Trying to recover pictures from My Documents via Recovery Console

[Jamie]

I have very very important pictures of my daughter locked
inside of the My Documents and Settings Folder. My
master boot record took a crap and I cant load windows xp
with that hard drive. The major pain in the butt is that
it is part of a raid array. The good part is while in
the recovery console, most folders seem untouched. I can
see the My Documents and Settings folder while in the
recovery console and I hooked up another HDD to a spare
IDE port. I loaded it with windows xp successfully
(*Note: no the RAID array HDDs are not showing up in my
computer on the new install). I tried a parallel XP
install on the HDD with the hosed Master Boot Record to
no avail. MY BIG QUESTION can I somehow copy or move the
files or folder to a different location where they will
be accessible?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Try rebuilding the master boot record as follows. NOTE, information
included about how to get into the recovery console is posted for the
benefit of others who may see this post:

Be sure your system is set to boot from the CD. If you are not sure, when
the system first boots you usually see message about how to enter setup or
something similar and tells you to hit a key, sometimes it's del, sometimes
it's esc, just hit the key. This takes you to the system bios, you need to
navigate to where the boot sequence is set, put the CD-ROM drive first in
line.

Place the XP CD in the drive, save your settings and exit. The system will
reboot and should boot from the CD. If you see a message to hit any key in
order to boot from the CD, do so, otherwise, assuming your system supports
it, the system should boot from the CD on its own as it can't find
an OS on the hard drive.

XP Setup will begin by examining your system, don't worry, just let it run,
it's just copying some files to a temp folder. Ultimately, you'll be
brought to a menu. Choose, "Repair a Windows XP installation using the
Recovery Console, press R.

You will be asked for an administrators password. This is not any of the
accounts you've created for XP. It's a hidden system account for which
users are asked only to create a password during setup. Most leave this
blank. If you left it blank, when asked for a password, just leave blank
and press enter.

At the prompt type bootcfg /rebuild and press enter.

 

[Jamie]

Thank you for replying I will attempt this again. I did
try this once before and was told that it was unable to
rebuild due to errors. I was told to run checkdisk which I
did and it also told me there were errors. I attempted to
have chkdsk fix these errors but I was unsure how to get
this done. I will try it again. Please let me know if
you have anything further. Thanks again!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You would need to use the following command, chkdsk /f in order for chkdsk
to attempt to fix errors. Chkdsk without /f will only scan the drive and
produce a report on the condition of the drive.

 

[Guest]

Again Michael, I appreciate this reply ever so much. I
will definately go attempt this and post a reply as soon
as I get anywhere or nowhere! Hey thanks a bunch
partner...I will tell ya what, I definately won't forget
about backing up every few days to removable media!

appreciative,
Jamie

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

I'm glad to hear it about the backup...nice to know my preaching pays off
every now and then!

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

I just tried thta whole chkdsk repair then rebuild the
bbot config. Well the chldsk /r worked awesome. The
errors I previously had are fixed but the bootup process
still failed. I checked the disk once again back in
recovery console and insured there were still no errors.
There were none, so I now attempted bootcfg /rebuild.
All was fine until the rebuild process asked some
questions....
Add installation to list?: (Yes/No/All)
Enter load identifier?:
Enter OS load options?:
Whoa, what do the second two mean? I am not totally
computer illiterate but what the heck? Please don't lose
faith on this one, I totally appreciate your hooking me
up with this info. I will surely miss these pics, she is
9 months old and every pic she is growing and changing.
Thank you Michael, very much indeed. I did have go back
on this computer but it don't help when the mbr and bcfg
are hosed up. Definately going to purchase a DVD burner
to store all these large jpeg files. I will tell you a
sad fact. I have a wireless network which I set up with
4 computers. Once and awhile I would back up the pics to
the other computers. I just got lazy and hadn't backed
up in quite some time. This is what happens....Sorry to
take up your time Michael but definately your help is
useful and thought highly of!

Thankful,
Jamie

 

[Guest]

Oh yes, Michael, Windows does get to the XP logo screen
and fails after stating (in the light blue windows
background immediately after the black logo screen) it
can't find autochk, it will then shoot me the ugly blue
screen of death and go back to restarting from bios. I
have no chance to read the blue screen, it is a quick
flash. But this is all with completing the entirity of
the bootcfg /repair, due to unanswerable questions.
Please clue me in.

Jamie

 

[Guest]

Michael,
I also tried to repair the windows xp install prior to
all this other stuff, but always get error saying windows
xp cannot recognize the partition. I did have the HDD
partitioned as 3 partitions before all this bad stuff and
now it shows as one, the only good part is it still shows
up as a windows xp install on the install screen prior to
the error so at least windows recognizes the old files
that much. Still trying just about everything I can
think of to get these pics out of the My documents
folder. There has to be a way, heck I can see the folder
sitting thee in the directory in recovery console.
Please continue to help me out... Thank you, I will try
whatever it takes.

Jamie

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

The problem is, you cannot copy files to removable media using recovery
console unless you disabled the security that prevents it and that requires
access to local policy settings, assuming you have XP Pro as this is not
available on Home Edition. See the following Knowledge Base Article which
explains the procedure in Windows 2000, it would be roughly the same in XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;240831&Product=winxp

You can try the repair install again as it might work now that you've fixed
some of the previous issues:
Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.

Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
either purchase a retail version of XP will allow you to perform the above
among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting all
files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.

Failing the above, you can check the back pages of most PC magazines for
data recovery services or you might run a check at www.google.com for the
data recovery tools that might help in this situation.

 

[Jamie]

Michael,
I just tried thta whole chkdsk repair then rebuild the
bbot config. Well the chldsk /r worked awesome. The
errors I previously had are fixed but the bootup process
still failed. I checked the disk once again back in
recovery console and insured there were still no errors.
There were none, so I now attempted bootcfg /rebuild.
All was fine until the rebuild process asked some
questions....
Add installation to list?: (Yes/No/All)
Enter load identifier?:
Enter OS load options?:
Whoa, what do the second two mean? I am not totally
computer illiterate but what the heck? Please don't lose
faith on this one, I totally appreciate your hooking me
up with this info. I will surely miss these pics, she is
9 months old and every pic she is growing and changing.
Thank you Michael, very much indeed. I did have go back
on this computer but it don't help when the mbr and bcfg
are hosed up. Definately going to purchase a DVD burner
to store all these large jpeg files. I will tell you a
sad fact. I have a wireless network which I set up with
4 computers. Once and awhile I would back up the pics to
the other computers. I just got lazy and hadn't backed
up in quite some time. This is what happens....Sorry to
take up your time Michael but definately your help is
useful and thought highly of!
Oh yes, Michael, Windows does get to the XP logo screen
and fails after stating (in the light blue windows
background immediately after the black logo screen) it
can't find autochk, it will then shoot me the ugly blue
screen of death and go back to restarting from bios. I
have no chance to read the blue screen, it is a quick
flash. But this is all with completing the entirity of
the bootcfg /repair, due to unanswerable questions.
Please clue me in.

Thankfully submitted,
Jamie

-----Original Message-----
The problem is, you cannot copy files to removable media using recovery
console unless you disabled the security that prevents it and that requires
access to local policy settings, assuming you have XP Pro as this is not
available on Home Edition. See the following Knowledge Base Article which
explains the procedure in Windows 2000, it would be roughly the same in XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;240831&Product=winxp

You can try the repair install again as it might work now that you've fixed
some of the previous issues:
Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.

Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
either purchase a retail version of XP will allow you to perform the above
among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting all
files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.

Failing the above, you can check the back pages of most PC magazines for
data recovery services or you might run a check at

www.google.com for the

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Go back into Recovery Console, before doing the rebuild, type the following
at the prompt:
bootcfg /scan

It should list all the OSs it finds.

Then do the rebuild, when it comes to the questions below, do the following:

Add installation to list?: (Yes/No/All)Yes
Enter load identifier?: Whatever number it uses for XP, in other words it
should show 1) XP, type "1" without the quotes (been awhile since I've had
to do this myself)
Enter OS load options?: I think you can leave this one blank.

That said, given what you've told me, I'm not optimistic this is going to
work because I'm not sure it will find the OS but it's worth a shot.

 

[Jamie]

Michael,
Well that doesn't work. I get an error stating it cant
load that data. Let me ask you one last question. If I
installed an extra HDD that was visible to recovery
console. Could I pull the data from my damaged OS to the
other harddrive. Again it was in the My documents and
Settings folder. Could I copy this entire folder to the
other existing HDD. If so what eact command would I
utilize if the damaged HDD was now F and the new HDD(the
good one) was C. I have tried to copy the my documents
and setting folder once before but thought I may have
typed a portion of the command in wrong. Letme know
please.

gracious,
Jamie

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Not from Recovery Console. If you install an extra hard drive, I think the
way to handle it would be to install XP on that drive, then copy the folder
from the other setup.

If you do this, you will likely receive an access denied warning. You will
need to take ownership of that folder or those files as follows:

Note, file ownership and permissions supersede administrator rights. How
you resolve it depends upon which version of XP you are running.



XP-Home



Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is essentially hard wired for "Simple File
Sharing" at system level.

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode. Reboot, and start
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of the
options is Safe Mode. Select it. Note, it will ask for the administrator's
password. This is not your administrator account, rather it is the
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create a
password during setup.

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and press
enter.

Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll to
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect it
and click apply and ok. If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change,
move on to the next step.

Navigate to the files, right click, select properties, go to the Security
tab, click advanced, go to the Owner tab and select the user that was logged
on when you were refused permission to access the files. Click apply and
ok. Close the properties box, reopen it, click add and type in the name of
the user you just enabled. If you wish to set ownership for everything in
the folder, at the bottom of the Owner tab is the following selection:
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects," select it as well.

Once complete, you should be able to do what you wish with these files when
you log back on as that user.



XP-Pro



If you have XP Pro, temporarily change the limited account to
administrative. First, go to Windows Explorer, go to Tools, select Folder
Options, go to the View tab and be sure "Use Simple File Sharing" is not
selected. If it is, deselect it and click apply and ok.



If you wish everything in a specific folder to be accessible to a user,
right click the folder, select properties, go to the Security tab, click
Advanced, go to the Owner tab,
select the user you wish to have access, at the bottom of the box, you
should see a check box for "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects,"
place a check in the box and click apply and ok.

The user should now be able to perform necessary functions on files in the
folder even as a limited account. If not, make it an admin account again,
right click the folder, select Properties, go to the Security tab and be
sure the user is listed in the user list. If not, click add and type the
user name in the appropriate box, be sure the user has all the necessary
permissions checked in the permission list below the user list, click apply
and ok.

That should do it and allow whatever access you desire for that folder even
in a limited account.

 

[Jamie]

Michael,
Again, Michael I will attempt all as written. Thanks for
your valuable time spent helping me recover what is
possibly unrecoverable. Always grateful when a complete
stranger takes quite a bit of time to help out a fellow
computerist....

Thanks a bunch,
Jamie

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You're welcome and good luck, Jamie.