[cradl]

I have a hard drive with Windows XP Pro on it and I need to get it to boot so I can recover some info off it. I need HELP. It gets to the boot up screen and then reboots. It flashes a blue screen but I dont know what it reads it flashes so fast. Tried to go into safe mode but it still wont boot.

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Let's try the Recovery Console.
Put the Windows XP CD in the cd-rom drive and shut the machine OFF. Power the machine back on and watch the screen for the prompt "Press any key to boot from cd"...press the spacebar once.

This should take you to a "Welcome to Setup" screen...Press R to load Recovery Console"

On the next screen, select your operating system by typing the number to the left of it. In most cases, this will be 1. C:\WINDOWS...so type 1.

If you are prompted to type a password, leave it blank and press "Enter".

This should take you to a command prompt...C:\WINDOWS>

Type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". Note the space before /r. You may be told the volume is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot...type Y and press "Enter". This should start the chkdsk operation.

If the machine doesn't reboot automatically, but returns to command prompt, type exit and press "Enter". The machine should reboot...do not press a key to boot to cd...let it boot to the HDD.

This will be a very long check and may appear to start over a few times...this is normal, let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes for this check is not unusual. It should then automatically boot to Windows.

Can you boot into Windows now?

[piper]

Let's try the Recovery Console.
Put the Windows XP CD in the cd-rom drive and shut the machine OFF. Power the machine back on and watch the screen for the prompt "Press any key to boot from cd"...press the spacebar once.

This should take you to a "Welcome to Setup" screen...Press R to load Recovery Console"

On the next screen, select your operating system by typing the number to the left of it. In most cases, this will be 1. C:\WINDOWS...so type 1.

If you are prompted to type a password, leave it blank and press "Enter".

This should take you to a command prompt...C:\WINDOWS>

Type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". Note the space before /r. You may be told the volume is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot...type Y and press "Enter". This should start the chkdsk operation.

If the machine doesn't reboot automatically, but returns to command prompt, type exit and press "Enter". The machine should reboot...do not press a key to boot to cd...let it boot to the HDD.

This will be a very long check and may appear to start over a few times...this is normal, let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes for this check is not unusual. It should then automatically boot to Windows.

Can you boot into Windows now?

[cradl]

No i have the drive hooked up to my system as a local drive right now. I will have to unhook my other drive that I'm using right now and then use the old drive and try and boot it up and do what you said then hook this drive up again and contact you if it dosen't work unless you can think of another way??

[piper]

With it attached that way, are you able to browse the drive to recover your files?

[cradl]

My issue is that it is my buddies hard drive and he owned a business and he used quickbooks for accounting and he needs to get the info off of it for his attorny and I don't have quickbooks on my system and he didn't back up his current files so it is like still active on that drive but it wont boot so I can't go into qbooks and save the current file and then burn it to a disk and then load it onto his system so he can pull what he needs off it. can I run checks through my system as a local drive?? Or would I have to unhook and hook his drive up and try what you said??

[piper]

You can run chkdsk on any drive on your system from inside Windows. Open My Computer, right click on the drive, choose Properties, Tools, Error Checking/Check Now.

However, to get your QuickBooks data off that drive, you'll need to install QBs on your computer then browse to his company file, open it, then back it up properly. I wouldn't recommend just trying to copy the QBs folder out of Program Files.

[cradl]

Tried tha and this image is what I got. What would you like me to do?

[piper]

Click Yes. Reboot and allow it to run.

[cradl]

Will do and I will reply ASAP Thanks..

[piper]

Since your trying to run chkdsk on that drive, are you not able to browse the contents?

If you can browse it, search the drive for *.qbb (QB company file) or *.qbw (QB backup file).

[cradl]

Ok did that but know windows won't find the local drive. When it ran it said not enough space to write bad sectors. Now it doesn't see it.

[piper]

So you ran chkdsk on the other drive (E:\ or whatever), but now Windows won't boot?

[cradl]

No windows boots fine but now I can't see it in control panal as a drive

[piper]

To confirm what we've got, do this:

Right click My Computer, Manage.
Under Storage, click Disk Management.

Do you see that drive here?

[cradl]

Nothing just my drive