Hardware

Ask something
Question Locked

XP Startup problem-How do I save some important files before reformatting?

0 helpful
9 replies

by ltomkiewicz

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

My XP machine will not start up past the initial windows screen. I can get to the command prompt and can navigate around the machine. I am interested in saving several files, but (as I expected) the machine will not detect my usb drive. I have the original disc from the manufactuerer however it will only allow me to reformat the machine and erase everything.

Any suggestions on how to save the files I need before I reformat it? Thanks for any suggestions..

9 replies

by ic-it

If the Safe Mode cmd prompt; you can type explorer.exe and load the Windows shell.
Once in insert your USB drive. You will not get a prompt that it is recognized, but open My Computer and it should be there.

by ltomkiewicz

thanks for the suggestion. i tried it and the windows shell did not startup. there was no error message in the command line, it just plain didn't start. any other suggestions on how to save my files?

by muppetgrinder

as a reseller I'm going to assume that you have a couple of machines lying about that you have access to (if not i'll assume you have a friend with a PC and a screwdriver). Easiest way to get your data off the disk is to pull it from the PC, crack open another PC that works, fling the HDD with the info you want to recover on it into the PC that works (make sure it doesn't end up as the master boot device) fire up the working PC, wait for the found new hardware guff to clear and thewn access it as though it was a removeable drive. Only issue you will get is if you are trying to access stuff from My Documents on a password protected private account on the old disk. To get access to this stuff you will need to turn off simple file sharing ( from any explorer window go :
tools-->Folder options-->View>> bottom of the list)

once this is off, right click on the folder that you want access to and then go to the security tab, give full access to everyone and then in advanced options take ownership of it aswell. This should get you full access to what you need.

by ltomkiewicz

thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately this machine didn't come with a XP disk. Instead it came with a manufactuers disk that automatically reformats the machine and erases all the files on it. Any other thoughts?

by pc-guru

install windows again as C:\windows2
its quite unstable but you will be able to boot to the second copy and beable to save all your files just don't do anything else or it might crash.

by rob miners

http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows from UBCD4Win. UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair, restore, or diagnose almost any computer problem. UBCD4Win is based on Bart?s PE and all software included are freeware utilities for Windows. In short, Windows PE is Windows in a disc. You can run Windows directly from CD without having a hard drive. I always carry UBCD4Win in my CD case with me.

With UBCD4Win, I can use any of the methods below to backup files from an unbootable Windows. First, I boot up the system with UBCDWin. When I get in to Windows PE, I can either:
- Plug in a USB flash drive and backup
- Plug in USB external hard drive and backup
- If computer has CD burning capabilities, burn data to CD
- If network is supported, backup data to server/computer.
- Backup to FTP using built-in FileZilla Client

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2007/10/20/backup-files-from-dead-windows-to-ftp/

< Thought that I had better mention >
that you will only be able to do this if you can borrow an XP CD from a friend to be able to create the CD.

This discussion is closed to new replies.