I have a Dell Dimension E520, which won’t boot to Windows (Vista), as
described in the following thread:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...2b8e92&lc=1033

I have given up trying to repair Vista, but now I would like to back up the
data on the drive before doing a clean install.

I have mounted the HD in a working XP box and tried to backup the contents
with Norton Ghost 2003 and Acronis True Image 11 Home. Neither Application
can back up the Documents and Settings folder.



If Vista fails both to load and to repair itself, as described in the
thread, how are users supposed to retrieve their data safely?

Jonno wrote:

(snippage)

> I have given up trying to repair Vista, but now I would like to back up
> the data on the drive before doing a clean install.
>
> I have mounted the HD in a working XP box and tried to backup the contents
> with Norton Ghost 2003 and Acronis True Image 11 Home. Neither
> Application can back up the Documents and Settings folder.
>
> If Vista fails both to load and to repair itself, as described in the
> thread, how are users supposed to retrieve their data safely?

1. How about restoring files about from backups? Oh, don't have backups? I
guess that's Vista's fault, hmmmm?

2. Are you trying to image the drive? If so, do it from outside of Windows.
Make the bootable True Image CD and boot with it. Make the image and store
it on - obviously - a hard drive that is different from the target drive.

3. Or just copy the data from within Windows. You don't say what happens
when you try but if you're getting "access denied" errors you can either
take ownership of the files or boot with a Live Linux CD such as Knoppix
and get the files that way. Note that this won't work if you actually
encrypted the files. If you did, I hope you backed up your encryption keys.

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm


Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

http://www.knoppix.net/

Above is the knoppix Live CD link.
Make a boootable Cd from the downloaded ISO file.
It does not install on your Hard drive, but uses your RAM and Graphics to
read Windows Files.
Copy them to a Flash Drive.
--
Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia


"Jonno" wrote:

> I have a Dell Dimension E520, which won’t boot to Windows (Vista), as
> described in the following thread:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/communities...2b8e92&lc=1033
>
> I have given up trying to repair Vista, but now I would like to back up the
> data on the drive before doing a clean install.
>
> I have mounted the HD in a working XP box and tried to backup the contents
> with Norton Ghost 2003 and Acronis True Image 11 Home. Neither Application
> can back up the Documents and Settings folder.
>
> If Vista fails both to load and to repair itself, as described in the
> thread, how are users supposed to retrieve their data safely?
>

Thanks for the thought Colin.

I have since done a clean install on a new drive and mounted the old drive
as Drive 2. Having taken ownership of the old disk, all the data in user
docs seems to be readable and intact.

I've returned the box to its owner, so I am unable to do no further research
on it.

And I've shown them how to use Vista backup and Acronis. So hopefully they
will avoid the same mess in the future.

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

> "Jonno" <Jonno@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:63C261F1-DFE1-4FF3-84BE-0B91ABC16B7C@xxxxxx

> >I have a Dell Dimension E520, which won’t boot to Windows (Vista), as
> > described in the following thread:
> >
> > http://www.microsoft.com/communities...2b8e92&lc=1033
> >
> > I have given up trying to repair Vista, but now I would like to back up
> > the
> > data on the drive before doing a clean install.
> >
> > I have mounted the HD in a working XP box and tried to backup the contents
> > with Norton Ghost 2003 and Acronis True Image 11 Home. Neither
> > Application
> > can back up the Documents and Settings folder.
> >
> > If Vista fails both to load and to repair itself, as described in the
> > thread, how are users supposed to retrieve their data safely?
> >

>
> Because what you are describing sounds like a hard drive issue, not Vista.
> Can you run the hard drive mfg's drive test program while the drive is
> connected to the XP box?
>