DOS prompt from xp startup?

[jimbop]

Hi there

I am trying to get to a dos command prompt before xp starts up and can't seem to do so. My computer wont boot up no matter what option i press at the xp startup screen. I want to copy some word documents onto floppy in DOS before i reformat. Any ideas anyone?

cheers

[paul9]

start>run, then type cmd into the box that pops up. this will give you a dos box. there is no real dos installed with windows xp. you could put www.freedos.org onto a boot floppy or boot cd, but then you need to include a ntfs filesystem reader.

[originel]

do a google search for "ultimate boot cd". follow the instructions it gives and create the cd. it has some dos and linux utils on it that will allow you to save files from an ntfs drive.

alternatively you can put the windows xp cd in your drive and boot from it and select "recovery console". it will give you a command prompt.

[jimbop]

Thanks for the replies

i tried the recovery console but the prompt doesn't seem to allow u to search elsewhere, ie into my documents to copy a word folder to a floppy. I was thinking for perhaps making an xp startup disk on a mates comp than using it to get in to windows?

cheers

[John Prophet]

sometimes what you have to do is take your hard drive to a friends computer that has xp...put your drive in his as a second drive and coipy the data off of it

I am thinking that the recovery console wont let you copy files to a floppy....that is a security thing

[John Prophet]

there are utilities to allow you to read and copy ntfs files from DOS

http://www.bootdisk.com/readntfs.htm

[Simbiant4]

Bart PE is a nice utility/boot cd program I use to get rid of nasty spyware that sneaks in, it boots from cd and allows ntfs browsing, uses xp startup files and depending on your install you might need the xp cd to make the bart pe boot cd.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

[Xtreeme]

The ultimate boot disk Rules all! It has barts dos boot disc in it. Plus formating tools- linux start up discs. Disc wipe programs. You name it.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4019.html

[jimbop]

Appreciate the help folks, will give them a go tonight and see how i go.
cheers

[DrDave1958]

One more thing before you re-format. I have done this on three occasions. Slave your hard drive into another machine running XP Pro (I don't know if it works on Home version), and restart the computer.
The 3 times I've done this where the hard drive wouldn't boot, the healthy machine running Pro has run a checkdisk at startup and fixed the ailing hard drive. Poof, just like magic! If you see this checkdisk utility run, then shutdown and put your hard drive back in your machine and see if it will boot. Worth a try.

-Dave-

[jimbop]

I was running the ultimate boot disk, but whenever i select one of the programmes on it (eg bart PE etc) the freedos would begin, then i get this error message:

BIOS reported 0 sectors/track, assuming 63!
illegal partition table - drive 01 sector 0

This repeats 4 times and the comp hangs.

Any ideas as to repair this as all i want to do is copy some docs from my documents before i reformat?

cheers again

[paul9]

try a knoppix cd, or try drdave's suggestion.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Try this:

Hard Drive Data Recovery Software. NTFS Reader for DOS NTFS DOS


Bill