[davy1031]

I attempted to reinstall Windows XP because of some problems with the system. The installation seemed to have gone ok, except now Windows won't start, it starts in safe mode with this message "Windows XP Setup cannot run under Safemode. Setup will restart now." Clicking ok (the only option) only results in the same situation. Also pressing F8 as the computer is booting up doesn't change anything, except if I select boot mode it gives a lot of errors similar to: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT\System32\Drivers\******.sys

Part of the problem is I haven't done any type of backup for quite a while, and there's a lot of things on the computer that I really don't want to loose. So if possible I really don't want to format it.

Thanks for any help.

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Hi davy1031...

Let's try a parallel install and recover your data files.

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

If you need help with this, post back and I'll walk you through it.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi davy1031...

Let's try a parallel install and recover your data files.

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

If you need help with this, post back and I'll walk you through it.

wannabe1

[davy1031]

Thanks...I wound up panicking and reinstalling Windows on a new partition, which is loading fine.
So (this is probably a very stupid question...but Windows is still installing, so I can't really check myself) is there anyway to get onto the old partition and backup my files from there?
And once I do that I'll format the hardrive and reinstall everything.

Thanks