Dell XP Home Install Problem

W

Wingy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Messages
1,294
I'm workin on a friends dell, with XP Home on it. Something happened to it, something bad lol.. They brought it to me to try and fix.

When I try to boot into windows, I get to the point where I can login with the passwords they gave me, and I do so. The Wall paper loads, but nothing else. Explorer doesn't seem to load. I can bring up the Task Manager, and when I try to start explorer from there, it tells me it can't run it for some reason. It does that will all programs.

I wanted to just copy thier data to my machine, reformat, then copy thier data back, but my problem is, I can't access thier data from my machine, because when I access thier hard drive, then go into thier private folders, it denies access cuz they had thier accounts passworded.

Safe Mode boots the same way as normal.

Anybody have an advice?
 
so why not just do a repair installation.. their data remains safe but windows reloaded. you'll at least be able to get their data ( in a perfect world) .

and if they are password protected.. you've got the passwords???
 
S1nF1xx said:
You have to take ownership of the folders and files on that hard drive. Then you can copy them off.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

. ;)
Click to expand...

^ generally after you disable simple file sharing 1st ;)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307874

and unless of course they are actually encrypted (w\ EFS) in which case you need to slavage the certificates
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prnb_efs_syyl.asp



have you tried working with the recovery console?
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
have you tested the HDD itself? (by implication it running in your box is a good start)


what were the symptoms before the OS seized?
hardware changed? New software installed? gradual slowdown? Signs of infection?
 
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