System files is data, cookies, registry.

Is that mean i am going to loose my programs installed in the hard drive ?

Is there any way to save it ?

Thanks for your reply

If it is not your hard drive that crashed (and even then see below) you can hook the hard drive up to another computer to recover your files and transfer to an external drive. If you don't have another computer - any reputable computer repair shop can do it for you.

Even if your hard drive crashed - data can still be recovered, although it can be very expensive - talk to a computer repair shop.

Regaeds.

A GA for proper answer.

I add:

Remember to change the link on HD from master to SLAVE.

Hi to all

My computer crashed (when it starts it goes to DOS mode and does not want to go to windows ) and am forced to reinstall windows xp on the same hard drive but I am going to loose very valuable programs and data because i did not make backup since long time ago.

windows asks during re-installation that i have an option to keep the system files as it was. Is that it is going to keep my programs and data as it is or the system files is something else.

Thanks for help

A program call ERD Commander 2005 by a company called Winternals allows for repair and recovery of data in a lot of instances.

I have seen it in action, simply brilliant.

Microsoft Acquired Winternals on July 17, 2006 and I'm not sure what has happened since.

It would be highly likely that someone may be selling their licence for it on eBay.

hi...

as u said u didnt restore your data from long ago. so dont worry u will retain your data back , which is stored in other drives, except for local drive(c:\),for case if u install the new fresh copy of OS.

If u have any valuable data in the local drive,i.e, c: drive and if u want to retain those data, then follows these step.

* never ever try to format the local drive while u were installing the OS ( there will be a option to format during the OS installation ) if u do so , then u cant restore the data.

* while installing the OS in the dos mode, either go for "repair the OS" option , which will only repair all the dll file n system32 files.

* or either u can go for "install a fresh copy of OS" , mean while u should go for the option 'keep the system files as it is'. so later u can see in local drive, there will be a folder by name "old windows", there u will get your data.

i suggest u ,go for option 'repair the OS', restore all the data, which are in the local drive.

one more thing i would like to mention , while installing the OS dont merge the local drive with other drives, if u do so , u will lose the data in the other drives also.

If you dont copy the files by hooking it to a windows drive as a slave then download R-Undelete 3.5 or similar . Run it in the other drive and let it Scan the lost drive. I lost 3 drives and it did the job well. Paul Naude - Durban - South Africa

You may not loose your programme if you do maintanance wizard using Xp/ser.2 CD.

System files are the files that the operating system uses to run your computer hardware. It is not possible to retain your personal files if you choose to format during the process of re-installing XP,but you could save your files by choosing the repair option during XP re-installation.

Good luck,man

You only give fragmentary infos, so do not expect anything fantastic from us...

Was your data on another partition?

Was your data on another partition on another drive?

Do you have system restore enabled?

Save any data by downloading (on another PC) a copy of Knoppix from the web or a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD (both free). Burn it onto a CD and use it to boot.

Use a separate Hard Drive new or external USB hard drive or CDs/DVDs to save your important data to.

Then use the Linux programs to see if a virus has caused the problem, or it just a windows problem. There are some repair tools on both CDs....

Assuming no more viruses and System restore was enabled, boot and select a previous system restore and if you are lucky, all will be well again.

Try a windows repair from the windows CD....it works sometimes.....

If system restore was not enabled, then you will probably have to reformat and re-install XP, make sure you have all your software on install disks with a copy of any passwords required and go from there. Before doing this, scan the disk for errors and enable S.M.A.R.T. on the disk....

For the future, always have your data on a separate partition(s), preferably on a separate hard disk. Keep data also on a USB disk handy....

Back up regularly. Grandfather, father and son backups....to CD or DVD.

Run good antivirus software always.

Have a software and a hardware Firewall always.

Use Dr Web each week.

Defrag each week.

Do not visit dangerous web sites.....

Best wishes.

Hi Andy,

Some good ideas, but most people IMO want all the space on C: drive so that they don't run out of space and don't have to worry about multiple drives.

Copying files from DOS will not work well for XP files because of the filename length. The filenames will be truncated, but will still be there, but shortcuts will not work because of the name changes.

I have started putting all of my files under the backup directory, because windows leaves them alone there and because it is convenient to back them up on another networked computer. I also use a flash drive and sometimes a CD.

What is Dr. Web?

-S

You can copy with certain later versions of DOS including long file names, (you can with the old one if you know what you are doing) but the Linux method works best.....and is the easiest....all the needed tools on one bootable CD. If you have never tried it (or not had the need!) you have missed something....

I simply don't agree at all with your first sentence, you are misleading yourself and anyone who believes you.........if space is a problem one should buy a bigger separate Hard disk. One of the basic rules of PCs is not to have your data and programs in the same partition, much much better on separate drives.

Separate disks means copying and many other functions work far quicker and when rebuilding the system disk, one can also pull the power from the other drive for total safety....

Hard disks are so cheap today, its silly doing anything less. I can buy a 1 Terabyte drive for €99,- here in Germany, 500 GB for €49,95........

Even my 650 GB 4 drive RAID system, is at last after 6 years, starting to look long in the tooth.....!

I will say it once more, even putting the data in the backup directory, if on the same drive as Windows, is dangerous....at best a stop gap for a short time only....

One should study how professional storage specialists work and advise their customers.....on how to store data safely.....its the same job whether a small PC or a large network!!

If you are at the DOS prompt then plug in an external drive in the USB port and copy all files to external drive.

Do you remember the commands for using DOS?

Chances are that the OS was corrupted or a sector on the drive went bad. I have saved many drives by just coping the data off and then reinstalling the drive.

You should be able from the c:\ prompt, look at all your data and the subdirectories.

Just move them to the external drive with the copy command and install the windows and reinstall the programs and move the data back to the c:\ drive.

Its a great idea as long as you are really good with DOS commands. If not, may I say don`t......sorry to all concerned......

Knoppix or the UBCD are much more user friendly......and have a similar build to the way windows works....even though they are Unix of course.....

Hello zacky,

Sorry to hear of your problems.

As has been said, you did not give enough info' for us to help you correctly. There is some 'guests' who have tried to give advice but, it is a little 'garbled' and not easily understood.

I am going to make an assumption you have one drive only, and one partion on that drive...............

If you are taken direct to a DOS screen, you cannot really save anything. You need to give us more info so we can get you past the DOS screen, and back to the normal desktop, to allow you to sort things out and then perhaps save things.

If you have one disk with one partition even is you had backed your stuff up, it would be wiped as you reinstalled.

Some really good advice from RicinCindi and Andy. I have not had the chance to do as RicinCindi says, but I am sure it has to be worth a try, when the alternative is to loose everything on your 'C' disk?

bb bb

Yes, it can definately keep all your programs and data files which are not part of windows program.

I did it myself once and it worked well. XP is already a smart program to do that so you have no worries as long as you follow and read all the questions as you go along.

Make sure you have a genuine windows copy because after it goes on line and sees that it isn't then it won't do the update but rather gives you a sorry....warning.

If you need to reinstall, check leave system files. After your installation open Documents and Settings. all your old setting such as desktop, favorites appl. data etc. is there. Most of it can be copied. I use thunderbird & firefox and on new install i can retrive all my profiles and saved emails.

All other data you should have saved in files seperate from windows and they will still be there.

Do not reinstall XP until you've copy whatever you need from the drive first. Ask you friends, co-workers to see if anyone know enough to help you.

I've just had to do a similar with my home PC after a motherboard failure. I rebuilt the PC but couldn't get XP to boot because of all of the different hardware so I reinstalled XP but did not use the default install location. This meant that my original 'My Documents' & other data files were still available & could be copied to the new XP locations. I've had to reinstall all of my programmes & this overwrites the data in 'program files' but most of my programmes remember their settings I guess because this is stored in a separate file which is not overwritten in the install.

Thanks for help

I went yesterday to a repair shop, they put a special CD in , and issued a lengthy DOS command and the computer returned back to Windows mode.

Thanks all for your help.

Is any instructions availlable about how to use KNOPPIX ?

If you had tried it, you would realize that its 99% intuitive.....instructions are not really needed....UBCD is even easier I have heard said....