Hi

i am trying to recover my system. My system's registry has been destroyed/corrupted. Now new installation of 2k asks 4 recover data or new setup. How can we recover our data after asking this??
If I run new setup then all files in My Documents and Desktop will be removed. How can I save this??

If these files are removed by new installation then how can we get these files again. Coz I installed all my files in D:/, the same drive in which the windows was installed.
Would i have to reinstall all s/w??

Originally Posted by anujgarg

Hi

i am trying to recover my system. My system's registry has been destroyed/corrupted. Now new installation of 2k asks 4 recover data or new setup. How can we recover our data after asking this??
If I run new setup then all files in My Documents and Desktop will be removed. How can I save this??

If these files are removed by new installation then how can we get these files again. Coz I installed all my files in D:/, the same drive in which the windows was installed.
Would i have to reinstall all s/w??

Hi,

This is one of those questions which is truly difficult to answer on several levels. Much can go wrong with a system in this state, and there are few Windows tools which can accurately get your data moved or backed-up once you are here. I did run across a rather cool tool for this however. It is called Linux.

Now, don't get your collar up yet, hear me out. There is a Linux distribution out called Knoppix. What makes this distribution different from the hoards of others, is its designed to run completely from the CD ROM, with no hard disk installation required. This gives you complete access to your hard disk, so that you are able to move files from one directory to another on your drive, or even burn them to a second CD ROM.

After downloading the distro from http://www.knoppix.org/ , create a Bootable CD ROM from the files (instructions on how to do this are on their website), then place the CD ROM in your ailing Win2k machine and boot to the CD ROM. Knoppix will scan your hardware, adjust itself to your system and boot up, giving you a multitude of tools to access your drive, copy or backup your files, and then shut the machine down.

Once you have backed up your system, then re-install Win2k and you will have a nice clean installation, and all of your old data.

Another very cool functionality (which has saved my bacon more than once) is that Knoppix will also allow you Internet and FTP access to your local or external network. So if you don't have a second CD Burner drive, then you can always FTP your files to another machine or server.

While Knoppix isn't for day to day use, it is an incredible recovery tool, giving you access to data when other options are not available.

Good luck with your recovery.

Glenn Hefley

Originally Posted by anujgarg

Hi

i am trying to recover my system. My system's registry has been destroyed/corrupted. Now new installation of 2k asks 4 recover data or new setup. How can we recover our data after asking this??
If I run new setup then all files in My Documents and Desktop will be removed. How can I save this??

If these files are removed by new installation then how can we get these files again. Coz I installed all my files in D:/, the same drive in which the windows was installed.
Would i have to reinstall all s/w??

A Repair Install should maintain your programs and data as seen here:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/wind...pair/index.htm

You should still back up any important data which you can do with Knoppix or physically move the hard drive to another computer and extract the data.

If you want to try Knoppix you will need an ISO burner. There is a free one here if you need it:

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

There is a brief article on Knoppix on the D-A-L website here : http://www.d-a-l.com/articles/library/80.html

As well as an article on backups here : http://www.d-a-l.com/articles/library/82.html

I have had good luck in the past with XP not deleting the My Documents and Desktop areas, but Win2k always took them out on re-install.

If I were in your position (which I have been several times) I would do the complete re-install. That's just my preference. Recovery never seems to bring the system back to "stable". There is always some glitch.

Oh, ... and yes, you will have to reinstall all of your other software since the registry was corrupted.

Good luck! Plan on about 4 to 5 hours. Disks only copy so fast.

Glenn

If you have programs that were OEM without having the disks to reinstall a Repair Install would be your first best bet.

You would then have access to these programs to retrieve any data you wish.

If afterwards you feel that a full install is needed you can always do that afterwards.

After a Clean Install you would need all Program disks in order to reinstall.

In many cases Office is loaded onto 2k at an OEM level.

If you do not own the Office disks you will lose Office.




.