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  • Thread starter Thread starter Alex
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Alex

Can you help?

Running XP Home, encountered Blue Screen and then failure
to start in any mode. Recovery console was ineffective.

Finally reinstalled XP over old version to save data
required. OK for a while but unable to take ownership of
files with data required.

Now starts to safe mode, but then blue screen and
automatic restart, and runs in a loop just doing that,
start, blue screen (very quick no time to read, restart.

Looked to reinstall XP once more over old instalation, but
now just wants to format the disk as not enough space,
which is strange as its 160 GB with about 3.4 GB on it at
last count.

Any ideas as I would like to get the info back before
having to reformat.

Thanks
 
Alex said:
Can you help?

Running XP Home, encountered Blue Screen and then failure
to start in any mode. Recovery console was ineffective.

Finally reinstalled XP over old version to save data
required. OK for a while but unable to take ownership of
files with data required.

Now starts to safe mode, but then blue screen and
automatic restart, and runs in a loop just doing that,
start, blue screen (very quick no time to read, restart.

Looked to reinstall XP once more over old instalation, but
now just wants to format the disk as not enough space,
which is strange as its 160 GB with about 3.4 GB on it at
last count.

Any ideas as I would like to get the info back before
having to reformat.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Your predicament is the result of two decisions:
- Not to back up your important files, and
- To mix your operating system with your data

To avoid the problem in future, consider this:
- Back up all important files on a weekly basis, to an
independent medium.
- Install your operating system and your applications
on your first partition (10 GBytes is plenty). Put
all your data on the second partition. This would allow
you to reformat drive C: during a subsequent re-installation
without ever touching your data drive (D:).

How to solve your current problem:
1. Install the disk temporarily as a slave disk in some other WinXP PC.
2. Back up your data files. If necessary, buy another hard disk -
they are cheap!
3. Put the disk back into your own PC.
4. Install WinXP. Make drive C: 10 GBytes only. Later on,
create a data partition of 150 GBytes.
5. Restore your data.
 
Alex said:
Can you help?

Running XP Home, encountered Blue Screen and then failure
to start in any mode. Recovery console was ineffective.

Finally reinstalled XP over old version to save data
required. OK for a while but unable to take ownership of
files with data required.

Now starts to safe mode, but then blue screen and
automatic restart, and runs in a loop just doing that,
start, blue screen (very quick no time to read, restart.

Looked to reinstall XP once more over old instalation, but
now just wants to format the disk as not enough space,
which is strange as its 160 GB with about 3.4 GB on it at
last count.

Any ideas as I would like to get the info back before
having to reformat.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Boot the computer with your Windows XP CD and choose the Repair
(Recovery Console) option.

When it has finished booting and stops at the command prompt enter the
following command:

CHKDSK /R

That could resolve the problem, especially if the underlying cause is
something amiss with the data structure on the hard drive. This is
quite likely the case, based on your experience with "not enough
space" on the drive.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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