PC Won't Boot - What 'Live' OS Can i use to retrieve files?

[tsomo2000]

Hi All

My PC is struggling to boot up, when i turn on the PC it advises me that there was a problem in shutting down then gives the 'boot up in safe mode or standard windows start up' message.

Which ever selection i choose, the Windows XP loading screen shows for a few seconds and then the PC reboots. If i choose for the PC to boot in safe mode it loads approx half of the drivers then reboots again.

This has happened to me in the past (about 2yrs ago on another machine), and i believe my problem is with the winlogon.exe file, the easiest way to sort this would be to complete a 'repair' directly from the XP disc, problem is i dont have an XP disc.

When this happened previously a friend of mine ran a simple operating system that booted directly from the CD drive, it allowed me to access the hard drive then copy all my necessary files (pictures, mp3's etc) to an external hard drive before reinstalling the OS from scratch. I have no idea what this software was called, can anyone point me in the right direction of something similar?

Thanks

Alex

 

[Iccz]

Chances are he used a Linux distro, something like Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu should do the job for you

 

[spyder viewer]

Paragon hard Disk manager regularly appears on magazine cover disks. You can create a linux based utility to recover files to memory sticks etc.

 

[Uridium]

BartPE

 

[FuzzyFreak]

Alternatively, stick your HD into a second machine as a secondary disk.

 

[MarkE19]

Ultimate Boot CD uses a cut down version of XP (based on BartPE) that boots from the CD. This should allow you to backup your files (which you should be doing on a regular basis anyway ) and maybe even allow you to repair the OS rather than do a clean install (although a clean install is probably a better option).
Another option is Hiren's Boot CD.

Mark.

 

[Flimber]

How legal/lawful are Hirens and UBCD ?

 

[Uridium]

How legal/lawful are Hirens and UBCD ?

Must admit I think Hiren's legality is questionable but hands up I've been using it for years

BartPE is legal i believe as you have to use the Binaries copied from your own Windows CD.

 

[Kaos_vauxhall]

ICCZ said what i was thinking Linux Distro and Ubuntu is one of the easiest out there

a couple of simple Sudo commands and you could get all your data back definitely worth a look into