sorry its long but i wanted to be thorough

so my work computer was shut down the same way i've done it for the last month that ive had it, using the start menu and then choosing shut down

only this time when i started it again it continually looped between the bios and the windows xp welcome screen starting over and over

i popped in the xp disc and got a prompt to do a chkdsk /p and /r and it does say that there are some errors but it freezes at about 50% each time

even though ive only had it for a month there is some VERY important data like my timesheets, work, pictures, etc...that i would like to save at any cost, even if it means taking it into a computer repair shop. my company would be paying for it anyway. normally i would just delete the partition and do a clean install again but i need this stuff off first.

1. what else can i try?
2. how do i pick a place to take it to? i'm out of town in Maryland...

any help would be appreciated, clearly its important since im up at 4am still

1/4/2008 3:40:34 AM

you can always create a partition and install on that and grab any viable information, given the hdd isnt corrupted. done it many times with many dif os's, only option you have it looks like...

1/4/2008 4:18:24 AM

^Make sure you don't accidentally erase the contents of your disk when creating the partition.

Just put the hard drive in another computer. Boot using the existing disk that was already in the computer, copy off your files from the second disk.

Unless you don't have two computers.

[Edited on January 4, 2008 at 7:51 AM. Reason : -]

1/4/2008 7:50:22 AM

is there a way i can copy entire directories from the command prompt, i tried xcopy but that doesn't seem to work and i don't want to spend the monotonous time typing every file name i want to copy to a flash drive

1/4/2008 8:07:17 AM

http://preview.tinyurl.com/grzpu

Parameters for xcopy.

Just use xcopy *.*

1/4/2008 8:12:29 AM

Quote :

"i tried xcopy but that doesn't seem to work"

xcopy isn't even listed as an option in help, it says "that command is not recognized"

1/4/2008 8:26:48 AM

how long did you wait when it "froze" at 50%?



sounds like the hdd is dying. throw it in another system as a slave and see if you can pull the important files off it with the quickness.

1/4/2008 8:35:21 AM

after 2 hours it was up to 55%, after another 3 that vapid cunt of a blue screen came up

i got ahold of an external drive so i figure ill format it, put xp on it, make it the new master, get my files off the old drive, wipe that and then send it to toshiba for repair

also ill put my important shit on a thumb drive so its in 2 places

ill convince work to let me purchase a one touch backup external on the company card, can anyone recommend a certain brand that i can pickup at best buy or circuit city? the slimmer the better...

1/4/2008 4:46:14 PM

WOW

none of this shit is working

i found xcopy.exe in the system32 folder but for some reason i'm not able to use it to copy whole directories, which is all i care about doing, i could care less if xp ever boots by itself ever again i just want my files

i tried the bartpe method with a flash drive, that didnt work

quick question, if i run my xp install cd from within windows on another computer, can i install xp onto a flash drive connected to it or will it only install to the hard drive?

1/4/2008 8:38:46 PM

Isn't there some sort of IT guy in your company? Why don't you slave that drive into another computer and then navigate to whatever folder u need and copy it.

1/4/2008 9:32:57 PM

Maybe I've missed something here but have you tried starting the computer in safe mode to see if it will boot?

1/4/2008 10:25:07 PM

Quote :

"Isn't there some sort of IT guy in your company?"

yes there is, he's in raleigh

i'm in maryland and i needed these files like yesterday

and safe mode is a no go, error screen immediately after choosing xp

1/5/2008 7:55:49 PM

download hirens boot CD.

My old computer (windows XP) did this several times. I would get an error like "unmountable boot volume" or it would just continually loop so I'd try to run chkdsk and it would freeze about half way through and either give the BSOD or would just reboot. The ONLY thing that would fix it was to let one of the HDD utilities from hirens do a surface scan that would take all night. It would find a couple of "bad sectors" and fix them. I don't know why chkdsk wouldn't work. This happened so many times that I finally just got a new computer.

1/5/2008 8:46:52 PM

^ thank you thank you thank you

i used winternals disk commander from the bootcd to get my files back! also i bought a seagate freeagent pro to make this alot easier in the future

thanks to everyone in the thread for their suggestions

1/6/2008 2:10:28 PM