Hi encee
Here is all that I can think of, and maybe worth a try:
1. Install the XP on the second hard drive. Don't worry about setting up
accounts or installing anything else.
2. Once you have installed the XP on the second drive, open Windows explorer
and see if you can see the drive that the data files are on. If you can,
copy them to the external USB drive.
3. If not, then right click on My Computer>Manage>Disk Management and see if
the drive is showing in the top window and in the disk box lists below.
4. Look at the drive if there and see if the drive says it is "healthy" or
"active" or "inactive". If Inactive, try to activate it by right clicking
on the drive box and select 'Mark partition (drive) as active'. If
active/healthy check to see that the drive associate with it in the top
windows has a drive letter. If not, you will need to give it a drive letter.
To do this you will need to right click on the drive box in the bottom
section and select 'Change drive letter and path' If there is no letter in
the window, click on the Add tab and give the letter or z, click Ok/Apply
and close out of the My Computer.
5. I would also advise you to download and install the VistaBoot Pro. When
it opens (you may get an error that says some file can't be found, etc.,
just ignore and click ok), then click on the Manage Entries tab. If the z
drive is not in the window then type z in the box next to drive letter under
Add Entry, and then enter a name for the drive (i.e., Vista), then click the
Add tab to add it.
6. Then click on the Configure tab and in the Default OS window, select XP.
Then put 30 sec, in the Boot timeout box and click Apply.
7. Then click on the Backup/Restore tab, and save a copy of the Boot menu to
the external drive for safe keeping. Then close out.
8. Go back to Windows Explorer, click on My Computer and see if the drive
letter z is in the list. If so, click on it and see if it will open. If it
does and you can access the files, then you should be able to copy them to
the external drive.
9. If the drive is there, and you are sure there are files on it, then try
to take ownership of the folder and then try to open it again. If still no
go, then try to copy the drive to the external drive. Hopefully, you won't
get any access denied errors...
10. If you can access the drive but not copy the files, then perhaps you can
try a backup and restore program such as Acronis True Image. They have a
free trail
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
I use this and recommend it as it is very easy to use, and it might not be a
bad idea to have it around for backing up your data.
After you install the Acronis, when it opens select Recovery. Then follow
the instructions, making sure to back up the data to the external drive.
When you have backed up the data, or, if not successful, restart the
computer and see if the boot menu you created will work. If all else has
failed, then there is nothing to lose and no harm done, you can just boot
into XP.
Well...that is all I know to suggest at this point... I will keep my fingers
crossed that one of them will work for you.
Hope this helps.
Jan
MS MVP - Windows IE [DTS/AumHa]
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encee said:
I need to recover the data that was in the failed backup. I have a second
hard drive and an external usb drive that this could be copied to.
Do you know of any utilities that I can use to access my data before
reformatting?
Jan Il said:
Hi encee
Then all I can suggrest is that you either reinstall XP or Vista, and let
them reformat the hard drive in the install process.
Jan
Thanks. However, I have tried the startup repair option.
Unfortunately,
I
am still faced will the same black screen on reboot and cannot logon to
Vista.
Any other ideas?
:
Sorry, forget my first reply, these are the correct steps:
Put in the Vista DVD in the ROM and restart the computer
When it comes up, continue to the screen that offers the Repair.
Select
Repair and let it do the job.
As soon as Vista comes up and you are logged on, burn/copy your data
files
to a DVD or another hard drive( internal or external) for safe
keeping.
Next, download and install the VistaBoot Pro
http://www.pro-networks.org/vistabootpro/intro.php
For Single Booting:
1. Open the VistaBoot Pro and click on the Configure tab and under the
Bootloader section, select Vista from the drop down box to be your
default
OS.
2. Set the Boot time out for 3 seconds. Click apply.
3. IF you want to rename the Vista install to another name, in the
Entry-Based section, click on Select OS to modify. Select the Vista
name
and
in the Rename to window, type in whatever name you want to give it.
4. Click on the Manage Entries tab, and highlight the OS in the window
that
you want to be the first in the boot menu, and if it is not in the
list
first, click the Up tab to move it up.
5. Then click the Backup/Restore tab and save a backup of the new boot
menu,
create a new folder on the XP drive and save it there, just in case.
Then close out of VistaBoot Pro and reboot
Your new boot menu should appear on restart
Hope this helps.
Jan
MS MVP - Windows IE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.
Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
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