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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
WinXP Pro Disaster Recovery |
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Well from the title I am sure you can guess this isnt good.
I just recently tried to install a second graphics card in my PC and it completely f&!#$d WinXP to the extent that it wont boot, even in safe mode.
I managed to get into it and found that it had also lost my most important HD partition, which after three evenings of messing around I managed to retreive.
Now my problem is this:
There is a file in a User directory on the original WinXP Pro installation partition, but I cant boot into that partition, so I have to boot into a seperate WinXP installation.
When I boot into the other install, it wont let me access the Users directory because of file permissions.
I can get to the file by booting from the XP CD and getting into recovery mode, but the damn ithing seems to be an ultra light dos mode that doesnt support half the crap I could do in Win9x.
I am trying to copy the contents of the User directory to another drive to I can access it from the other XP installation. But I cant seem to find any command line tools that let me copy all the files/directories recursively. I used to use XCopy in Win9x but this isnt available!
Does anyone know how to do this in the WinXP Pro recovery mode???
Thanks _________________ IMHO my opinion is humble |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 2:48 am |
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jmurdock
Old Fogey
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 1285
Location: the heart of acadiana they like to call it |
Just checked my boyfriend's XP machine and xcopy exists. Could it be in a subdirectory on the XP CD that you haven't looked at? I remember seeing recovery utilities on other win9x CDs left uncompressed so you could use them in just such an emergency. _________________ Just watch out you don't stress yourself out.
REMEMBER... Many saves, many slots!!! |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:35 am |
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hwfanatic
Average Fanatic
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 2850
Location: Belgrade, Serbia |
If you could get your hands on a win98 bootable diskette, it could help, too.
quote:
When I boot into the other install, it wont let me access the Users directory because of file permissions.
Please explain this. |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 8:39 am |
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Myrthos
Spoiler of All Fun
Joined: 07 Jul 2001
Posts: 1926
Location: Holland |
quote: Originally posted by hwfanatic
If you could get your hands on a win98 bootable diskette, it could help, too.
I don't think so, as in all likelyhood Windows XP was installed on an NTFS partition which is not supported by Win98.
As you still have access to the harddisk in recovery mode, the xcopy program is in \windows\system32. You should be able to use that. _________________ Kewl quotes:
I often have an odd sense of humor - Roach
Why quote somebody else, think of something yourself. - XeroX
...you won't have to unbookmark this site, we'll unbookmark you. - Val
Reports Myrthos for making me scared and humbled at the mere sight of his name - kayla |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:17 am |
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hwfanatic
Average Fanatic
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 2850
Location: Belgrade, Serbia |
quote: Originally posted by Myrthos
I don't think so, as in all likelyhood Windows XP was installed on an NTFS partition which is not supported by Win98.
Wasn't really thinking about that, since I would never install anything on a ntfs partition... |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:29 am |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
Use the Recovery Console. The command you'll want to use is Copy. Unfortunately, this only copies one file at a time.
Also, using the Fixboot command will write a new boot sector on the system partition. Could be worth a try. _________________ Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound= |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:08 pm |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
quote: Originally posted by hwfanatic
If you could get your hands on a win98 bootable diskette, it could help, too.
quote:
When I boot into the other install, it wont let me access the Users directory because of file permissions.
Please explain this.
Windows XP has user directory permissions similar to Unix. You can only access the contents of the directory if you are logged into that installation as the User that owns the directory or the System Administrator.
quote: Originally posted by Val
Use the Recovery Console. The command you'll want to use is Copy. Unfortunately, this only copies one file at a time.
Also, using the Fixboot command will write a new boot sector on the system partition. Could be worth a try.
Yeah I knew about that one, but that was exactly what I was hoping to avoid. I had a look through the directory and there arent that many important files in there so I guess I will just copy the ones that matter instead of the whole directory.
Thanks for the replies[/quote] _________________ IMHO my opinion is humble |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:41 pm |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
Yeah, I think it's rather silly that they only have the option to copy one file over at a time. That's just stupid. _________________ Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound= |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 8:13 pm |
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hwfanatic
Average Fanatic
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 2850
Location: Belgrade, Serbia |
quote: Originally posted by Chekote
Windows XP has user directory permissions similar to Unix. You can only access the contents of the directory if you are logged into that installation as the User that owns the directory or the System Administrator.
Windows XP, or rather just ntfs? |
Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:39 pm |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
Both. WinXP supports it via NTFS. _________________ IMHO my opinion is humble |
Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:41 am |
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cfmdobbie
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 1859
Location: London, England |
Last time I had to get into a WinXP box to bypass security, I booted from a two-disk Linux distribution called Tom's Root and Boot (tomsrtbt). If you've got experience with UNIX-like systems that is always a possibility. _________________ Charlie Dobbie
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Moderator of the Morrowind/Oblivion Forums= |
Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:55 am |
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goshuto
Wanderer
Joined: 29 May 2002
Posts: 1142
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@Chekote: a far easier way to access those files is to just take their ownership. Make sure you have Simple File Sharing disabled, then right-click the file or folder you want to access, click Properties, and then click the Security tab. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab. Click the new owner, and then click OK.
You must be logged as administrator in your new WinXP install to do this. _________________ "Tree stuck in cat. Firemen baffled."--Simcity 3K
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."--Soren Aabye Kierkegaard |
Sun Feb 22, 2004 3:41 pm |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
I managed to get everything out in the end. Thanks for all the suggestions.
@ goshuto: Are you sure that would be possible? That sounds like it should not work. For example, if I installed two Linux OS's on a single machine and created a user account in one install, the other install would not be able to touch its files, even if I WAS logged in as root, since the root on one install is a different root than the other.
I presume Windows is setup this way, if not; they need to change it cuz that is a serious security flaw. _________________ IMHO my opinion is humble |
Sun Feb 22, 2004 4:31 pm |
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goshuto
Wanderer
Joined: 29 May 2002
Posts: 1142
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@Chekote: no, it's not a security flaw. For that to work, you must be logged on as administrator on the computer that has the files you need. In other words, you need physical access to the files. If you do it from a remote computer, then the domain of the remote computer has to trust you (unlikely, unless the admin is a dolt). Even so, the system will generate a security warning.
I'm not sure about Linux, but I think that if the 2nd root has physical access to the 1st root files, then you can chown them to the 2nd root user as well.
This is why companies which take security seriously keep their servers (Windows/Unix/Linux/whatever) locked away in rooms no one can get into (sometimes even the admin himself has trouble getting in ) _________________ "Tree stuck in cat. Firemen baffled."--Simcity 3K
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."--Soren Aabye Kierkegaard |
Sun Feb 22, 2004 4:54 pm |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
quote: Originally posted by cfmdobbie
Last time I had to get into a WinXP box to bypass security, I booted from a two-disk Linux distribution called Tom's Root and Boot (tomsrtbt). If you've got experience with UNIX-like systems that is always a possibility.
You know, that could work. I think I remember my professor mentioning one that he uses regularly for recovering clients' systems. I'll have to ask him which one he uses. _________________ Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound= |
Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:22 pm |
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