Question : Problem: How to retrieve data from hard drive

We had a power cut last monday

it has knocked one of the computers off. It wont load windows completely.

I have put the disk into another computer as a slave to try and recover the data, but when i try to access the disk in my computer, it asks which program would I like to open this file with . The name of the hard drive has gone all those strange characters too

any ideas how I can recover the data ?

Answer : Problem: How to retrieve data from hard drive

Hey, lets do simple steps.

Usually anytime a pc won't power up because of a power surge, it simply leads to crosslinked files on the computer.

Boot up with your xp cd and enter recovery console, and type in Chkdsk /r
Let it scan and it will fix minor corruptions caused by improper shutdowns. This is the reason you see garbled characters at times.

You can use chkdsk /r from other boot cd's as well, bart has it or hirens cd. On that bart cd that u have in photo, try to right click on drive and find the chkdsk command, or simply open a dos prompt and execute from there.

I'm also sure a good chkdsk will solve the problem. It will also let you know if any bad sectors have developed. if so its a good indication drive is going bad. You'll see a status report at end of chkdsk.

Before experimenting, take measures to save your data first.

Chkdsk /r SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST STEP! In all powersurges/improper shutdown I've dealt with, chkdsk fixes file corruption.

I would not attempt to do a repair install if all you can see is garbled characters.  You can use a boot cd that has acronis disk director suite and scan drive for errors, there are those times a outage can wreak havoc on drives partition table. Rare but it happens.

I'm leaning on the side chkdsk solves your issue, if not pull your data off and try other suggestions. But in the end, a simple delete/recreate partition , format and fresh install is ideal and thorough .