Summary: Windows 7 users (of all editions) have an ace in
the hole in case their hard drives crash. It's called the Windows
Recovery Environment (RE), a bundle of automated and manual system
tools that can repair a corrupted hard drive to recover data or make
the drive bootable again...
Hard Drive Recovery Tools in Windows 7
There
are several ways to perform Windows 7 hard drive recovery, depending on
what sort of damage has been done. The easiest Win7 hard drive recovery
technique is to check the drive for errors and repair them using the
CHKDSK utility. Here's how that works:
First,
click the Windows Start button, then click on Computer. Right-click on
the hard drive's icon. Select Properties, then Tools. In the
"Error-checking" pane, click "Check now." Check the box to
"automatically fix file system errors." If you have lots of time, also
check the "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" box. You will
have to restart the computer in order for CHKDSK to do its work before
Windows loads. If CHKDSK doesn't solve the problem, try these more
advanced Windows 7 hard drive recovery techniques:
If
your computer will boot up from the hard drive, press F8 during the
startup sequence to load the startup menu options. "Repair your
computer" will be the first menu option. Select it and press Enter to
load the Windows RE.
If
your hard drive will not boot, you will have to boot from your Windows
7 installation DVD or a System Recovery Disk. Both types of disk have
the "Repair your computer" and Windows RE on them. If you haven't
previously taken the time to make a Recovery Disk, see my related
article Recovery
Disc for Windows 7:
<http://askbobrankin.com/recovery_disc_for_windows_vista_or_windows_7.html>.
If
you have neither a Windows 7 installation DVD nor a System Recovery
Disk, there is a third (but awkward) workable option. Remove the
non-booting hard drive from your computer; install it as a secondary
drive in a working Windows 7 computer; reboot the computer; and run
"Repair your computer" from that machine's hard drive. You can select
your non-booting drive as the one to repair.
Windows
7 Recovery Options
After
selecting "Repair your computer" you will have to choose your keyboard
input method and language (if you've installed multi-language support),
then enter your username and password to gain access to the Recovery
Options menu.
"Startup
Repair" is an automated diagnostic and repair program that attempts to
analyze and fix corrupted startup components on the specified drive.
Choose it if your hard drive won't boot or Windows will not load.
"System
Restore" returns your Windows 7 installation to a state saved at an
earlier date, called a System Restore Point. System Restore Points are
automatically created at various times, and you can always create one
manually. The idea is to roll back your system in time to a point where
it was working normally.
"System
Image Recovery" uses disk images created by the Windows Backup and
Restore to replace corrupted data and/or system files with backup
copies. It is different from System Restore in that the latter does not
make backup copies of user document files or application programs. With
System Image Recovery, you can restore any of your applications and
data as well as just Windows 7 system files.
Copyright
© 2005 - 2011 - Bob Rankin
(Win7_HardDriveRecovery.htm)