Recover XP data onto USB?

[caddmannq]

Hey folks,

I have a Dell with Win XP Home on it, and it's having some problems booting.

There's data that the user needs which is not backed up.

I'd like to boot from a XP CD & copy this data off onto an external USB HDD.

Is there any way to do this? Or am I stuck copying to 100 floppies?

It has a CD & also a cd burner. Any way to burn the data off?

[RicheemxX]

I doubt the xp cd would have driver support for a usb hdd! and it wouldn't support cd burning! you could use knoppix or some other live distro that would run straight from a cd to try it. You could also pull the drive and slave it to another computer.

[caddmannq]

I'm afraid to put the drive in another PC. It might have a boot sector virus.

If I run "fixboot", then the drive logs OK from the recovery console, otherwise not.

Even after fixboot it won't run safe mode correctly.

I'm afraid to run mbr & hose the whole drive.

[paul9]

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...6-5928902.html
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keat...ia-usb-key.asp

Those two articles are about booting XP from an USB stick. Maybe that would be worth your looking into?

[caddmannq]

I'll give it a look.

[draboo]

Hi,Cadd. Good to see ya. Been awhile.

We have a WD 250gig usb external drive that we plug into either of our machines when backup is needed. Wifes puter has XP home on it,and mine has xp pro. We never had any trouble using it on either machine. Works real well with usb2.

[caddmannq]

Hey thanks guys. Yeah, long time no see. Being the mod at Motorcycle-USA keeps me pretty busy, though I have managed to set up a couple new PC's at home, and put in all new XP machines at our office too.

Anyhow, I did an install of XP Pro over the install of XP Home, and I got the Dell to boot. I started data recovery to CD, & after one disk the burner crapped out.

Sheeesh!

More fun tomorrow.

[caddmannq]

I finally did get the USB drive to work, and backed up to it, after the CD burner croaked. In order to get the machine to boot again, though, I had to run install XP Pro over it again. Once it had booted the USB worked immediately. No fuss at all & I managed to save all the data.

The HDD is still smooth & quiet though, so I think it can be saved. Now that I have the data, I'll run MBRFIX & see what happens

[SD-Life]

Quote:

Originally Posted by caddmannq

I finally did get the USB drive to work, and backed up to it, after the CD burner croaked. In order to get the machine to boot again, though, I had to run install XP Pro over it again. Once it had booted the USB worked immediately. No fuss at all & I managed to save all the data.

The HDD is still smooth & quiet though, so I think it can be saved. Now that I have the data, I'll run MBRFIX & see what happens

If you're risking using a previously borked drive - I would highly recommend running SpinRite on it - it has the effect of re-writing/reinforcing the magnetic positioning of the bits on the HDD media. I've used it as part of my arsenal for over 10 years, and run it on all my drives.

Totally non-destructive ! It has an extremely intense test function that first removes the data from the magnetic bits, test the hell out of the bit (and in the process, re-writes that bits' magnetic location) then re-deposits the data back to the bit if it is working. Some may use it as part of a data recovery operation, but I just use it as preventative maintenance and on any drives I've worked on or installed.

It sure can't hurt to refresh the magnetic domains to maximize the chance of proper disc reads

I actually use other programs for Data Recovery - but I've love the programs’ author as much as St Norton saving my bacon back in 286/386 days. Not shilling for SpinRite, but it has proved invaluable for moi and Steve has done an excellent job keeping it updated and relevant.

SpinRite Info