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First, you need to minimize Firefox, to do so click the minimize button in the upper left corner of the window. Then you should see the desktop and an icon called Computer, double click it.  (Image 1)  You should now see a list of storage devices (hard drives, pen drives, cd-roms, disk drives, etc)  double click on your hard drive.  If you are having trouble figuring out which is your hard drive, here are a few hints:

• It will probably be the largest, measured in GB (gigabytes), or TB (terabytes)
• It will most likely include Filesystem in part of its label, (however, it is not the drive labeled only File System).
• It will not have USB in its label
• Feel free to open the drives (by double clicking), to see if you can find your files, just click Back to return to the list of drives.

• If you are able to see the folders on your hard drive, you should be able to at least recover 100% of your data and possibly fix Windows.  
• If you are not able to see any files or folders, or your computer lags as you try to, you will probably be able to recover some data.  However, fixing Windows is out of the question and you will most likely need to buy a new hard drive.  Skip down to the step on Imaging your Hard Drive.
• If you are not able to see your hard drive, or if your hard drive is making clicking noises, you are in serious trouble.  First, remove your hard drive, put it in a freezer bag and in a freezer over night.  Then replace it in your computer to see if your computer will recognize it.  You will then need to skip to the step on Imaging your Hard Drive.

Before you move on to scanning your hard drive for viruses you need to copy the "Name" of your hard drive, which you will use in the next step.  To do so, find the hard drive (it will look something like 250 GB Filesystem) in the address bar and right click on it and select Properties.  (Image 2)  When the Properties window opens, select the text across from Name: (be careful to select all of it), right click on it and select Copy.   (Image 3)   You may now click Close. Now that you have found your hard drive, mounted it, and copied its name, you can move on to the next step.

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If you would just like to recover your files, and are not interesting in fixing Windows, you can skip to the next step.

 BootMed comes with two antivirus programs, Stinger and ClamWin.  Both of these are Windows programs that do not normaly run in Ubuntu, they require a program called WINE which makes it possible to run Windows programs in Ubuntu.  Before you can check for viruses, you will first need to configure WINE to see your hard drive:

1. On the desktop you will see an icon called Config. Wine, (Image 1) double click it.  (Be patient, as a it may take a few seconds to load. )
2. When it loads, select the Drives tab. 
3. You may get a warning message, you can Click OK and ignore it. 
4. Click Autodetect... 
5. Click Add... 
6. You will be prompted to select a drive letter.  It does not matter which letter you choose, for this tutorial I will use drive D:.  Select a drive letter and click OK
7. In the text box beside Path: type  /media/  (Image 2)
8. Then right click in the text box and select Paste (Image 2) to insert the drive name you copied in the previous step.  (Make sure that the text is not selected when you paste, otherwise just retype it in)
9. Now you can click OK.

You have now configured your hard drive as drive D: (or whatever letter you chose) in WINE.  So when you scan for viruses, be sure to scan drive D: not the C: drive. There are two antivirus/malware programs that come on BootMed, Stinger and ClamWin.  Stinger scans for a handful of the more common viruses (about 2140), making it a fast, although not very comprehensive tool.  ClamWin is more comprehensive, although it is also much slower.  I suggest that you first scan with Stinger and use ClamWin only if Stinger does not find any viruses or resolve your boot problems.

Click here to see how to scan with Stinger. Click here to see how to scan with ClamWin. Click here to see how to scan with HouseCall (Coming Soon)

After you check for viruses, try rebooting your computer to see if it works now.  If removing viruses does not resolve your issue, you can still copy your files - just move on to the next step.

Step 5 - Copying your Files to a Pen Drive

If your computer is still not booting after the virus scan, you may have a serious problem, ex. hard drive damage.  The best thing to do at this point is to recover your files by copying them to a USB drive.  Get either a Flash Drive or, better yet, an external hard drive ready and follow this tutorial:

How to Copy Files from a Hard Drive to a USB Drive with BootMed 

Step 6 - Imaging your Hard Drive

If you were unable to see the files on your hard drive in the previous step, most likely there has been some sort of damage to the hard drive.  Making an image won't fix your drive; it will simply make an exact copy of your disk, copying good as well as corrupt data. Damaged hard drives usually only get progressively worse the more they are used, so to cut your losses you should make an image. Damaged hard drives also seem to "confuse" computers, making it difficult to read information. When you make the image, it copies the drive to a more stable enviroment.  From that stable enviroment you can use a free program to access the files in the image.

Follow this tutorial to create the image:

How to Image a Damaged Drive with dd-rescue

Then this one to access the files in the image:

How to Mount a dd Hard Drive Image in Windows with P2 eXplorer