How to Recover Data from an Inaccessible Hard Drive in WinXP

Steps

1. Put the XP CD in the top CD/DVD drive
2. Turn off computer (you may need to hold the power button down until the system shuts off).
3. Turn on the computer and tap 'F12' every 3 seconds (if you tap too rapidly and get a keyboard error, return to step 2)
4. In the Boot Device Menu that comes up, highlight your CD-ROM drive then press 'ENTER'. Press 'ENTER' again when it says "press any key to boot from CD"
5. Press 'ENTER' when it says "Welcome to Setup"
6. Press 'F8' to agree to the MS Windows EULA license.
7. Press 'ESC' key when it asks you which Windows installation you'd like to repair.
8. Highlight the partition in the list with 'C:' to the left of it and press 'ENTER'.
9. This screen should say "You chose to install Windows XP on a partition that contains another operating system..." Press 'c' to continue.
10. Select "Leave the current file system intact (no changes)" and press 'ENTER'
11. This screen should say "CAUTION:..." Press ESC key to install into a different folder.
12. Change "\Windows" to say anything else, for example type "\Windows2" to identify the second copy you're installing.
13. Go through the normal Windows setup. Use a new/different user name than the one you had before. Make sure you've got your Windows product key to put in!
14. To access your data (finally): go to Start -> My Computer -> Local Disc C: -> Documents and Settings -> Your old user named folder will contain all of your precious documents.
15. Burn them onto CD and reinstall windows so that there's only 1 copy of Windows on the machine. Or if you can't stand doing that, install your drivers and applications and let the bad copy of Windows haunt your computer for the rest of it's life.
16. Go have a coffee/beer/cold drink and pat yourself on the back.
17. OR!
18. If you have access to another machine and a cd burner, go download the Mepis** Linux LiveCD, and boot to that instead. You should be able to access all of your data, even for older versions of Windows.

Tips

• Have a CD burner and blank CDs to backup your files.
• You'll need your original Windows XP installation CD, including your product key, and all of your driver's CDs.

Warnings

• Disclaimer: There is no guarantee that this will save your files in all cases.

Sources and Citations

• XP Parallel Install Walkthrough with pictures
• XP Reinstall emulation Animated walkthrough
• Mepis

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