Unable to boot

[Mike P]

My computer crashed and I am unable to boot from the harddisk. I can't even
boot in safe mode. There is data on the hard drive I wish to get to. Is
it possible to boot from the XP cd, then link to the C: drive. If so, I
could copy off the ../my documents/*.* to an external drive. Then, after I
have my data, rebuild the PC.

Any ideas here? I'm really stuck. The computer is a ThinkPad and came with
XP preloaded.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[James Yeomans BSc, MCSE]

Hi your best bet is to try and boot off the xp cd and perform a repair. This
is not the recovery console and a repair is performed at the same stage in
the set up process that a brand new installation would be done. If a repair
does not work youwill have to remove the drive and attach it to another
computer in a drive caddy or via cable and try to copy the data off it
manually. This link tells you where you can find more information on
performing a windows repair:
http://www.justaskjames.co.uk/default.asp?link=106

 

[John John (MVP)]

Unless you made changes to the Recovery Console's security settings you
will not be able to access that folder by booting with the XP CD.

Is your CD a "real" Windows cd or is it an OEM ThinkPad recovery disk?
Be warned that using an OEM recovery disk will erase all the data on the
drive.

You can salvage your date by using a PE boot disk like Bart' PE disk or
the Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows (UBCD4Win) or you can remove the hard
drive from the laptop and using an adapter you can mount the disk in a
USB enclosure or in another desktop computer.

John

 

[John John (MVP)]

That is not the best bet if the drive is failing or if the file system
is experiencing corruption!

John

 

[Don Phillipson]

My computer crashed and I am unable to boot from the harddisk. I can't even
boot in safe mode. There is data on the hard drive I wish to get to. Is
it possible to boot from the XP cd, then link to the C: drive. If so, I
could copy off the ../my documents/*.* to an external drive. Then, after I
have my data, rebuild the PC.

Any ideas here? I'm really stuck. The computer is a ThinkPad and came with
XP preloaded.

When you suspect a system crash and your main
concern is to rescue data off the hard drive, stop
attempting to boot from this hard drive.
1. Remove the HDD from this PC and instal it as
a slave drive in a different PC.
2. If at all possible copy the HDD to another drive
(copy it exactly, sector by sector, if you can) and
make any changes to the copy, not the original,
so as to avoid altering the data you want to save.

 

[Mick Murphy]

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

You have accesss to another computer.
Download the Knoppix Live CD; it is about 700 MBs.
Make a bootable CD from the above ISO file.
It uses your computer's hardware, but does not install on your Hard drive.

Boot with it, and it should give you access to your Windows files.
Copy them to a flash drive.
With the Flash Drive>right-click on it>Properties, untick read only

 

[Peter Foldes]

You have access to another computer then

I would remove the drive and put into another computer as a Slave and then take off all your needed Data

 

[philo]

That is not the best bet if the drive is failing or if the file system
is experiencing corruption!

That's right.

First thing to do is backup all the data and confirm it's good.

Next, run the mfg's harddrive diagnostic...
no sense in trying to repair the OS if the drive is bad..

Once the data are backed up...and if the drive tests ok...
then run chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r

If that does not fix it...a repair install is probably needed