Unbootable hard drive

[davetib]

So I've got a hard drive that's unbootable. However, I stuck it in an enclosure and I can see all the files/folders. Was hoping there was a BI backup to be found somewhere, but no such luck.
Aside from installing a new hard drive and entering all the camera information manually... is there some way I can pull from what I have and get the settings back?

 

[samplenhold]

Was your BI DB on the hard drive? Are you talking about an HDD that BI writes the video files to? Or are you talking about the 'C' drive that the BI program files and database are on?

Basically the recommendation is to have the 'New' and 'Stored' folders, the video files, written to a surveillance rated HDD, like a WD Purple drive. The BI program files, the database, and the 'Alerts' folder, should be on a fast drive, like an SSD or an M.2 PCI-E drive.

 

[TonyR]

Have you tried plugging that "enclosure" into another PC with Win 10, 8 or 7 and performing a disk repair?
I've recovered dozens of drives like that .

 

[fenderman]

From the help file
BAC K U P S
Software Settings
Options to Export and Import software settings may be found on the About page in
Settings. The complete software settings reside within a .REG registry keys file and may
also be found via REGEDIT at the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris
If you select the Auto export option, you may select a folder location for these files. The
software maintains a rolling set of three files, always from three different days. These are
updated only when the software service is restarted. Restarting the software multiple times
on a single day results only in the replacement of just one of the backup files.
The default registry export format is compressed and this format is required in order to use
the Import button. However if you hold the Shift key while clicking Export, the file will be
saved in a human-readable text format. To re-import this type of registry file, you must
double-click it from Windows; it may not be imported with the Import button.

 

[davetib]

Thank you, gents! I totally forgot BI would automatically export settings. I was able to get the camera settings right from the export folder.

Also...good idea on the the disk repair. I did give it a shot, but still not bootable. But it doesn't matter now that we can rebuild on a new machine and import the old settings.

Thank you again!