Sep172012

How can I backup data from an operating system that will not boot?

Vanja Gorgiev asks:

I have one OS that will not even boot, and now I installed another one on the other local disk. So I need to save my Torrent list from the broken OS. Any ideas how to do that?


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System: Windows 7 x64
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20 Answers -

0 votes

Jhon H. Caicedo

September 18, 2012

A little more detail will help, you didn’t specify which torrent application are you using.

0 votes

Jordan

September 18, 2012

what i woudl do is go into the working OS and search through the files of the other OS, try and pull the torrent list from there. should be within the C: drive somewhere where your program is located

0 votes

Mike

September 18, 2012

If you boot from the working system can you see and access the hard drive with the damaged system on?
In that case all you have to do is navigate to either your user folder or the torrent applications folder. The currently active torrent files should be in there somewhere.

For more detailed help you will have to provide more information about the state of the damaged system and hard drive, the Windows version and the used torrent application.

0 votes

Eserpess der

September 18, 2012

If all else fails try recovery software…not shore how well it will go though

0 votes

Nikhil Kulkarni

September 18, 2012

Cool… This looks great…:)

0 votes

Nikhil Kulkarni

September 18, 2012

Awesome… Thanks for the help…

0 votes

Timo Reimerdes

September 18, 2012

You can always try and get a linux live cd like from http://www.ubuntu.com/download and boot it up – choose “try ubuntu” – it gives you the whole ubuntu linux desktop without modifying anything on your drives.

See if you can access your partitions of the old OS and I guess then it depends on what application you were using.

Also if your old harddrive is physically broken, you might not have a chance to recover the data at all (forensic data recovery is expensive!).

Deekshith Allamaneni

Yes boot to Ubuntu Live CD.
Then Install TestDisk software and recover all the files from your Windows partition.
Here is a MUO article that may help you: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/recover-deleted-files-from-your-linux-system/

September 28, 2012
0 votes

susendeep dutta

September 18, 2012

Try live booting using some Linux distro like Ubuntu,Linux Mint and then it’ll be able to browse all of your files present on the local drive .You can recover data using Hiren’s boot CD too -

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-recover-lost-partitions-and-hard-disk-data-guide/

Also,EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition is useful -

http://www.easeus.com/data-recovery/data-recovery-software/recover-data-from-dead-hard-drive.htm

0 votes

ha14

September 18, 2012

Install the torrent on your new hard drive then copy paste your old torrent folder to the new one and also in Torrent interface be sure to check preference for Location of Download ed Files.

Utorrent: How to move your torrents easily and effortlessly
http://filesharingtalk.com/threads/310286-Utorrent-How-to-move-your-torrents-easily-and-effortlessly

BEncode Editor
http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=31306

The .dat files you are looking for are here :
Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\uTorrent
Back them somewhere else

0 votes

raj gopal

September 18, 2012

good question,
i had this problem to,
and the solution is even simple
just install puppy linux or ubuntu on a flash pendrive (ask your friend or incase if you have an extra laptop)
goto youtube and search and follow the how to’s procedure
after installing the live on on usb, boot in and install utorrent and save your torrent list..done!!

given my idea!! hope it helps..

0 votes

Ravi Meena

September 18, 2012

yes use a live ubuntu disk, and copy all your files on external hard drive

0 votes

GrrGrrr

September 18, 2012

use a live CD and copy all ur torrent downloaded data & program file folder for torrent.
also copy the torrent data folder in Application Data folder.

0 votes

illegal3alien

September 19, 2012

Just copy them out of AppData if you’re broken install is Windows. If the hard drive is failing, you should use ddrescue to make a copy first, then try and get the files out of what was copied.

0 votes

Jason

September 19, 2012

A live Linux CD would be the easiest way to access the old file system. but as a few people here have noted if the hardware itself is damaged and unreadable (unless you want to pay couple of hundred to thousand for hdd recovery services) you may just need to start over.

0 votes

Sebastian Hadinata

September 19, 2012

I’ll suggest using Linux LiveCD to try and recover your torrent list, you can try and use Ubuntu LiveCD just to access your windows partition and copy your important data & torrent list somewhere else. Btw, what Torrent application are you using?

0 votes

Michael Jan Moratalla

September 19, 2012

put the hard drive to another system unit that’s how I do it.

0 votes

Moazzam Naeem

September 19, 2012

install windows 7, it will not delete your older operating system if you don’t format the c drive. then take out the data from the c directory where you installed your torrent.

0 votes

hemanth

September 20, 2012

try with live boot cd the download link is below

http://djsoftguru.blogspot.in/p/operating-systems.html

0 votes

Elrick Browne

September 30, 2012

or if you got a hold of a linux live cd like ubuntu then you just boot up from the cd and the 2 hard drives would get mounted automatically then you can copy what you want without installing the OS

0 votes

mohit kumar

October 28, 2012

Use a bootable Ubuntu usb disk and then you can recover it.