Mr_Wright said:
My PC won't start...software reasons...mainly XP.
The drive is good...can I salvage the data on the HD before I do a
clean install?
Adrian
Sure. If the hard drive is healthy, boot the computer with Knoppix or a
Bart's PE and copy the data off to a usb thumbdrive, external hard
drive (formatted FAT32 only), or burn to CD/DVD. Here's information
about using Knoppix:
An easy way to retrieve Windows files is to boot with Knoppix, a Linux
distro on a live cd. You will need a computer with two cd drives, one
of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR a usb thumb drive OR an external hard drive
formatted FAT32 with enough capacity to hold your data. To get Knoppix,
you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party
burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso from
www.knoppix.net and
create your bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see
the Windows files. If you are using the usb thumb drive, right-click on
its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box
that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the
default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a
single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows'
double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files
to cd/dvd-r's.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ (Bart's PE)
Malke
