System Restore

[Salesman_Gil]

Is there way to run System restore on boot up, with xp?

Here is my problem. A computer I am working on, will not boot from the hard drive. The info is still there. I know because I can run NAV, emergency tools, and it scans the files. It is like it is missing that one file it needs to boot.
So I was thinking sytem restore. Any ideas??????

[Bill in SD, CA]

Have you tried to run the recovery console from the CD and repair the installation?

Bill

[John Prophet]

will it boot to safe mode?

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if not do what Bill suggested....boot to the xp cd....DONT choose the first "R" (recovery console)..go past that and instead just do like you are going to install again...it will search for and find you current windows install and it will give you the option to "Repair" that install...so you choose the SECOND "R".

and of course, dont choose anything saying "format" lol.



That should allow you to get the info off of it that you want.

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or..you could simply take the drive out and hook it up to another machine as a slave and get the info off of it...of course you could need a 3.5 to 2.5 adapter if it is a laptop (I know u work on lots of laptops)

JP

[Salesman_Gil]

Bill, when I do the Recovery Console, it stops at the C: prompt
What can I try from here???


John Prophet. It's a laptop all right.

I wish I could take these things a part. But it voids the warranty.,..
I tried the second "R" and....
It does not see the other installation. I think the official prognosis is .... It is toast!
When I go to the part where it should find it I get "Partition is either too full, daqmaged, not formatted"
Is there any possible way (with out taking the hard drive out) to try and save some files?????

[John Prophet]

I cant really think of any other way unless you could attempt to ghost it to a spare hard drive in a desktop machone or something.

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if its still under warranty then send it back to where it came from!! but there is some data on it that you want I presume??

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From recovery console I dont think you are able to copy files etc...that is a built in security feature..I think you are able to copy TO the hard drive, but not FROM.

[John Prophet]

is it giving a certain error?? such as "ntldr missing" or anything else?

there are commands you can do from the recovery console...such as "fixmbr" (I think, lol)

I am not an expert on the recovery console...but I know there is some onfo on miscrosofts knowledge base etc.

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will it get to the boot menu..like when you press f8?? if so you could try safe mode and/or "last known good config" etc

[Salesman_Gil]

Right now I'm going for a classic long shot CHKDSK.
I'm slightly (1%) hopeful it will do something, Instead of the normal _% completed.
I got "CHKDSK is performing additional checking and recovery"
I'll keep toying with it.....
I'll keep you guys posed.

[Salesman_Gil]

No you get something like problems with something, press CTRL+Alt+DeL.
It is right after the Intel screen is done, so it is looking for the file that kicks it all off. I'm thinking..

[Bill in SD, CA]

Recovery Console commands .

Also it has been my experience that chkdsk does not necessarily find problems.

Try chkdsk /p to force a detailed analysis.

chkdsk /r presumes the /p and will attempt to repair.

Bill

[Salesman_Gil]

Well I started just chkdsk noramally and 4% has taken 20 min. So I'll let that run, then try your suggestions.

Salesman