Save the Christmas party!

[TomtheFanboy]

All of the footage from the Christmas party at nikkiolie's house this year is in deadly peril!

I moved the files from my camera onto our laptop. I deleted the files off the camera. The laptop contracted a virus and shut down Windows Vista functionality. Bit by bit the problem became worse and now Safe Mode is not available. Now all I have access to is a few of the Gateway support tools. There is no way to restore because the backups have been removed. I can access the recovery, but want to make a final attempt at the files. I can access the command line but have been unable to use the few commands I know to reverse the last few changes made. I can run a recovery to reinstall the original image but that will wipe the hard drive.

HOW CAN I SAVE THE FILES!?

I do have an external USB hard drive I am willing to connect up if someone can advise me of how to reclaim the files themselves using only the command line.

[JeffT]

If you are merely attaching the hard disk to another computer, and booting from the other computer, there's no risk to the other computer. The other computer doesn't need to be in safe mode, or command line-only mode. You can easily recover files.

That is, there is no danger if autoplay is disabled. But, autoplay should be disabled on any computer anyway. It's an enormous security hole that Microsoft introduced to the world in 1995 and should never have seen the light of day. (The most reliable way to totally disable autoplay is in group policy. As for "easier" ways to do it, sorry, Google it--I don't keep track of how Microsoft modifies autoplay behavior each week to suit their whims of fancy.)

[DancingTofu]

What I did to salvage files from my computer was just run Ubuntu (you can run it from a CD or USB drive without installing it), grab all my vital files and throw them on a flash drive, then wipe it and reinstall windows and drivers.  That's probably the least technical way to do it.

[TomtheFanboy]

I'll let you know how it works out.

thanks guys.

[TomtheFanboy]

Well by the time I had time to sit down and work on the problem I'd found this site,

http://commandwindows.com/command2.htm

But thank you Patrick for the actual command I needed.the files should be safe on my external soon.

I can't wait to speak with the people at work about my employee discount and the new 2TB external drives.