xp pro crashed with some data I'd like to recover if I can't boot into it

rshift · June 19, 2005

I’m running xp pro. I ran into problems with a scanning program so I uninstalled sp2 and I was deleting the other xp hotfixes, believing that this was the source of the problem with the program that had suddenly begun to crash.

I tried repair from the recovery console but the display adapter was not installed the first time I tried the recovery console, so I tried it again and the display adapter driver still did not install. I thought that if I disabled the default display driver, that xp would locate the correct the driver that I had tried to manually install (but, for some reason, xp would not install). Then the screen went blank when I tried to get into windows on restart. So, I tried safe mode, same thing.

When I tried to repair from the recovery console a third time, the install hangs. I finally took out the disk and restarted. Now it hangs at “setup is being restarted”.

At recovery console, I copied (MyCD drive):\i386\ntldr C:\” and “(MyCD drive):\i386\ntdetect.com C:\”. Then I typed “attrib -h -r -s C:\boot.ini del C:\boot.ini“ and “BootCfg /Rebuild” but, for some reason, I get the message that the first command is not correct. Thus, the second load is listed for loading and when I select it on startup, I get the same “setup is being restarted” and it hangs.

The OS is still on the hd, it hasn’t been wiped out. I can see its correct size on the hd. How do I access it? Have I made a mistake in my attempts to create a boot to it?

If I cannot access the OS, what would be a strategy for getting some of the data files off of it? In the past, using dual boot (98se and xp pro) and Partition Magic, with 2 hds, I was able to deselect an OS as primary and, using the other OS on the other hd, I could recover the data from the other hd that way. I do have a clone of the current hd on another hd, but I need to get at the data that was left on the current, crashed hd. Is there a way that I could hook up BOTH hds simultaneously and, somehow, deselect the current crashed hd as the primary so that I could get my data off of it using the clone as primary?

Thank you.

BabyBoy-- · June 19, 2005

it surprises me that you were able to do all this and have 2 hard disks and not know that you can very well make your other hard drive primary install xp on it and then get the data on the "crashed" drive. nevertheless i dont know what you mean by crashed so this is assuming it is still in working condition but the boot info/windows install is just messed up.

rshift · June 19, 2005

Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry for my vague language in trying to describe my problem and my attempt to find a solution for it, but I'm new to computers and I don't have a technical background in working with them. They are a means to an end for me, extremely useful for the things I have to do.

However, using Partition Magic's "Rescue Me", when I looked at the hd with the xp OS that hangs at "restart" the RM program says that the partition was "improperly dismounted."

Is there a fix for repairing an improperly dismounted hd? I was only trying to repair the xp install when this happened. If I could figure out how to boot into the xp that I was trying to repair, I'd prefer to do that. If not, I was unaware (until you pointed out) that I can hook up both hds (one hd an earlier clone backup of the current hd that won't boot) simultaneously and select the functional clone as the primary hd in order to access and copy the data off of the xp OS that currently hangs.

I haven't done this before. Would I have to use the command prompt interface for this? Or will the functional xp OS Windows interface appear?

Thank you.