[wannabe1]

Has your machine turned off like this before tonight?

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Yes about 4 or 5 times....I keep redoing the 6 floppy disk thingys... I am doing it again

[tanamarie]

Yes about 4 or 5 times....I keep redoing the 6 floppy disk thingys... I am doing it again

[wannabe1]

I mean before tonight...like in the last week or so?

[tanamarie]

no.
it started today


I am at fixmbr again and im going to tell it yes.

[tanamarie]

somethig differnet just happend I put fixmbr in there and i saw the compaq sign for a second then it said
non-system disk or disk error replace and press any key when ready

[wannabe1]

Pull the floppy disk out and tap the spacebar once.

[tanamarie]

All I care about are pictures on this computer... I am not even sure if they are salvagable at this point. The only reason I have not used the recovery cd is for one, i didnt want to loose them but mostly when we put it in the computer it would say that windows 32 whatever couldnt be found. I dont know what to do....

[tanamarie]

OK. so I just put the recovery cd in, let the computer try to start...there was a status bar at the bottom that looked like it may have moved ONCE, then it said that same paragraph agaihn about windows could not start because windows'\system32\config\system was corrupt or missing.

and to try to repair it with the set up cd rom.....

we have tried that all day, doesnt work...

[wannabe1]

Ok...last resort time.

If this doesn't start the machine, the only option I know of to get the data off is to install a new hard drive and connect this one as a slave. Then you can get your images after installing the operating system on the new drive. Or...install this drive as a slave on another machine and pull the data that way. You can then wipe the drive to rid it of errors and start with a clean install.

Anyway....boot back to Recovery Console.

At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines exactly as they are below, pressing ENTER after you type each line:

md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.

Let me know how this goes.

[tanamarie]

ok but "boot back to recovery console" means put the 6 floppy disks in and go to repair, right? I hope so, because its the only way I get anywhere and even then my friggn computer turns off. I might take the back off before i do this so the fan can blow on it... but tell me if thats where "recovery console" is first.

[wannabe1]

Yes...exactly.

I"m still leaning toward the partition being hidden, so I'm not so sure this is going to get us anywhere. I'll be doing a little research on unhiding partitions and see what I can come up with.

Let me know if you are even able to replace the registry hives.

[tanamarie]

I put all the discs in... hit r for repair and then it said the same thing about a bad disc and to hit any key bla bla bla....so I didnt even get a chance to type anything.

[tanamarie]

Im tryinng one more time before I go to bed.

[wannabe1]

Ok...give it another try.

About the only thing I have left to try on this will destroy all the data on the drive. AND, at this point, I'm not so sure just how healthy this drive is. There is a good possibility that the HDD has failed.

I'll let you make the call knowing that 1) All data will be lost and 2) No guarantee of success.

What I have in mind is to completely wipe the drive clean using another method (fdisk) and then run the recovery on the raw drive. If the HDD is healthy, this should get the operating system back on the machine. If the drive is failing or has failed, well...I think you know the answer to that one.

[tanamarie]

does it make sense for it to say that the file could not be copied? I put md tmp in first and hit enter then i thought i messed it up so i went back and did it again...it said that a directory or file with the name already exists...then i typed the next one and it said it could not be copied... I thought I might have typed it incorrectly so i tried it agaijn paying attention to spaces etc. and it said the file could not be copied....