Fixing Windows PC with a Mac

[RedCroissant]

Hello to all!

My friend's compute just died on him and I'm hoping that there is something that I can do with my machines to help him fix it. Yes I am a Mac user and fan but please don't reply to this thread with, "Tell your friend to get a Mac." I already have and he won't.


His computer is a 1-year old desktop (forget the brand) but it has an Intel Pentium in there (No, I do't know why he would buy that and if that computer was really only a year old).

It was running Windows 8 and he started noticing strange behavior in Explorer where it wouldn't display properly. Then it would not longer boot to the desktop/Tile floor area but instead into the Boot manager and he would have to select the startup partition each time.

He called me this morning and told me that it had finally died. What can I do with my iMac to help? I have a 27" iMac Quad i5 3.2GHz 16GB RAM, 3TB HDD. I also have the TB-FW adapter, FW400-400 cable, FW800-400 cable, and a FW 800-800 cable along with numerous usb cables, ethernet cables..etc. I also have the external superdrive.

What I am hoping to do is recover his files and information and then either reload the OS on there or get him to buy Windows 7 and load that on there. I suggested LINUX but he uses Netflix and YouTube too much. Oh well. Plus, he really likes Windows.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

 

[Intelligent]

Hello to all!

My friend's compute just died on him and I'm hoping that there is something that I can do with my machines to help him fix it. Yes I am a Mac user and fan but please don't reply to this thread with, "Tell your friend to get a Mac." I already have and he won't.


His computer is a 1-year old desktop (forget the brand) but it has an Intel Pentium in there (No, I do't know why he would buy that and if that computer was really only a year old).

It was running Windows 8 and he started noticing strange behavior in Explorer where it wouldn't display properly. Then it would not longer boot to the desktop/Tile floor area but instead into the Boot manager and he would have to select the startup partition each time.

He called me this morning and told me that it had finally died. What can I do with my iMac to help? I have a 27" iMac Quad i5 3.2GHz 16GB RAM, 3TB HDD. I also have the TB-FW adapter, FW400-400 cable, FW800-400 cable, and a FW 800-800 cable along with numerous usb cables, ethernet cables..etc. I also have the external superdrive.

What I am hoping to do is recover his files and information and then either reload the OS on there or get him to buy Windows 7 and load that on there. I suggested LINUX but he uses Netflix and YouTube too much. Oh well. Plus, he really likes Windows.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

Maybe take out his hard drive and and try to grab everything from his drive? I don't know whats broken (cpu,gpu,memory,hd) ask him for more information, and also people will not tell him to get a mac, since 98% of macrumors users hate mac.

 

[AdrianK]

All you really need is a spare HDD and a live linux USB or CD to recover his files. You can use unetbootin to create a live linux usb stick on a mac.

"Finally died" doesn't help much though, it really could be any number of issues unrelated to the OS.

it has an Intel Pentium in there (No, I do't know why he would buy that and if that computer was really only a year old).

Intel still updates the Pentium and Celeron lines, so that could well be a Haswell CPU.

also people will not tell him to get a mac, since 98% of macrumors users hate mac.

Citation required.

 

[RedCroissant]

Maybe take out his hard drive and and try to grab everything from his drive? I don't know whats broken (cpu,gpu,memory,hd) ask him for more information, and also people will not tell him to get a mac, since 98% of macrumors users hate mac.

I do have an external usb docking station. I guess I forgot to mention that. I was just hoping that I could do this by connecting cables and possibly mounting the Windows machine in disk utility or something.

98% ?? Come on!

All you really need is a spare HDD and a live linux USB or CD to recover his files. You can use unetbootin to create a live linux usb stick on a mac.

"Finally died" doesn't help much though, it really could be any number of issues unrelated to the OS.



Intel still updates the Pentium and Celeron lines, so that could well be a Haswell CPU.


Citation required.

I know that saying "finally dies" doesn't say much, and the truth is that I don't know either and neither does he.

I had no idea that they still updated those lines. I guess being in the Mac world kind of blinded me to anything else Intel was doing with the other CPUs. oops.

Then I think I will follow your advice and do the LINUX live usb idea. I do also have a couple of extra HDDs. Thanks for responding!

 

[Tumbleweed666]

You can't fix his PC with a Mac.

The best you could do is copy his data from the HD to another disk, but (a) that won't fix his PC, and (b) if the data is in anyway important he'll have it backed up (surely? ) so that's not necessary.

 

[RedCroissant]

You can't fix his PC with a Mac.

The best you could do is copy his data from the HD to another disk, but (a) that won't fix his PC, and (b) if the data is in anyway important he'll have it backed up (surely? ) so that's not necessary.

So there are not tools that I could use on a Mac to diagnose and repair a Windows PC? Thanks to another member, I could us a LINUX live usb and that's totally fine with me.

And no, he has not backed up his data.

So I will most likely resort to the whole copy/paste bit to another HDD and from there I will most likely use the live usb to fix anything that I can and maybe make his computer better somehow.

 

[pdjudd]

So there are not tools that I could use on a Mac to diagnose and repair a Windows PC?

Not really. You are talking about two completely different OS’s based on fundamentally different platforms. Not to mention the OS’s are on different formatted drives. Microsoft OS’s install on a hard drive format that (by default) cannot even be written to by OSX.

About all you can do is do the only thing that OSX can do - read the hard drive so you can extract his data. But unless you can write to the Windows drive, your fixing ability will be limited. Most repair software on the Mac is targeted toward fixing Mac issues, not Windows.

 

[alvindarkness]

So there are not tools that I could use on a Mac to diagnose and repair a Windows PC? Thanks to another member, I could us a LINUX live usb and that's totally fine with me.

And no, he has not backed up his data.

So I will most likely resort to the whole copy/paste bit to another HDD and from there I will most likely use the live usb to fix anything that I can and maybe make his computer better somehow.

I've fixed windows issues a few times within OSX, occasionally by attaching the hdd and getting parallels to see it as a bootcamp partition. Its amazing how many times I've seen parallels boot up a windows partition that wouldnt boot natively in a windows PC, due to driver issues what have you.

But like others have said its most likely not gonna help you. You could use VMware/Parallels/etc with an already working windows virtual machine to attempt to fix the windows install in combination with your usb dock, instead of using a live linux USB. Depends on whats easier for you.

Best to back up the data, and take it from there with your trouble shooting.