LuLu

A little late, but thanks everyone! Birthday was nice, but now I have a cold. Go figure. lol

LOL

Since I turned 31 today...

Hehe thanks guys! He (she?) really is a cutie pie. He knows his name and eats like there's no tomorrow haha. Fluffy - Scooter is coping very well. They've gotten along pretty decently the few times we've had them together. And he's gotten so big! He's more than doubled in size the last time I posted pics. I'll have to take some new ones!

Here's another one for the month...even though its almost over lol

My newest rescue. Think it's a boy so after seeing that he's a Hemingway cat (polydactyl...meaning extra toes), I named him Hemingway or Hemmi, for short. He's only about 5 weeks old...very tiny but a piglet and full of energy. Let's all say it together...awwwwwww. lol

After a whole week of attempts I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely, positively give up. lol Thank you everyone for your help, but nothing fixed the drive and no other OS's would detect it. He's just gonna have to buy a new one and call it a day. But you can't say I didn't try. haha

The last one has been rescued! This is proof that if everyone pulls together, and people/governments do what is needed, then miracles can happen. I can only imagine how the miners and their families are feeling at this point. Let's just hope none of them have any permanent injuries/health issues from this harrowing ordeal.

Well, just for kicks and grins, I searched around in the Hiren's disk under DOS programs and found a Toshiba hard drive tester. It told me the hard drive is defective, but nothing more. I attempted the MHDD thing again and had the same outcome as earlier. I guess he's gonna have to buy a new hard drive. Or or a new laptop. lol

Well, I got as far as the prompt for scan and that's when it told me the device was not ready. I tried 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...and got the same message. I guess this isn't looking too good, eh? lol Is there anything else in the DOS programs on Hirens that I should try? Or should I finally just throw the drive out of a window and put it out of it's misery? haha

Thanks for the links! Will I use those while running Puppy or will I boot from those by themselves? He had originally told me it was XP that was on the system but when he got here told me that it was actually Vista that had come with it. When he told me he tried his XP disk on it, he failed to tell me at the beginning that it was a restore disk from his own computer, which I promptly told him would not work on his friend's laptop. So that in and of itself has made me wonder if what he did has made the situation worse or not. I'm hoping not, especially since he never got XP to load onto the drive. I did try a copy of XP Pro, but it never installed either. As of right now, Mini Linux is still running the TestDisk Analyse Cylinder thing. It's only at 14%. I'm probably going to stop it and use Puppy once I get it burned. My head is beginning to hurt from all of this. lol

Very cool!!

He better or he's not getting his laptop back. LOL Right now I'm using TestDisk under MiniLinux and so far it's shown many "read errors" while under the Analyse Cylinder thing. I guess in a way it's a good thing since it found the hard drive to actually delve into. So we'll see what the result is once it's finished. Right now it's at 11%. As for Puppy, what version should I download? And what is the most trusted source? ps - I want to thank everyone who has been helping me thus far. It's much appreciated. Without you guys, I probably would have tossed that poor thing through a window already. haha

Well, I ended up with a copy of ERD Commander 2008 I believe. After trying to boot from it, I saw the WIndows logo screen and then received a message saying A problem has occured and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to the computer. Could it be a crap copy of ERD or is this just one more testament that the drive is shot?

Ok when I have more time I'll download Puppy and give it a go. But I think he's just gonna have to buy a new hard drive and start from scratch.

That's probably the case. I might be able to get my hands on ERD Commander 2009. Think that might do any good?

Not your density. lol I think I just posted it all wrong and that's why you got lost. Ok so following your method, I still can't open the HBCD menu. I even burned a 2nd copy to try in case something got messed up on the first, and still no-go. I'm about to toss the hard drive out the window. lol

I thought I said all this earlier but maybe I didn't. I was tired when I was posting. lol So let me try again. Yes I got into Mini XP. But there is no C drive listed, only X and B. When I try to run chkdsk on C (or any other letter other than B and X) it tells me it cannot open the volume for direct access. And also, when I click on HBCD from the desktop, nothing happens. If I go into windows explorer and access the folders/files from there, Opera and all the others come up as invalid or some such mess. So in essence, I can't do a darn thing.

Well like I said before, when I try to open HBCD, nothing happens and I can't figure out why.

That's what I thought. I think the drive is kaput. When I try to run HBCD Menu, nothing happens.

Ok no matter what letter I use for the hard drive (since i dont know what it is), it keeps telling me that it cannot open volume for direct access. I've made it all the way to H with the same results. My brother didn't know what it was either so we had to keep guessing since it doesn't tell me under My Computer.

Ok awesome, thanks! I'm burning Hirens now. Hopefully I did it right.

Ok so I now have the laptop in my possession and am downloading Hirens as I type this. I have no way to run chkdsk on it though. So what should I attempt to do? I was looking through the list of programs on the Hirens thing and don't know where to start. Any takers? lol

Well in that case you're both awesome. lol

Login, you are awesome. I will pass this on to my brother, though I may be working on it myself by the time the weekend gets here. lol