disk check on the partition(s) you checked. This might take a long time to complete, but it will probably repair all remaining errors. Windows might reboot and repeat the disk check by itself - this is normal and you should not interfere.
If you suspect that your computer has stopped responding during Windows disk check, verify that hard drive activity indicator on your PC is blinking or constantly on. If it is completely off for more than five minutes, Windows is still unable to boot.

Copying your files to external hard disk or USB flash drive

Return to mounted partition contents window and click on Users folder. Please note that you need to click only once to open a folder. If you need to go back in folder contents, click the green up arrow on toolbar.

Here are contents of a typical Users folder. You can always ignore folders named "administrator", "Default User", "Default" and "All Users". Here is just one user - Mirjam.
If you use Public Documents (the files shared between different users on one computer), then you can find them in Public folder.

Click on a user's folder to see its contents. If the contents are organized with huge spaces between items, click the Show extra details button on Toolbar to use list view.
Here are the most important folders you need to copy to your USB drive.

• Desktop - all items on your Windows Vista Desktop (icons, files, folders, etc)
• Downloads - files downloaded from the Internet
• Music - your music files (mp3-s, wma-s, etc)
• Saved Games
• Templates - only necessary if you use Microsoft Office and you have created special templates for documents
• Documents - contents of your My Documents folder (note that in Windows Vista this does not include My Pictures, My Music and My Videos folders - these are just shortcuts for Windows XP backwards compatibility!)
• Favorites - your Internet Explorer favorites
• Pictures - your photos and pictures
• Searches - only necessary if you have saved some search criteria
• Videos - your video files

Please note that you do not need to copy any folder that has a link mark (arrow up and left) on it - these are just compatibility shortcuts to other folders!

To determine disk space needed for copying a folder, right-click the folder, select Dir '<folder name>' and click Properties. Or use arrow keys on keyboard to move to the folder, press  Space to select the item and then use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+P.

Wait until folder size is calculated in Size: field. Here, "K" means kilobytes, "M" means megabytes, and "G" means gigabytes.
To close folder properties, click the black X in the right side of Title Bar or click Close button.

To see disk space available on your flash drive or external hard disk, click mount on the top left of Desktop.

This opens a program named Pmount. Click the usbdrv tab and check the free space size for your USB flash drive or hard disk. Again, "K" means kilobytes, "M" means megabytes and "G" means gigabytes.
Close Pmount by clicking the Quit button.

In case you have sufficent free space on the external USB drive, it is recommended to copy the whole user folder to it (for example, the whole folder Mirjam in Users folder, not just Documents or Desktop) - this way knowledgeable IT people might be able to recover your e-mails, program settings, etc.

First, you might want to create a separate folder on the external disk. Open its contents, right-click on a blank space and select Directory from the New menu.

Type a name for the folder in the end of the line, preserving the /mnt/sd<number>/ part.
Then click Create.

To copy just one folder to your flash drive or external hard disk, right-click on the folder, select Dir '<folder name>' and then click Copy...

Type the path to your USB flash drive or external hard disk (see the icons on Desktop), for example "/mnt/sdd1/rescue/" or "/mnt/sdb1/" and click Copy. Don't forget the slashes in the beginning and in the end!
Please remember that in Linux everything is case-sensitive, so "sdd1" does not equal "Sdd1" or "SDD1" or "sDd1". Use only lowercase letters here!

The copy dialog will open and it will list all files copied. Wait until the copy process is complete - the window will close automatically after copying is done.

Please remember to copy folders named Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Music, Pictures, Saved Games, Searches, Templates and Videos, not just one of them!

To copy multiple folders or files at once, open hard disk contents in one window and removable drive contents in another window. Then select files and folders you want to copy - keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A selects all items; holding down Ctrl key while clicking an item selects or deselects it.
Then hold down the left button of your mouse and just drag the selected items to the window of external disk. Mouse pointer turns into a document icon with + sign.

A dialog opens, asking whether you want to copy or move items. Always click Copy here - moving is a very bad idea, and linking has no effect whatsoever after shutting down Puppy Linux.

After copying all necessary folders for every user (and possibly also folder named "Public" plus all custom folders you might have created outside Users folder) to the external disk there is one more very important step to take - copying Windows registry. This one helps IT specialists restore all Windows and programs' settings.
Navigate to Windows folder (or the folder containing Windows installation) and open System32 folder. The latter one might take several minutes to finish listing all items in it. Then locate the config folder and copy it to external drive.

Now the file rescuing part is done. Click Menu button on Puppy Linux Taskbar. Select Shutdown and click Power-off computer to shut down your computer.

As you ran Puppy Linux in LiveCD mode, it will ask whether you want to save your session settings on a flash drive. You do not need to do that. Press arrow left key on your keyboard once to select Do Not Save. Then press Enter key on your keyboard.

Puppy Linux will then shut down your computer. After reinstalling Windows Vista you can copy the files and folders back to your computer and set up regular backups to avoid such problems in the future.

Looking for Windows XP version of the article? Click here then.
Looking for Windows 7 version of the article? Click here then.

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Comments

2011-12-19

10:07

TZ: +0200

Ed wrote:

Author using Puppy Linux 5.2.5

Warning: Puppy 5.2.8 makes my HP Pavilion dv2845se run extremely hot. This model HP laptop is notorious for overheating, but Puppy 5.2.5 does NOT seem to cause this heating problem. I don\'t know what is different and it doesn\'t matter for my purposes. I just write books and buzz the net, so Puppy 5.2.5 is fine for me. Ed

2011-12-13

10:08

TZ: +0200

help.artaro.eu wrote:

Can't access files

Hi Barry! Have you enabled some form of encryption on the disk, such as BitLocker? You cannot recover encrypted files unless you decrypt these first. If you are sure the disk or files are not encrypted, try using Data Recovery CD instead: http://www.winhelp.us/index.php/data-recovery-cd

2011-12-12

23:59

TZ: +0200

Barry wrote:

can't acces files...

Hi Ben (or anyone else who can help me), After Windows Vista didn&#39;t but anymore, I try to use your guide to make a backup of my documents. Most things work, except for the fact that the files and directories I want to copy are all displayed in red with a warning sign. If I try to open or copy a file, i get the following message: File doesn&#39;t exist, or can&#39;t acces it: /mnt/sda2/Users/.....filename. Files are directed in my documents and my images, and the Windows Vista account of these files is pasword protected, could this be the problem? Also the HD drives in the bottem-left are displayed with a red cross... I really hope someone can help, thanks&#33;

2011-12-07

09:44

TZ: +0200

help.artaro.eu wrote:

Disk read error - press ctrl+alt+del to restart

Hi Dan! I'm sorry to say that this message most probably means the hard disk is dead. You can try a Windows-based data recovery disc and see if it is able to fix the error, but I seriously doubt it. See if this disc helps: http://ge.tt/8E72wcA/v/0 Extract the contents, create the bootable CD and boot to Data Recovery. Then launch Start -> Programs -> Disk Tools -> Diagnostic -> Check Disk. See if it is able to check and repair drive C: (use option 3 "Fix errors, locate bad clusters and recover readable info").

2011-12-07

06:12

TZ: +0200

Dan wrote:

Cannot Mount Hard Disk

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me so I can recover all of my files. So one day my computer was working, the next it wasn't. I'm getting the error "disk read error - ctrl+alt+del to restart...which then starts an endless loop. So,I successfully got Puppy Linux to boot, but when I try and mount either of my (internal)hard drives (both connected SATA), Puppy Linux is unable to mount them. And since its not able to mount them, the ntfsfix won't run. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

2011-11-19

19:32

TZ: +0200

help.artaro.eu wrote:

External disks read-only

Hi HB! Usually, if an external hard disk is mounted read-only, the file system on the disk is damaged. This often happens because people just unplug their USB disks instead of using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option. Linux is far more sensitive to errors on NTFS disks than Windows. You can try running basic disk check (ntfsfix) on the external drive as described in this article (but if possible, check and repair the disk on a Windows computer instead). The second option is a driver problem - make sure you are using the latest version of Puppy (5.2.8 as of today). Third, if there is nothing important on the external disk, you can also try formatting it to FAT32 file system - click Menu, open System and click GParted partition manager. Select your external drive from the list on the top right, right-click on it and select Format to -> FAT32. Click Apply. Then unmount and unplug the disk and plug it back in after 10 seconds. This should make the drive writable, because FAT file systems do not have any permissions.

2011-11-19

17:07

TZ: +0200

HB wrote:

Read-only permission on target drive

Great post-- until I went to write the files to my external drive. The system won't let me create a new folder. Checked permissions for the USB drive and under Linux the show as 'Owner can read content.' When I try to change permissions, I see 'Could not change permissions for [drive].' I even tried a different external drive--same problem. Please: How do I create a writable folder??

2011-10-29

03:51

TZ: +0300

Ben wrote:

Power Data Recovery program worked!!!

Thanks for all the advice! I ended up using Power Data Recovery (www.powerdatarecovery.com). Given that my computer would not start I first downloaded the free Bootable CD Demo version and followed similar steps as you explain above with making the Puppy Linux CD. It worked as I could see ALL my files but 1 warning. It is a demo version yet it allows you to choose files to copy which mislead me and I spent an hour carefully selecting 1 GB worth of my most important documents only to find out that I could not save them to the external hard drive plugged in. Then I went ahead and bought their full BOOTABLE CD version for $49 and had to start the process from scratch: Download file from website, install CD burner, put in serial number received with purchase, burn CD and then boot. After that it was a piece of cake to save all my files- took about 3 hours. Again, if Puppy Linux does not work, this is a very similar low cost solution to the same problem. Better than the $400-500 estimate the TechRoom gave me... Thanks for this amazing website!

2011-10-28

19:18

TZ: +0300

help.artaro.eu wrote:

Safe Mode

Hi Ben! When loading files stops, disk checking starts. The check might take up to half an hour (sometimes even more) to complete. You can see if the check is still in progress by taking a look at your computer's hard drive activity indicator light. If the light is on, disk check is still working. If the light goes off and nothing happens during the next five minutes, then Windows has really stopped working. If you have Windows Vista DVD, you should try booting from it and launch Startup Repair - http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-vista/troubleshooting-windows-vista/repair-your-computer-in-windows-vista.html Power Data Recovery is a good program, but you need a computer that runs Windows for this. In case you have a Windows XP or Vista CD/DVD, you might also get good results using Ultimate Boot CD - this creates a bootable Windows disc and you can launch disk repair programs (chkdsk) or copy files using the Roadkils Unstoppable Copier. UBCD is available at http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm

2011-10-28

17:50

TZ: +0300

Ben wrote:

Windows Safe Mode

I actually tried Puppy Linux because just like in Jennifer's and DNP's case nothing else worked. I tried Safe Mode but did not get anywhere with it- just got stuck in "Loading Windows Files Please wait".. mode. Is there any trick to using Safe Mode from a boot CD or in any other way? My friend suggested Power Data Recovery. Can I run something like that from Puppy? It looks like a program that just extracts data bit-by-bit from the drive. Any other options? Unfortunately, all my system files and important data are on the corrupted partition and I need them desperately.

2011-10-28

14:59

TZ: +0300

help.artaro.eu wrote:

Protected user

Hi Ben! If ntfsfix suggests using chkdsk, file system on the hard disk is badly corrupted and there is not much you can do with Puppy Linux here. Try booting into Windows Safe Mode (turn on your PC and press F8 key repeatedly until you see an option to use Safe Mode). This will force a check of disks. Computer might restart automatically - this is normal for a few times, press F8 key again and start Windows in Safe Mode. If Windows is able to launch Safe Mode, restart your computer, let it boot normally and see if everything works. Details on the Safe Mode are available here: http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-vista/troubleshooting-windows-vista/safe-mode-in-windows-vista.html

2011-10-28

14:24

TZ: +0300

Ben wrote:

Regular user passwords only

Thanks for replying so promptly. I just had a password protecting my user account on Vista upon logon- could this keep my personal files hidden in the users folder? I also ran ntfsfix but one of my partitions was said to be corrupt and it suggested to use chkdsk. I typed that into the console but did not recognize the command. Does it even worth trying it or should i just embrace for a data recovery program bit by bit? Is there anything else I can do in puppy linux?

2011-10-28

13:56

TZ: +0300

help.artaro.eu wrote:

Protected user

Hi Ben! How exactly did you protect the user? Do you mean a password? Or did you use encryption (aka EFS or BitLocker)? You cannot recover encrypted files properly with Puppy. You should look for your user name (like "Ben", not "Mirjam") in the Users folder. About partitions, try opening Console from Desktop. Then type ntfsfix /dev/sda1 and press Enter. Repeat the process for all 4 partitions you have, replacing the "sda1" with appropriate device name. If ntfsfix works fine for some or all partitions, you can check the contents and see if your user profile is on one of these.

2011-10-28

13:15

TZ: +0300

Ben wrote:

Protected user on Vista

Hi! I am using puppy linux with more or less success (I managed to copy less important movie and music files) but when I went into my user folder to save my crucial word docs, etc., I only found public and default as subfolders so nothing like 'Miriam' in the example on this page. Is this because I had my user data protected in Vista or because it is stored somewhere else? Apparently, my hd has 4 partitions- I only knew of 2... is there away around this? Also, during booting I get an error message that "Windows hibernated, ntfs can not mount" or something along those lines... and then once in a while when puppy starts I can't mount my drives... Please let me know! Thanks!

2011-10-27

21:01

TZ: +0300

help.artaro.eu wrote:

Burning the ISO file

Hi Amal! You see the downloaded ISO file as an archive because you're opening it with an archive manager (WinZip, 7-Zip, WinRAR, etc). As stated in the article, you need a CD burning program such as CDBurnerXP. Installation instructions for it are here: http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/other/cdburnerxp.html Instructions on burning the ISO file to a CD are here: http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/other/cdburnerxp/create-disc-from-iso-image-cdburnerxp.html

2011-10-27

19:36

TZ: +0300

Amal wrote:

it's an archive, and there is no ISO file in the 128mb downloaded file why?

hi people I downloaded Puppy linux lup528.iso but when the downloading is finished it is an archive file, i have a windows xp system os, i want to recover my windows errors and i came to know puppy linux is superb thing to work on ! my friend said it is an iso file which is a file that to be written as an image to CD, but im confused why is it an archive? and when i unzipped the archive , The files in the folder are 1. BOOT.CAT 2.BOOT.MSG 3.HELP.MSG 4.HELP2.MSG 5.INITRD.GZ [archive] 6.ISOLINUX.BIN 7.ISOLINUX.CFG 8.LOGO.16 9.LUPU_528.SFS 10.VMLINUZ and 11.INITRD What should i do next? how can i write an image file to cd to use it as a BOOTABLE CD ? HELP ME please AmaL [thanX in advance]

2011-10-27

02:48

TZ: +0300

DNP wrote:

NTFSfix program detected errors

Thank you for the continued support…unfortunately the NTFSfix program detected errors on the HDD and would not work. I may be getting all I can with what I’ve got; and that’s more than I had before, but I’ll keep on trying. Thanks again.

2011-10-27

01:02

TZ: +0300

help.artaro.eu wrote:

ntfsfix

Hi DNP! To copy multiple items, open source and destination folders in separate windows. Then select the files and drag and drop these with mouse to the destination folder. A pop-up will ask whether you want to copy or move the files. Do not use the link options! ntfsfix is available in Puppy Linux, just open Console from Desktop and type "ntfsfix /dev/sda1". Replace the "sda1" with the name your mounted hard disk has.

2011-10-26

23:48

TZ: +0300

DNP wrote:

NTFSfix ?

Another question...since the drive is having issues would the program "ntfsfix" (as noted in the post by "Connie" on 09-30-2011) be applicable? If so, is it installed on PuppyLinux or do I need to access it and load it from somewhere else? Thank you.

2011-10-26

22:56

TZ: +0300

DNP wrote:

Selecting and copying multiple files within a single directory

OK…well, how about being able to select and copy multiple “files” NOT multiple “folders” (as noted in the description above). I am able to select multiple “files” by left-clicking with the CTRL key pressed, but it does not enable the “copy” function (however, the “delete” function is activated for the multiple selections). Any way to select and copy multiple files so I can cherry-pick the data in lieu of having to include the unwanted files within a directory? Thanks for the continued support.

Page 1 Of 2 > >>

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