Anyone know how to recover Windows OS from an external drive?

Question

I have been backing up Mac to an external hard drive. I started with a smaller one with just 300 GB, but then got an Iomega with 3 TB. Unfortunately, the hard drive in my MacBook Pro just died. I replaced it, but now I can't find any of the Windows programs on my hard drive! I have checked everywhere, but no dice. I was pretty sure that I'd set my hard drive to back up everything. Am I going to have to buy a new copy, or am I looking in the wrong place? (I am required to use Windows for work.) Is there a free program that works like Microsoft Word that I can use in the meantime?

Update:

Windows for Home and Students was installed when I bought it. It has been saving all of my Word files, just not the application to open it. I'll go look for the sticker and try the link in the meantime. Thanks.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Sadly, there's an excellent chance that you DIDN'T back up the Windows side.   That uses a different partition on the hard drive than the Mac OS.   If you didn't set up your backup software to save both partitions, you only got the Mac side.

If you still have the old drive from your MBP, and it's not too badly damaged, you might be able to recover the files off of it.    It's not trivial, but it's not horribly difficult if the disk can be recognized.   If the drive surface or electronics failed, recovery would require a professional lab to perform the task, at a substantial fee.

How did Windows get installed on Bootcamp?   If you still have the keycode (it should be on a sticker if it was installed before purchase), reinstalling Windows isn't terribly difficult.   Just tedious.

As mentioned above, Open Office provides a high degree of compatibility with MS Office documents, and it's free.   http://www.openoffice.org/       I would avoid the "freeopenoffice" website, it seems to download a copy of the open source project Open Office with advertising added.

Anonymous · Answer

yes there is a way to obtain the info. Your gonna need the software for it which can be expensive depending. You have been looking in the wrong places because if you tried taking it to a tech they should be able to recover it as most techs are trained for this type of work. I charge $40.00 for data recovery. If you want you can ship it to me ( if your outside the New York area) and I can recover all your data and ship the CDs to you after I'm done recovering everything. I will also purge your HD which will disable it permanently. This prevents anyone from stealing info or from even using it in the future. As for windows, I sell Windows Installation CDs as well if you need it, way cheaper than if you were to buy it at a store. They sell for over 100 bucks. My prices are as follows: Windows XP 35.00, Windows Vista and Windows 7 for 60.00, free shipping. Let me know if your interested. I will leave my info below in case you want to contact me with any questions. I'll explain things better for you. Be sure to check out my website as well. BTW I will not charge you until I tell you I'm ready to ship it back to you. Then we can start the payment process, I'll even give you a tracking number so you can track your order.

scrubbag · Answer

I don't fully understand the question, but if Windows was saved in "clone", you can restore it to the new drive.  Or copy the files from your external, and re install Word. 

In the meantime, you can download and install, Open Office, which has similar products to Miscrosoft and are Free. 

http://www.freeopenoffice.net/freeopenoffice/openoffice-suite.php?brand=freeopenoffice&s=msn&country=US&c=freeopenoffice_suitet&k={keywords}&pk=1627-11

And I think Windows has Wordpad, which is included with it.

Trending News

Anyone know how to recover Windows OS from an external drive?

3 Answers