Boot disc failure resulting in Blue Screen Error Code 07B

What is the most expidicious approach to the solution of this problem with the highest likelyhood of full data and possible disc recovery?  DELL Dimension E520 1.66 GHz w/2GB RAM 320 GB SATA HD 2GB RAM -- Windows XP Pro - One DVD -- One CD/RW -- one open slot for addittional HD

It would have been helpful if you'd quoted the Stop Error completely and exactly. If you are indeed getting "boot disk failure" and not something else, then most probably the hard drive has failed. You will not be able to recover the hard drive - it will need to be replaced - but you may be able to get the data.

IMPORTANT - If there is any question that the drive is at fault - it's making noises for instance - and the data is crucialDO NOTHING FURTHER ON THE DRIVE . Every time you spin that drive up you may be destroying data. If this is the case, send the drive to a professional data recovery company. I useDriveSavers for my clients, but there are others. General prices run from $700-$2,400. I understand that some insurance companies are now covering data recovery costs so check with your insurer. Homeowner's/renter's insurance policies will have the coverage under "Loss of Intellectual Property"; business insurance policies will have the coverage under "Business Interruption".

Drive Savers -

Sending the drive to a professional data recovery company is always the first choice in terms of getting back your data. If you are unable/unwilling to spend the money, then you can try one of the following methods to retrieve your data from outside of Windows.Again, please bear in mind that if the drive is physically failing you do take the risk of losing all data every time it spins up.

1. Pull the drive and put it in a USB drive enclosure or use a USB drive adapter. Attach this to a computer running a working install of XP/Vista/Windows7. Use the working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd or copy it to an external hard drive. I prefer not to do this if I know the drive is infected because there is a chance of infecting the host system. In these cases, I use #2 below.

2. You can boot the target computer with a Bart's PE (XP only) or a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix or Ubuntu and retrieve the data that way. This has the additional advantage of telling you whether the problems you're having are hardware or software-related because if the computer behaves perfectly under Linux you know that Windows (software) is the culprit. Conversely, if the computer misbehaves under Linux you will know that there is a hardware problem. Here is general information on using Knoppix for data retrieval when you can't get into Windows:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a CD/DVD burner OR a USB thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external USB hard drive. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable CD*. If you are doing this in an older operating system (XP or Vista), you'll need third-party burning software like Nero, Roxio, or the freeImgBurn (Windows 7 can burn .isos natively). Burn as an image, not as data. Then boot with the CD you created and the Windows files will be visible in Linux. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, there will be a Linux burning program to use.

*If your computer only has one optical drive and you want to use that drive to burn data or need to test the drive, you can create a bootable USB thumb drive running Linux instead of a bootable CD. This website will show you how to do that - - Bart's PE Builder

Also see -

And for future disaster recovery strategies -

MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

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Question Info

Last updated March 30, 2018 Views 1,868 Applies to: