 OH DEAR! Changed drive letter! |
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 Jan 3 2005, 03:00 PM
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Member  Group: Members Posts: 20 Joined: 20-December 04 Member No.: 7,510  |
A while ago, while putting second HD in, my computer decided to assign my main drive to letter F. I recently wondered if I could change this back to C. I found the garb on the net and did so. NOW IT WON'T BOOT!!!! HELP!!! Is there anything I can do????? It starts to boot but gets to a screen that has the windows logo and says Microsoft Windows XP but won't go beyond this. Normally it would bring up the user names from where I would log on. It has been F for a while now and I presume everything will be configured for F NOT C. I have installed XP onto a spare HD and from there tried to change the drive back to F but it still won't boot. I ran repair from the setup cd and it reads this disc as now being D!!!! IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO SAVE IT!!!???? ALL and any help much appreciated. Phil |
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Jan 3 2005, 03:57 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 20 Joined: 20-December 04 Member No.: 7,510 |
nothing I am trying seems to work.
Can someone tell if it is possible to re-install XP "over the top" so I keep all my data, outlook mails, programmes, documents, favourites etc etc??? I don't mind doing this if I can keep my data. Phil |
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Jan 3 2005, 04:41 PM
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 Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 307 Joined: 16-November 04 From: Queensland, Australia. Member No.: 5,292 |
QUOTE A while ago, while putting second HD in, my computer decided to assign my main drive to letter F. I recently wondered if I could change this back to C. I found the garb on the net and did so. NOW IT WON'T BOOT!!!! HELP!!! Is there anything I can do????? Hi caton_phil, This may sound like a silly question but have you tried reversing what you did step by step ? -------------------- JTH
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Jan 3 2005, 05:01 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 20 Joined: 20-December 04 Member No.: 7,510 |
I would like to but I cannot boot into that operating system. I poreume I need to actually be in that system. I have tried assigning it back to F while running it as a slave after installing XP onto the spare HD I had. But doing that has made no difference.
I am at present trying to reinstall on top but that isn't going so well  Phil |
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Jan 3 2005, 06:57 PM
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 Feed me some spyware!  Group: Banned Posts: 4,557 Joined: 18-July 04 From: USA Ware Shoals SC Member No.: 1,500 |
Try this hit the F8 key non stop fast so maybe you could boot into safe mode....
Tell us if that works...... |
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Jan 4 2005, 12:40 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 20 Joined: 20-December 04 Member No.: 7,510 |
NO!!!!
As I said, I decided to try to reinstall over the top. But this is not working and seems to have buggered everything up. The reinstall copies all the files and goes through the first reboot. It then says it needs the "asms" file from XP service pack 1 disc, gives a strange path in the box, and even when I point it to the disc drive it won't load. I cannot get beyond this and so even trying to boot into safe mode now it tells me that reinstall cannot continue in safe mode. That is all it tries to do now, when I try booting, it just tries to carry on the install but hangs at the same place. I can see the drive and access it as a slave. Is there anyway I can save info. this way???. Trouble is I cannot, by this method, access all the My Documents files, all the ones I want, by this method. Phil |
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Jan 5 2005, 05:09 PM
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Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 307 Joined: 16-November 04 From: Queensland, Australia. Member No.: 5,292 |
phil,
Not sure what has happened here.......but I think it's because you have run another install and it has hung after half way through and you have hit the reset or shutdown button and tried to start again it is now corrupt. I had this happen to me a while ago and had to format the H/D to get it back. You could try to set it up as a slave and run a search from the start menu on the slave drive for a "wab" file. This is your address book and it will be the "wab.exe" file If it finds that let me know and we will try and recover the rest. Good luck -------------------- JTH
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Jan 5 2005, 05:31 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 20 Joined: 20-December 04 Member No.: 7,510 |
Thanks Jack, but it is too late now. I have formatted the disc and reinstalled XP. My address book will now be lost
. If only I had known that before. I did search the net and found reference to .pst files being associated with Outlook. I serched for these with the drive running as slave and found two.pst files and saved these. Not sure what will be there, or how to reintegrate them back into Outlook on my fresh install. Will see. ALSO, I did manage to save all the files I couldn't access, by going into safe mode and resetting the access to files in Documents and Settings. I couldn't see them because they would have been in my profile and only available to me. So not a complete disaster. Good lesson though. Don't mess about in the registry unless you really have to. The old adage holds good. IF IT 'AINT BROKE DON'T FIX IT.  Phil |
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Jan 5 2005, 05:48 PM
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 Forum Regular Group: Members Posts: 332 Joined: 27-June 04 From: Directly above the center of the Earth Member No.: 1,032 |
To get them back into outlook go to File - Import and Export - Import From Another Program or File. Click on Next, then choose Personal Folder File (.pst), Next and then browse to where you stored the files you recovered. Choose Next again, then choose the location you them to go to (be sure to select include subfolders). Then hit finish and it will import your files.
Since you learned the lesson of backing up your important files the hard way, you might want to install this add-in from M$. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads It makes backing up your outlook files as simple as a couple of clicks from your file menu and you can choose the location you want to backup to. I use this to back them up to a location that is easy to get to, and then back them up to a disk regularly. Sorry about your problems, hope you recover your data. Goodluck. -------------------- |
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