please help! ASAP windows xp

[rnawky]

ok, to make a long story short, i tried to install linux but failed. the boot loader got messed up and i couldent boot up in XP anymore. i have 2 80Gb HDD's with windows XP on 1 and i (tried) to install linux on the other. I put in the windows xp cd and tried to do a recovery in the recovery console; that didnt work. then i tried to repair windows installation, that didnt work, i still got the linux boot loader. so then i installed windows xp on my 2nd hdd. that worked, i then saw 2 windows xp on the OS selection list. i continued with the install and booted up ok.

I was able to get some of my files back but not most of them. I restarted and selected the other Windows XP. it continued with the repair, but didnt go anywhere; it just said 39 min remaining and ran through all the "Tips" i guess there called. So i figured maby something bad happened when i installed the other XP, so I booted up with the windows cd again and did a repair on Windows XP (the first one). It was hanging at "Saving Configuration" but eventually (after about 10 min) it restarted and continued with the recover. i then sat at the windows xp setup screen for about 30 min with nothing happening other than the "Tips" rotating and the progress bar with the 5 squares that light up green.

Can anyone out there help me with this? I need to get my files off of my C: and I obviousally cant access them through the 2nd XP installation because windows encripts them i guess.

-Ryan

[Scrubby]

You should be able to get them(files) still. I remember using 98 to grab files from my second OS installation (Win XP) on the same HD.

[rnawky]

nope, I get an Access Denied message

[rnawky]

I let the repair sit over night and heres what i got when i woke up.

Fatal error
An error has been encountered that prevents setup from continuing

setup failed to install the porduct catalog. This is a fatal error. the setup log file should contain more infromation

Press OK to view the setup Log file

Heres some of the log file

Error:

setup had problems registering the following OLE controll DLL

C:\windows\system32\inipki.dll

Contact your system administrator, who may provide assistance in diagnosing this problem

xxx

Warning:
Setup failed to remove the product catalog SP1.CAT

xxx

Warning:
Setup failed to remove the product catalog SP2.CAT

xxx

(Then it said it couldent remove a bunch of ther catalogs)

xxx

Error:
The signiture for windows xp professional upgrade is invalid. the error code is 726

the service has not started

PLEASE i need help

[Marco]

To fix the boot loader you should get into the recovery console and type "FIXMBR". That usually works.

[Scott MacVicar]

Was it Fedora Core 2 per chance?

[rnawky]

no, your dont understand, i tixed the bootloader by installing windows xp on my 2nd hdd where linux was. but before that I tried to do a recovery on my 1st installation.the recover hangs.

[Floris]

Is this XP home or Pro ?

Make sure you are logged in as user 'Administrator' - as that user you can get ownership of directories, etc again.

[rnawky]

its XP pro. but im on a different installation of xp on another hdd. so when i go to access my files, it says access denied.

[BlueFlame]

Surely its Denied because your GUID changes, even though the UserName is still the same

[Floris]

Exactly, which is why I posted to make sure you are logged in as the administrator account and then take ownership of the other files.

[UHN_ED]

You should have searched google before you tried to do anything once the bootloader got messed up. It is very very easy to fix.

That said, Windows does not encrypt files on the C drive. Since it seems that you are at least familar with Linux, use Knoppix.

Boot into Knoppix, and copy the files from one drive to the other. You will have to mount them correctly. If you want to copy into an NTFS formatted drive then it will be harder, as Linux can not write to it. There is a tool for Linux that will let you; if you can not find it then resize the NTFS partition on either drive and make a FAT32 one, Linux can resize NTFS partitions. You can use the working Windows to copy from the FAT32 to the proper places then use whatever you want to either reformat that partiton or make it only one again.

[Matthew Gordon]

If you want to copy into an NTFS formatted drive then it will be harder, as Linux can not write to it. There is a tool for Linux that will let you; if you can not find it then resize the NTFS partition on either drive and make a FAT32 one, Linux can resize NTFS partitions.

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

Included in Knoppix 3.4.