HELP needed urgently !!!

[swordfish1]

hi guys,

after trying to reinstall some nokia software my machine totally crashed!

it was windows 2000 with SP4

I gave up trying to recover the present installation because it seems that the registry files are corrupted and I don't have any registry backup!

so I am trying to reinstall it over the existing installation!

problem is that the installation process is telling me that it will delete and recreate the My Documents folder, in which I have some valuable files! So I need to back it up! Problem is, I can't boot in Windows because it blue screens! I tried to use the registry files in the winnt\recovery directory, this made it boot, but there is no keyboard/mouse when it boots so I can't even login (tried both USB and PS2 keyboard/mouse). I tried to enter the recovery console (by booting from the CD) and make a copy of My Documents elsewhere and let the installation delete the original, but I got access denied,, after reading the docs, apparently that is standard behaviour!!! WTF why the hell there is a recovery console from which you can't even backup the bloody files! So I am stuck! How am I suppose to preserve My Documents and reinstall windowze!!!!!!!!

HELP!!! any ideas!!!

thanks!

 

[swordfish1]

yes I forgot, before you suggest to boot with linux distro on cd (like knoppix) and backup the files on cd-rom or dvd, this won't work because I am using RAID on intel ICH7R and so far I am unable to make this work under linux

 

[ernstn]

Windows does keep a backup of the registry- press F8 when restarting and select "Last known Working Configuration" as far as I know

 

[swordfish1]

Windows does keep a backup of the registry- press F8 when restarting and select "Last known Working Configuration" as far as I know

tried that, doesn't work

 

[swordfish1]

Were you trying to copy the files from the HDD to another partition or drive/media? - W2KP's recovery console doesn't allow copying from HDD to somewhere else, you need to copy [not sure if xcopy will work in recovery console] to somewhere else on the same partition that is unlikely to get overwritten - like a new folder in the root of that partition...

that's exactly what I tried and I got access denied!

I can't create directories anywhere but in WINNT directory, I can't even CD to Documents and Settings directory to view the files in there!

 

[swordfish1]

From recovery console, have you tried the stuff in:

\WINNT\system32\config

that's usually where the important registry hive stuff is, and you should be able to rename the current registry hive files to .broken and then copy from the .alt and .sav files to restore last known good manually...it's tricky, but something to try when all other avenues are exhausted...

where do I get this .alt and .sav files?

 

[swordfish1]

I did copy the files from \winnt\repair into \WINNT\system32\config, which is suppose to give me a "clean" boot (suitable for backup at least), but when I boot it gets to the login screen and there is no mouse/keyboard! I tried everything to get the keyboard working but no luck!

 

[swordfish1]

If I remember correctly, the recovery console insisted on a space before the backslash, and you will need double quotes around folders with spaces in their names...

what do you mean space before the backslash? I did put it in quotes of course, I also tried a bunch of other single word directories and none of them worked, except winnt

 

[swordfish1]

I always put space before the first backslash

 

[swordfish1]

ok, I think I am getting somewhere with the help of the registry backups, after I copied the files from winnt\repair. I managed to boot with working keyboard, now I can backup the my documents folder and then reinstall over

thanks a lot! I will post later if it worked!