Harddrive access outside windows

Ok, the problem is the following:

After having a broken motherboard I've been upgrading the computer, but the problem is that I didn't have a proper backup on the harddrive when the motherboard broke. To get it running properly, I need to reinstall windows, thus formatting the harddrive and losing all I got on it.

I've bought a portable harddrive now, so the problem is getting the info from the main harddrive to the portable outside Windows.
But the computer won't find the harddrives without installing Windows in the first place. The startup cd can find them, while the bios can not.
Tried booting up with minixp with hirens, but that couldn't find the harddrives either (nor the dvd driver that it's starting from...?). Might be another option on that cd, but I haven't found a good guide on that cd.

I know that simply putting the harddrive into another computer would work, but I don't have access to a computer that can handle SATA drives, outside bothering some computer rapair store.

Reinstalling Windows does not require that you reformat the HD, unless you're having a FAT32/NTFS issue. The reinstall should place the old windows in a folder called, logically, Windows Old (or maybe it's Old Windows, can't remember). So if the internal HD is okay, and if you've got a few gigs of space on it, you should be able to get it up and running with no problem. Just don't format it.

You can use a Linux OS disk (either from burning it on a CD or getting hold of one elsewhere), this will allow you to use Linux from the CD to access your harddrive, where you can then make backups from it.

Why don't you try a live dvd of the Turkish distro Pardus that's being constantly developed for years now -once had saved a lot of data for me on a Windows-inaccesible HDD. (Don't forget to switch to Live DVD in that webpage)

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Resolved, after getting a relevation on how to properly google fu the problem. A CD with Ubunto's trial mode worked.

Thanks for the input everyone :bow:

This is the reason why it's good to always run two HDs, or at least two partitions. One for the OS, one for the data. Never install anything on the OS drive that you would care about losing. That way when you need to format, all you need to do is wipe the OS drive/partition and your data is untouched. I tend to leapfrog my HDs in this manner as I upgrade. Smaller HD is the OS drive, larger is the data. When I buy a new HD, it's always larger than my previous data drive. It then becomes the new data drive, and the old data drive becomes the new system drive. Ah, the circle of life.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

This is the reason why it's good to always run two HDs, or at least two partitions. One for the OS, one for the data. Never install anything on the OS drive that you would care about losing. That way when you need to format, all you need to do is wipe the OS drive/partition and your data is untouched. I tend to leapfrog my HDs in this manner as I upgrade. Smaller HD is the OS drive, larger is the data. When I buy a new HD, it's always larger than my previous data drive. It then becomes the new data drive, and the old data drive becomes the new system drive. Ah, the circle of life.

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Or do proper backups. :beam:

Or in this case, depending on the hard disk: dismantle the external drive enclosure, swap disks, reinstall Windows, done. ~;)