XP just kicked my butt...

[KINGOFOOTBALL33]

Ok 2 days ago i was noticing how slow my pc was running so i decided to run norton system works.. When it started "optimizing" my C drive it froze i rebooted and havent been able to get to desktop since.

Itll boot up go through the initial XP loading screen then pause.......quickly flash a blue screen and restart a menu will ask if i want to start in safe mode S.M with networking, Or last known good config. Ive tried all of them to no avail.
i got a quick enough glimpse of the blue screen to see it said "systemroot/system32/config/software"
Proceeding with memory dump...

I added a new partition with a disk and installed a new xp in it so i can move some files onto my data partition.

I would just format and reinstall but I want to save my IE faves and theres a bunch of stuff i had stored in "desktop" folders i cant ... Any help you guys can give is appreciated.

[fatboyjim]

Copy the favorites from c:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Favorites and the Desktop from c:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Desktop

Or is that not possible...?

Jim

[KINGOFOOTBALL33]

acces denied to the username folder.=-(

[fatboyjim]

Shove in your XP CD ROM and boot from it, run a repair on your installation, make sure it doesn't try to format your drive and reinstall, as this would of course wipe all of your data

Jim

[KINGOFOOTBALL33]

I just did but i dunno how to complete it..

I boot from cd goto system repair by pressing R
it then asks me which drive do i want to acces i select C..
It asks for ad. password i dont think i ever put one so i just left blank and pressed enter... It then leaves me with c:windows

I dont know what command to type in.

[fatboyjim]

OK, what you did there was repair via the Recovery Console, that's not what you want to do (too difficult )

You want to select an Automatic Repair

Jim

[andyms18a]

at the first screan chose install then press f8 to except the licence then at the next screan chose repair

[not important]

Go to Bios
Switch the primary boot to CD Rom
Load XP CD
Let CD start as if it is new install
At the "Welcome to Setup" screen DO NOT choose to repair windows using "Recovery Console"
Instead, press ENTER to start the Windows setup
When you come to screen that lists your current Windows install, select it from list and press "R" key to start repair.

[KINGOFOOTBALL33]

Hey guys i just wanted to follow up..

Ok none of the xp recovery did anything. I tried numerous times but there was always something missing or windows failed to initialize.. I then went back and reformatted the c drive reinstalled windows...

Somehow my E partition which had all the docs in it ended up as "raw" and i couldnt get those files back =-(... After some searching my freind suggested and gave me EASY RECOVERY .. I managed to get everything back !!!! WOOHOOOOOO.....

So thanks alot for your help im actually needing to back up all the files i just recovered but now xp doesnt want to detect my Cd drive... but i thats a hard ware question..
Thanks for your help guys i learned a few things along the way.