If it's just data files your after you can do a new install of xp. Just make sure you pick the do not format option. If you don't need the oridginal xp info you can overwrite the windows directory, otherwise specify a different location. Once installed, copy your data off drive.
Next option is to boot from a live linux cd/dvd & transfer your data, then do your fresh install. Richard E. Quilhot C.N.A. quilh...@gmail.com Stephen Leacock<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/stephen_leacock.html> - "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so." On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Bino Gopal <binogo...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hey guys, so I think I majorly screwed up my WinXP install on my IBM T61 > laptop and am *hoping* (I think against all hope at this point) that I can > at least recover the data on the HD, if not even fix the WinXP install. So > here's what happened: > > > > I had a normal working WinXP SP2 install on my laptop. I have a USB key > from work with Win7 Enterprise on it, and apparently it's a bootable, > SELF-INSTALLING image of Win7 (the bootable, self-installing part will > become key in a second). > > > > My plan was to grab all my data off of the laptop and back it up and then > install Win7 on it. The laptop is having issues where it loses internet > access (which gets fixed on reboot) so w/o thinking about it, I rebooted it > with the USB key still attached! *sigh* > > > > So of course the laptop boots up off the key (and I'm not paying attention > right then) and Win7 starts the setup process (no prompts too; it just > goes!!), and it's about 30 secs or so, and it gets to a point where it > opens > a cmd window and starts showing percentages and it gets to 1% and then I > close the cmd window by hitting the X in the top right corner and that > restarts my computer. > > > > It said it was doing some stuff before that and maybe I should've stopped > it > a little sooner but I was afraid I'd screw things up if I stopped it in the > middle of redo'ing partitions or something, but once I saw the percentages > I > figured I'd better stop it sooner rather than later. > > > > In any case it rebooted and came up with "windload.exe is missing". That's > when I started troubleshooting. So here's what I did: > > > > 1) Put in my IBM rescue and recovery CD (which took a while to load; I > don't think it was doing anything to my install, though it's possible, but > seems unlikely) and looked at the options but decided nothing there would > help me. > > 2) So then I found and put in my WinXP CD and got to its blue screen, > and started the recovery console. I read some stuff so I did "fixboot" and > restarted. > > 3) Then I got the "ntldr is missing" message. So reading some more I > copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the winXP CD to c:\ using the recovery > console and restarted. > > 4) THEN I got the "hal.dll is missing or corrupt" error message this > time! Read even more and I tried to expand the file from the recovery > console but got an error (which is weird)! No idea why that happened and > that's when I paused and decided to take stock and ask for help and not > make > things worse. > > > > At this point, I went back to the recovery console and looked at my HD and > that's when I got the sinking feeling... I don't see a lot of the dirs I > expect in WinXP, and all the dirs have a date of 01/02/10, and there's no > Doc Settings dir, but a Users dir, but my username isn't there and it looks > like somehow Win7 wiped the disk and started the install in like 30 secs or > something!! How did it do that?! I also noticed the dirs are there, but > no > files in any of the dirs, which looks like an aborted install of Win7. > > > > So at this point, is there any way to recover my data? Do I need to send > my > HD to Tim or can I use a program to recover stuff (assuming it's not > overwritten)? I'm hoping that I can get the data but give it to me > straight; if I'm screwed, then let me know so I can stop wasting my time > trying to recover it, and just write the data off as lost and move on. > > > > Thanks so much for any help guys, and Happy New Year!! > > > > > BINO > > > >
