Trust me to be so stupid!

[PoorDoggie]

Please help! :lol:

I have managed to wreck my windows installation. Now, when I start up windows it comes up with an error and then restarts itself. I am living off a Knoppix Linux Live CD at the moment, and I don't think I will survive!

I have 2 hard drives, and I thought about copying the one with the windows installation on it to the other, but Linux dosen't utilise the Fat32 system and won't copy the files. It also won't open my DVD drive with a blank DVD in it!

Can anyone help me! All I need help with is getting the contents of one drive onto the other drive!

All my work and everything is on that hard drive! I will if I don't get it back!

Help!
Tom

 

[Peter]

are you using windows XP, if so have you considered trying a repair?

 

[trifolic]

How about a system restore?

 

[monaco]

Linux dosen't utilise the Fat32 system and won't copy the files.

Linux in fact CAN read and write fat32. Run `modprobe vfat` and try it again.

 

[vip-ip]

Back everything up, and then format c What else is there to do?

 

[PoorDoggie]

are you using windows XP, if so have you considered trying a repair?

Win XP won't run past booting. It brings up an error before the logon screen appears and then restarts itself!

How about a system restore?

Again, can't get into winXP

Linux dosen't utilise the Fat32 system and won't copy the files.

Linux in fact CAN read and write fat32. Run `modprobe vfat` and try it again.

Great will try that. Don't know how to use linux though so may take a while! :lol:
EDIT: erm... tried it in "Konsole" and it dosen't work. I am running Knoppix if that is of any use to anyone, not a full Linux build!

Back everything up, and then format c What else is there to do?

Thats what I want to do, but the problem lies in backing up c:. Nice avatar btw!

 

[Peter]

Win XP won't run past booting. It brings up an error before the logon screen appears and then restarts itself!

you don't need to get into windows to do a repair, go as if you are installing it, ie put the xp cd into the drive start the pc, then follow instructions, it will find the current installation and ask if you want to install a fresh copy or if you want to try a repair.

 

[PoorDoggie]

you don't need to get into windows to do a repair, go as if you are installing it, ie put the xp cd into the drive start the pc, then follow instructions, it will find the current installation and ask if you want to install a fresh copy or if you want to try a repair.

and that won't delete any of my files?

 

[Peter]

it shouldn't no. Settings may be changed and the files may be in different places but they should stay and intact as long as you choose repair.

All it basically does is overwrite most of the system files etc.

Just 1 thing before you go and do this is have you tried safe mode, if it is drivers etc causing the windows problem then safe mode should still work as it does not load any drivers when it starts.

 

[Zeeble]

it shouldn't no. Settings may be changed and the files may be in different places but they should stay and intact as long as you choose repair.

All it basically does is overwrite most of the system files etc.

Just 1 thing before you go and do this is have you tried safe mode, if it is drivers etc causing the windows problem then safe mode should still work as it does not load any drivers when it starts.

Yep, its just like upgrading your version of XP. Nothing should change in the way of files, but it should repair anything thats damaged.

 

[rcep]

incase none of the sulutions work the final thing you can do is to back up ur files on cds and format

 

[monaco]

Win XP won't run past booting. It brings up an error before tried it in "Konsole" and it dosen't work. I am running Knoppix

It might just be Knoppix. The point behind Knoppix is that is won't damage your disks even by accident. I would try something like one of the big distro's livecds. I've found that my gentoo livecd works fine for everything I need to fix (I don't need X11 to do it) so you might wanna give that a try. I use gentoo as an example but any distro should work fine as long as it has a way to get a shell from the installer...

 

[PoorDoggie]

great... thanks

 

[Peter]

incase none of the sulutions work the final thing you can do is to back up ur files on cds and format

that may be somewhat difficult he cant get into windows.

 

[eh-stevo]

The repair option is your best bet, that happend to me last year with the rebooting, and that fixed it. You may need to insert your XP key, so have it handy.

Stevo