Using Hiren's Boot CD to Recover Lost Causes

One of the first problems I had to face at my new job was a computer where the local user password was forgotten. Actually they've been changed a few times, so we just couldn't find the one that worked. Once the computer was removed from the domain there was no other way to log in, so ater doing some searching I found Hiren's BootCD. It did the job, did it well and fairly easily too! All I had to do was boot up the Hiren's CD, launch the password recovery application and was able to reset the password. This allowed me to actually log in using a local account, change a few settings and put the computer back on the domain. The CD has some other pretty cool features as well like booting up into a Windows XP live session or even a Linux live session. Other tools include ghosting options, partitioning options and several applications that let you run thourugh diagnostics on the machine or even run a pre-boot virus scan. I recommend just burning this disk and just putting it in your collection. You never know when you'll need but assuming you work in IT, I assume it won't be long before you will. You can download and create the Hiren's BootCD by going to their website at: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

The Drive May Be Gone, But the Files Are Still There

Recently my aunts computer died, yet again, and being the good nephew that I am (and the only one in the family who has a clue when it comes to computers) I decided to fix it for her. Now you have to realize, this computer is probably seven or eight years old, made from laptop parts and most likely shouldn't even be running anymore. It's a Gateway Profile 4 All In One.... so yes it gets very hot and I assume that's why the hard drive died. 

So back to the "IT" portion of the post. With the hard drive clicking I figured just throw in a new one and reinstall windows. But then I remembered all the pictures and files she had stored on the old one and I panicked. I've never really been good at retrieving old files from deceased drives but I figured I'd give it a try. After doing some extensive searching I found a few pieces of software that claimed they would work, but cost money. So I tuned to trusty (sometimes) Download.com, placed my search for ONLY free software and found a true winner: MiniTool Data Power Recovery.

The MiniTool Data Power Recovery worked amazingly well and is free for home use. If you want to use the software in a business environment they ask they you purchase the license, luckily that wasn't the case for me but I can sure see how this would be very usual at my job and for many others I'm sure as well. Being that I didn't have a IDE to USB convertor at home I had to take the long route and slave the drive onto an old Sony Viao I have in the basement. Once everything was hooked up correctly and the MiniTool software installed, I just selected the "Corrupt Partition" option, let the software search the drive and BOOM there were all of my aunt's files. Transfering to the old Viao's hard drive took some time but other then that the software worked great, especially considering it was free! I would recommend the software to anyone who is in desperate need of restoring files from their old hard drives. Had I known about this software a few years ago I would have some myself a huge headache but now I'm glad I did my research and found something I can trust.

You can download the free verison of MiniTool Data Power Recovery at http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/download.html