DO NOT DELETE/FORMAT YOUR FILES!


If your computer boots up, but the Operating System is kaput, YOUR DATA IS STILL SAFE.
I have a solution to your problem.

What you can do to save your data, is run a live CD of a Linux Distribution. It's totally free (legally). All you need is a blank CD (and a CD/DVD burner, standard on most computers since 2003), removable media (flash drive), and an .iso burner (free as well, read on).

Download an .iso burner and the .iso of puppy linux.
http://www.puppylinux.org/

.iso burners:
http://www.alcohol-soft.com/
http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/ (hit "free version")

Open the .iso burner and choose "Make CD from Image". It will ask you for an .iso, pick the puppy linux ISO and wait for it to be burned.
Once the CD is done, you need to set your computer to boot from the CD (not the hard drive).

Upon startup (before the "Windows" logo), your motherboard undergoes a process called "POST". During this POST period (about four seconds or so), at the bottom of your screen, you should see a "Press X for Setup" and/or "Press Y for Boot Menu".

If you have a boot menu, simply hit the button it asks you for. You will be given a menu of devices in your computer that you can boot from. It should list your hard drive, CD drive, and removable media (flash/floppy drive/disks). At this time, insert your CD of puppy linux into the drive and pick to boot from your CD drive.

If you do not have a Boot Menu:
If you do not have a "Press Y for Boot Menu", enter your setup. You are now in your BIOS. There should be tabs at the top that you can navigate through with the keyboard. They always call them different things, look for "Boot Order", or generally just anything that lists "Hard Drive, CD drive, etc". Switch the CD drive to be above the hard drive. At this time open your CD drive and insert the CD of puppy. There should be a dialog at the lower part of the screen saying "Press X to Save and Exit", hit that key. The computer will reboot and start linux instead of your Windows. I wish I could give you a specific key to hit, but every motherboard manufacturer is different. Don't mess around with anything in here besides the boot device order, if you don't know what you are doing in the BIOS you can kill your hardware.

Now puppy will boot. You should see the puppy logo. It will then ask you for a few questions, like what resolution do you want and what type of mouse are you using. The defaults will always work, just pick whatever it lists as default.

Once you boot into puppy's desktop, your hard drive will be in the lower-right corner of the screen. It should be listed as either "sda0" or "hda0". Simply click to open it. Once you click on that icon, a window will pop up. Being here is EXACTLY like being in C:\ in windows. I don't know where you saved your data at. I can however give you a few paths that will help you locate it.

(Vista: C:\Users\ instead of C:\Documents and settings)
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Name)\Documents\ : Is like being in "My Documents".
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Name)\Desktop\ : Is like being on your desktop, only in folder form.
C:\Program Files\

Plug in your flash drive and copy all the data. If it doesn't read it or you can't find it, you can always back it up online. Hit "Connect", and pick "eth0", then hit "Auto DHCP". You can then hit "browse" and go online and back data up onto a site like yousendit.com or rapidshare and write down the link, then access it on your other computer and download it.


If this doesn't work, it's possible (and quite easy) to take the actual hard drive right out of the computer, then put it in another (working) computer. If this linux solution doesn't work, message me back and I can tell you how to do this.

Also, since you said that the computer you are currently on sucks compared to the one you usually use, I can also give you links to an .iso of XP and tell you how to reformat and install it.

Good luck.

oh nice!! this may come in handy for me

o rly

y ?

well if I'm correct...I would be able to retrieve files if ever the OS goes retarded (like some important app won't launch and it crashes the computer upon start up) and whats a little additional information ^w^ like I said this "MAY" come in handy

I want to help OP


;_;

Thanks! It was really helpful. I did have some problems though. A lot of the data I wanted to copy said it was read only and couldn't copy.

I need to know what your fdisk -l output reads. When you are in puppy linux, run the "Console" or "Terminal". It's in the center of the top of the desktop. When you click it a window will pop up that says "rxvt". In this screen type "fdisk -l" (that's, fdisk, minus, lowercase L). Make sure your flash drives are connected before you do this. If you want to copy and paste, connect to here, highlight the output from the console, put the cursor in this journal, and use the middle click on your mouse button to copy (there's no ctrl+c or ctrl+v sorry).

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
225 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1448 11631028+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 1449 38913 300937612+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 14593 117218241 7 HPFS/NTFS

I think this might also be important,

"NTFS WARNING
The ntfs-3g driver was unable to mount the NTFS partition and returned this error message:
Failed to write lock '/dev/sda2': Resource temporarily unavailable
Error opening '/dev/sda2': Resource temporarily unavailable
Failure to mount '/dev/sda2': Resource temporarily unavailable

So, the inbuilt kernel NTFS driver has been used to mount the partition read-only."

What brand of computer was this?

Was it a Hewlett Packard?

When you were in Windows, do you remember having a C:\ and D:\?

Also, how big is your flash drive, or are you using an external hard drive?
Try uploading to www.yousendit.com or www.rapidshare.com and writing down the link for later.
Can you right click on the sda1/sda2 icon, and hit "Change Permissions", and pick "Allow read/write?"
try typing this in the console. (if it asks for permissions, then type "sudo" before all of these)

apt-get install libfuse2
apt-get install ntfs-3g

mkdir /media/windows
mount –t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/windows

mkdir /media/windows2
mount –t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /media/windows2

mkdir /media/flash
mount –t ntfs-3g /dev/sdc1 /media/flash