HELP... need to reinstall XP, how to keep my documents?

[josephfok]

Hi,

Some of the system files on my wife's laptop is corrupted, XP won't
start at all, not even in safe mode or command prompt. The only way
I've got the machine going is to put in the XP installation CD. It
manage to start up the recovery console, the other option is to
reinstall XP from the CD.

It's running chkdsk at the moment, taken over an hour and sitting at
52%... not a good sign but at least it's still going.

If CHKDSK fail, my only option is to reinstall XP in place of the
existing installation. I got as far as the point where it say
"CAUTION, installing over existing windows may delete all existing
information such as My Documents" This is the part where I cancelled
it.

I would like to back up "My Documents" as there are lots of important
information we'll need. But the only thing I've access to is recovery
console which is like a limited version of command prompt. I can't
even do "copy *.* c:\Backup /s" (or that should had been "xcopy").
There is only a few commands available in Recovery Console. Copy is
there but no wildcard and no sub-dir. I can't copy the files one by
one.....

My questions:
1. If I proceed with re-installing XP on top of my previous XP (no
formatting), what's the chance that I will lose my previous "My
Documents"
2. Is there a way to back up my data since I don't have access to
burner, external drives and xcopy?
3. How about the "RD" command to rename the directory? Which directory
should I rename, "Documents and Settings"?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[kenkcj]

What kind of error message are you getting when you try to boot into
windows? Is it a BSOD or does it say some other error message? If it is
BSOD, post the results of the blue screen to the newsgroup.
Also, what type of xp cd is it? If you do have to do a reinstall and its a
full version, you should be able to just go out and buy a new harddrive to
do a fresh xp install on, and when you first boot into the new windows you
can just pull off any information that you need. There are also recovery
programs that you can use if the information you want is not accessible.
Another option is whether or not you have another computer available. If you
have another desktop available you could pop the hard drive from that
computer into the other computer as a slave drive and do the same. If its a
laptop, there are cheap ($20-$40) enclosures that you can buy that you put a
hard drive into and it turns it into an external drive. Really easy to get
the information off that way and also useful in the future if you end up
getting a new system and don't want to lose all you information, or go
through the time of transferring the data over the network. Plus if you
weren't planning on using the harddrive of the old computer, you can format
then you have an external harddrive for your convenience
Anyways, a little bit of a tangent though, but that should give you a few
alternatives. Let me know if any of this helps.
-Kenkcj

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi,

Some of the system files on my wife's laptop is corrupted, XP won't
start at all, not even in safe mode or command prompt. The only way
I've got the machine going is to put in the XP installation CD. It
manage to start up the recovery console, the other option is to
reinstall XP from the CD.

It's running chkdsk at the moment, taken over an hour and sitting at
52%... not a good sign but at least it's still going.

If CHKDSK fail, my only option is to reinstall XP in place of the
existing installation. I got as far as the point where it say
"CAUTION, installing over existing windows may delete all existing
information such as My Documents" This is the part where I cancelled
it.

I would like to back up "My Documents" as there are lots of important
information we'll need. But the only thing I've access to is recovery
console which is like a limited version of command prompt. I can't
even do "copy *.* c:\Backup /s" (or that should had been "xcopy").
There is only a few commands available in Recovery Console. Copy is
there but no wildcard and no sub-dir. I can't copy the files one by
one.....

My questions:
1. If I proceed with re-installing XP on top of my previous XP (no
formatting), what's the chance that I will lose my previous "My
Documents"
2. Is there a way to back up my data since I don't have access to
burner, external drives and xcopy?
3. How about the "RD" command to rename the directory? Which directory
should I rename, "Documents and Settings"?

Any help is appreciated.

The fastest and most reliable way to back up all the documents is this:
Find another XP system with enough hard disk space, download and iinstall
the Acronis TrueImage trial version, about 110 meg . Then, remove your
drive and attach it to that system. Clone the drive, and then mount the
image to be sure that you can read the data. This will take *everything*.

The next best thing to do is to get another hard disk, remove your original,
and run the install on the new one. A new 250 gig drive can be had for
around $75. Ah, yours is a laptop, so an 80 gig drive will be probably
under $100. They are easy to replace with jeweller's screwdrivers. Some
laptops use a special header on the drive pins, this must be removed and
moved over to the new drive. Later, you can attach the drive via USB2
case to recover the data.

You may need to Take Ownership if you run into an Access Denied error
message:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

As it is, yes, you are at significant risk of losing data if you proceed on
your present course. The fact that chkdsk is having a hard time is not a
good sign of drive health.

Alternately, you can use another type of boot CD, such as a Ubuntu boot CD,
which will let you attach to other USB devices and copy your files -
depending on file permissions.

HTH
-pk

 

[jojostar]

What kind of error message are you getting when you try to boot into
windows? Is it a BSOD or does it say some other error message? If it is
BSOD, post the results of the blue screen to the newsgroup.
Also, what type of xp cd is it? If you do have to do a reinstall and its a
full version, you should be able to just go out and buy a new harddrive to
do a fresh xp install on, and when you first boot into the new windows you
can just pull off any information that you need. There are also recovery
programs that you can use if the information you want is not accessible.
Another option is whether or not you have another computer available. If you
have another desktop available you could pop the hard drive from that
computer into the other computer as a slave drive and do the same. If its a
laptop, there are cheap ($20-$40) enclosures that you can buy that you put a
hard drive into and it turns it into an external drive. Really easy to get
the information off that way and also useful in the future if you end up
getting a new system and don't want to lose all you information, or go
through the time of transferring the data over the network. Plus if you
weren't planning on using the harddrive of the old computer, you can format
then you have an external harddrive for your convenience
Anyways, a little bit of a tangent though, but that should give you a few
alternatives. Let me know if any of this helps.











- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the reply Patrick,

BIOS is ok, when XP try to boot up, it says one of the DLL file cannot
be found or corrupted.

Think the problem is the HD, in the last 2 hrs, CHKDSK only progress
to 58%.....

It'd be easy if it's a desktop, I can attached the HD to this working
desktop and set as slave drive and copy... I had a look at the
directory in Recovery Console (similar to DOS prompt), the data seems
to be intact. I like the idea of attaching the drive via USB to
retrieve the data. I've never taken apart a laptop before and thought
that every laptop's HD bay is different... Can you enlighten me
further on this? And where can I get one of those USB case that you
mentioned?

In the mean time I'll have a look at Ubuntu and ask again if I have
another question.

 

[Toast]

What kind of error message are you getting when you try to boot
into windows? Is it a BSOD or does it say some other error
message? If it is BSOD, post the results of the blue screen to the
newsgroup. Also, what type of xp cd is it? If you do have to do a
reinstall and its a full version, you should be able to just go
out and buy a new harddrive to do a fresh xp install on, and when
you first boot into the new windows you can just pull off any
information that you need. There are also recovery programs that
you can use if the information you want is not accessible. Another
option is whether or not you have another computer available. If
you have another desktop available you could pop the hard drive
from that computer into the other computer as a slave drive and do
the same. If its a laptop, there are cheap ($20-$40) enclosures
that you can buy that you put a hard drive into and it turns it
into an external drive. Really easy to get the information off
that way and also useful in the future if you end up getting a new
system and don't want to lose all you information, or go through
the time of transferring the data over the network. Plus if you
weren't planning on using the harddrive of the old computer, you
can format then you have an external harddrive for your
convenience Anyways, a little bit of a tangent though, but
that should give you a few alternatives. Let me know if any of
this helps. -Kenkcj

Yep, romeo all that, including kenkcj’s comments.

It would be nice to know the error code given on the BSOD but you’re
already running chkdsk with some difficulty and seem to suspect a
problem with HDD failure. So the job now is data recovery. I wouldn’t
be trying to get Windows started again until you have securely backed
up the data – you could easily lose the lot if anything goes wrong
when you start playing around with the XP install CD.

If you reinstall Windows XP without using the right method you will
definitely lose your data. Only have a go at this after having tried
to save your data.

Firstly I’d try to access the data on the drive using a live CD. You
might have an Ubuntu disc hanging around. Another commonly
encountered Linux based live CD is Knoppix. You can make a Windows XP
based live CD using the BartPE builder. UBCD4Win is an excellent
precompiled package based on the BartPE builder and it is highly
recommended but it’s a big download – in excess of 100 MB. You’ll
need your Win XP installation CD to finish the build.

The idea of a live CD is to see if you can transfer your files / My
Documents to another drive without having to remove the troubled HDD
from the computer. It would be very handy to have an external HDD to
save the recovered data to.

You could also try slaving the drive to another working computer.

If after trying a live CD or slaving the HDD you still can’t see the
data you’re going to have to try harder.

Next up I’d be thinking about running SpinRite. If that fails to
recover your data then have a look at GetDataBack. Both of these are
useful in situations where a HDD already has a few bad sectors and is
on the way out.

If you were able to recover data using a live CD and you suspect the
HDD is about to die then quit while you’re ahead -- buy a new HDD to
replace it. Sure, if you can make it get up and boot to Windows after
scanning with SpinRite you’ll be looking good but not for long. Take
that opportunity to image the bootable partition and restore it to
your new HDD. This will save you from another session of hair pulling
anxiety.

Detailed notes on doing a repair install of Windows XP can be found
here:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Please read the notes thoroughly right to the end before you try
anything as there are some links down the page that you might like
read as well.

Good luck!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks for the reply Patrick,

BIOS is ok, when XP try to boot up, it says one of the DLL file cannot
be found or corrupted.

Think the problem is the HD, in the last 2 hrs, CHKDSK only progress
to 58%.....

It'd be easy if it's a desktop, I can attached the HD to this working
desktop and set as slave drive and copy... I had a look at the
directory in Recovery Console (similar to DOS prompt), the data seems
to be intact. I like the idea of attaching the drive via USB to
retrieve the data. I've never taken apart a laptop before and thought
that every laptop's HD bay is different... Can you enlighten me
further on this? And where can I get one of those USB case that you
mentioned?

Most computer shops carry them as external drive cases. For laptops, they
come with a special 3-ended USB cable, as it takes power from two USB ports.
One USB port does not provide enough power to run a hard disk. You should
be able to get this for around $25 - $30.

Here's an example:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=AP25UAP&cat=CSE

HTH
-pk

 

[kenkcj]

If you still have a CompUSA in the area, I picked up this one even cheaper.
Don't need anything fancy and especially since its only to get the data back
off, it should be fine...

http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...ll&Nty=1&D=306130&Ntk=All&product_code=306130

Good luck

 

[jojostar]

Thank you everyone, all of you are fantastic and contributed into
helping me. Really appreciate all your effort. I ended up downloading
Knoppix from the web and created a bootable live CD from it... That
was relatively painless and I didn't have to fiddle around with a
screw driver to take out the laptop's HDD. Knoppix worked well, booted
up the machine and I managed to copied the critical information from
the laptop to the desktop. A few files were corrupted, but better to
get some back than nothing at all. Thanks once again for yout time and
help.