Using Windows drive as external hdd

[xFlankerx]

So after a Windows update rebooted my laptop, I'm unable to boot again because of a corrupted registry. I need to recover the data from that drive. I'm wondering if it's possible to take out the slim hdd in my ultrabook, use some kind of SATA-to-USB adapter, and connect to it as an external hdd from another computer to back up the data.

I guess what I'm asking is...

 

[HobartTas]

Greetings

Yes that should be no problem, occasionally though its not the registry that's corrupted as I've had this problem as well, NTFS was the cause of it not starting up so do a "Chkdsk /f" first on it and try booting again as it may work, if it doesn't boot your no worse off and at the very least you know the NTFS data is in a consistent state when you start transferring the data off it.

I also recommend if possible always buy laptops with 2 drive bays, I have a second copy of windows installed on an old second drive so if this ever happens I just swap the drives around and your off and running again and you can work on the faulty original drive using the laptop itself.

Cheers

 

[x509]

Greetings

Yes that should be no problem, occasionally though its not the registry that's corrupted as I've had this problem as well, NTFS was the cause of it not starting up so do a "Chkdsk /f" first on it and try booting again as it may work, if it doesn't boot your no worse off and at the very least you know the NTFS data is in a consistent state when you start transferring the data off it.

{stuff deleted}

Cheers

OP, you didn't say which version of Windows you have. It is my impression that what you are asking for is difficult/very difficult/damn-near-impossible on Win 7 but is supported on Win 8.

If you do a search on "windows 7 install USB" you will get tons of hits on how to install Win 7 from a USB drive instead of a DVD. But it's very hard to find a link about installing to a USB-based drive.

I'm not the expert on this, so I'll leave it to people with more experience in this area to comment further. Good luck with this.

 

[[21CW]killerofall]

If your motherboard allows you to boot to a USB flash drive then I don't see why you couldn't boot to any type of USB drive. (Don't know about Win 8 though)

 

[HobartTas]

Greetings

and connect to it as an external hdd from another computer to back up the data.

and

OP, you didn't say which version of Windows you have. It is my impression that what you are asking for is difficult/very difficult/damn-near-impossible on Win 7 but is supported on Win 8.

Just to clarify, I think you must be a bit confused by my reply, OP is not asking to boot off the drive in the USB device, OP just wants to recover data files from it when it is sitting in there. If it can be fixed as I suggested this is a bonus result.

The reason I suggested what I did about running chkdsk is the fact that if the laptop is turned off due to say improperly being shutdown then errors may occur in NTFS that could prevent it from booting, you may associate the windows update as being the cause of the problem but it just may be a coincidence. The other reason I suggested it is if there's nothing wrong with NTFS its just a 5 minute check of the file system and if there are problems then if they are fixed up there's probably about a 10%-20% chance this was the sole cause of the laptop not booting up and repairing this will restore windows back to a bootable and functional state, well worth trying as there is not a lot of effort required doing the attempt as I suggested

Cheers

 

[xFlankerx]

The reason I suggested what I did about running chkdsk is the fact that if the laptop is turned off due to say improperly being shutdown then errors may occur in NTFS that could prevent it from booting, you may associate the windows update as being the cause of the problem but it just may be a coincidence.

This is certainly possible. However the problem I'm running into is that I can't reach safe mode or access any kind of command prompt. After the BIOS, Windows starts to run startup repair; after this fails, the computer simply reboots without giving me any other option. There is no way (that I know of) to run chkdsk within that environment.

Could I run chkdsk through Windows while the drive is connected via USB to another computer (which worked, by the way)? Or maybe I could use some kind of virtual environment like Windows PE to run the check?

 

[HobartTas]

Yes you can. Once its attached to another computer then "Chkdsk X: /f" where X is the attached drive letter.

Cheers

P.S. The other thing you can do on a pre-emptive basis (and unfortunately probably in your case only once you get the system running - although I could be wrong about this but I would not install it while it is still not working) is install the recovery console that was introduced with XP.

If you happen to say trash your MBR (master boot record) or suchlike that prevents your system from booting then you can boot this alternate way (its similar to a Windows PE environment but with a very limited amount of system commands available) and run diagnostic tests including Chkdsk and repair and re-build it, have a look at these two links to read up more about it.

http://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/05/get-the-recovery-console-back-in-windows-7/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-7-recovery-environment-command-prompt/

Good luck!