Need Windows to start to get info off of disk!

[Sachmosis]

My laptop was stolen, but I got it back. When I got it back, it was all
messed up. Dell sent me a new laptop, but I want to get the information off
of my old one to put it onto the new one. I would like to (eventually) be
able to network the two together to do that, but my old laptop won't boot
windows. It says it's missing some windows/system32/ file or something. It
said to get it off of the windows xp setup disc. I went to the recovery
console from the windows xp disc, typed in r to repair it, and it asked which
windows installation I would like to log onto, and I typed in 1, because that
was the only one listed. I then got a command prompt, but I didn't know what
to type in from there. I thought about doing a chkdsk command, just to see
what errors were on it, and so I did, and it got to 28% and then said that
the volume seems to contain one or more unrecoverable problems. So now what?

 

[Nepatsfan]

My laptop was stolen, but I got it back. When I got it back, it was all
messed up. Dell sent me a new laptop, but I want to get the information off
of my old one to put it onto the new one. I would like to (eventually) be
able to network the two together to do that, but my old laptop won't boot
windows. It says it's missing some windows/system32/ file or something. It
said to get it off of the windows xp setup disc. I went to the recovery
console from the windows xp disc, typed in r to repair it, and it asked which
windows installation I would like to log onto, and I typed in 1, because that
was the only one listed. I then got a command prompt, but I didn't know what
to type in from there. I thought about doing a chkdsk command, just to see
what errors were on it, and so I did, and it got to 28% and then said that
the volume seems to contain one or more unrecoverable problems. So now what?

How important is the information on your old laptop? If it's very important, you
might want to make recovering those files a priority. The easiest way to do that
is to obtain an external USB enclosure designed to hold laptop drives, remove
the HD from your old laptop, and put it in the enclosure. Hook the drive up to
your new laptop and see what files you can retrieve. You may need to take
ownership of your old files. Take a look at these articles for more info.

"Access is Denied" Error Message When You Try to Open a Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

Note: If your new laptop has Windows XP Home Edition installed, you'll need to
restart it and boot into Safe Mode in order to take ownership of folders on your
old hard drive.

An alternative is to boot your old laptop with a Linux live CD and see if you
can burn your old files to CD. Here are a couple of options.

Ubuntu Live CD
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Knoppix
http://www.knoppix.org/

As for getting your old laptop to boot, I'm guessing that the error message you
saw mentions one of the files listed in this article.

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

That said, not being able to run chkdsk is not a good sign. Dell has diagnostic
programs which can be run at bootup by hitting one of the F keys or booting from
the Resources CD. You might want to run these tests after recovering your files.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Sachmosis]

Thank you very much for your response. I will try the things you have
mentioned. Hopefully something works. Thanks again!