Stolen laptop.....any suggestions for data recovery?

Hello

My laptop was stolen ( Grrrr!) and all I have left is my cloned copy of the HD (xp pro) on my external USB HD which was made with TI 9 and a cd boot disc.

Is there anyway I can boot from the USB HD on another pc so I can use my applications without re-installing everything again, or maybe I can overwrite my new laptops HD with my old laptops image, or am I just completely out of luck?

Many Thanks.

 

Boot your new machine and then plug in your USB drive. Copy your important files off it and wipe it's O/S so it doesn't corrupt your new drive. You can use it for storing an image of your new drive AFTER you reload all your software.

 

Bobdat's suggestion is probably the best course of action. However you may want to read this thread, noting the comment by Alexey Popov in the last post:

"Please also be aware that we can not guarantee the successful transferring of your operating system to a different hardware. Actually, no one can guarantee this."

The thread refers to restoring an image to a new computer. The same probably applies to cloning to a new computer I would think.

 

Hello scarer,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - moves the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

Backup - creates a special archive file for backup and disaster recovery purposes;

Please read more in this FAQ article.

As I understand, you have followed Clone Disk approach and therefore now you have external USB hard drive which is a clone of your stolen laptop disk.

You might also have created an image (*.tib file(s)) of your stolen laptop hard drive saving this image to the external USB disk.

In both cases I would recommend you to try the following:

- Boot your new laptop from Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD;

- Clone your external USB hard drive to the new laptop disk or restore the image (depending on the approach you followed earlier);

- Try to boot as usual;

- If it does not boot then please do the following (depending on the operating system you use):

- Boot the computer from Windows 95/98/ME Startup Disk and run "fdisk /mbr" command;

- Boot the computer from Windows 2000/XP Installation CD and run "fixmbr" command in Recovery Console;

- In case it still does not boot, perform Windows Repair Installation as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please also note that, as dld has mentioned above, your new laptop might still not boot because of the different hardware configuration (you can also take a look at this FAQ article).

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

To shove my oar in too...

I would suggest that before you try Alexey Popov's solution and wipe your new laptops hard disk, you should take a TrueImage disk image of it drive in its freshly shipped state. That way if the process suggested goes "belly up", you can restore that image and get the new laptop at least booting again easily, whilst you work out another method of getting the old saved files transferred.

If it is just your files you want (rather than installed programs) then if you took a TrueImage disk image (.tib) then you are in luck. All you need to do is install TrueImage on your new laptop, then open the .tib off the USB drive from inside windows. It will open the .tib drive image as a extra drive letter, where you can browse it using windows explorer and then copy the appropriate files onto the new laptop's hard disk.

If you do need the programs too, then you shouldn't have to many problems if you are using the same make and model of laptop as a replacement (assuming the manufacturer hasn't changed the components inside!). You would easily be able to restore the backup as Alexey said.
Using a different laptop with diferent hardware, will be a rougher ride. You should be able to get it up and running in the long run, but you might find that incorrect drivers will cause multiple crashes on booting (even in Safe Mode!), which might tax your patience before you manage to solve it. Being prepared for this, and staying calm should see you through it though. Just remember to take an image of the new system before you start anything, so you can try again!

Hope this helps,

Mike