System recovery - big mistake made!

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Guest

I do hope someone can help. I have done a very silly thing. When I went to
turn on my PC, I had left a floppy disc in drive A. The PC came up with a
message "unable to start NTLDR" and I assumed there was a major problem. So
I ran the system recovery disc. All my work is still on the PC, but the
settings are all to pot. Is there an easy way of undoing this silly mistake
or of reestablishing the settings I had previously in place? Help greatly
appreciated!
 
No, there is no way to undo what you did.

To resolve the error message, all you needed to do was to remove the floppy
disk and then restart your computer.

Usually, the so-called recovery disks that come with some PCs erase your
hard drive and restore the software that was on the computer when it left
the factory. If you still have all your work on your computer, you probably
didn't use the recovery disks. Perhaps you meant that you reinstalled
Windows from the Windows installation CD? That doesn't affect your own
documents, it just over-writes Windows. The system settings are returned to
the default for the most part. You can always setup the computer the way you
like it all over again. You have a working computer and you have all your
work, so be glad for that.

In future, don't be so fast to do something drastic to your computer. It's
much better to solve the problem and then understand what went wrong, so you
can avoid the same problem in future.
 
The knitted bloke said:
I do hope someone can help. I have done a very silly thing. When I
went to turn on my PC, I had left a floppy disc in drive A. The PC
came up with a message "unable to start NTLDR" and I assumed there
was a major problem. So I ran the system recovery disc. All my work
is still on the PC, but the settings are all to pot. Is there an
easy way of undoing this silly mistake or of reestablishing the
settings I had previously in place? Help greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

If you used a System Recovery (more accurately Restore) CD from the
manufacturer there is no way to recover what you had before.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
 
Can you tell us more about how you did the System Recovery? what type of
disc was it and how did you perform the recovery? How do you know your work
is still on the PC? Which settings are you having trouble with?

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


message | I do hope someone can help. I have done a very silly thing. When I went
to
| turn on my PC, I had left a floppy disc in drive A. The PC came up with a
| message "unable to start NTLDR" and I assumed there was a major problem.
So
| I ran the system recovery disc. All my work is still on the PC, but the
| settings are all to pot. Is there an easy way of undoing this silly
mistake
| or of reestablishing the settings I had previously in place? Help greatly
| appreciated!
|
 
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have an Advent PC with XP home edition as the
operating system. From memory, there are three options in the recovery menu
and I elected for the least severe (reinstall operting system without
affecting other work or files). The PC boots up slowly, but the screen
resolution is very low (4 bit colour quality, etc) and can't be changed via
the control panel. There are multiple error messages when it all loads up
and I key in my password. Then when I try to copy my work (which I can see)
to discs - CD, floppy or DVD - it won't allow me to do it. There's no drag a
drop facility, for example, and it won't allow me to individually save word
documents to a floppy. The frustration is that all the content is there, but
the PC is effectively useless. I have tried saving work in safe mode to
other discs, but it doesn't like that either. I have thousands of hours of
work on the PC. Any hope?
 
You have a lot of work on your PC but haven't backed it up already? From now
on make certain you do.

In order to work with your current files you will likely have to take
ownership of them. Check this link out for instructions on how to do that
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Now get your important data copied to CD or DVD. For that you might need to
install third party software if you can't get XP's software to work for you.
Right click your CD/DVD Burner device and select Properties->Recording Tab
and check the box to Enable recording on this device. then see if you can
copy the files to CD. XP can not write to DVD without additional software.
If you don't have third party CD/DVD writing software you can install the
freeware program CDBurnerXP Pro. It is a good product and can burn to either
CD or DVD http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

An excellent option if you can afford it is to use third party imaging
software like Acronis TrueImage or Symantec Ghost. That way you can burn an
image (exact copy but in a image file format) to CD or DVD. You then have
all your current data safely backed up and can mess around with the system
to your heart's content.

Once you've safely tucked away your important work I'd suggest that you do a
fresh install of XP and start over again.


--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


The knitted bloke said:
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have an Advent PC with XP home edition as
the
operating system. From memory, there are three options in the recovery
menu
and I elected for the least severe (reinstall operting system without
affecting other work or files). The PC boots up slowly, but the screen
resolution is very low (4 bit colour quality, etc) and can't be changed
via
the control panel. There are multiple error messages when it all loads up
and I key in my password. Then when I try to copy my work (which I can
see)
to discs - CD, floppy or DVD - it won't allow me to do it. There's no
drag a
drop facility, for example, and it won't allow me to individually save
word
documents to a floppy. The frustration is that all the content is there,
but
the PC is effectively useless. I have tried saving work in safe mode to
other discs, but it doesn't like that either. I have thousands of hours
of
work on the PC. Any hope?

Harry Ohrn said:
Can you tell us more about how you did the System Recovery? what type of
disc was it and how did you perform the recovery? How do you know your
work
is still on the PC? Which settings are you having trouble with?

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


message | I do hope someone can help. I have done a very silly thing. When I
went
to
| turn on my PC, I had left a floppy disc in drive A. The PC came up
with a
| message "unable to start NTLDR" and I assumed there was a major
problem.
So
| I ran the system recovery disc. All my work is still on the PC, but
the
| settings are all to pot. Is there an easy way of undoing this silly
mistake
| or of reestablishing the settings I had previously in place? Help
greatly
| appreciated!
|
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Harry - thanks very much for the suggestions. I almost got there (took
owenership of folders in safe mode, etc), but when I right click on the
device, I get the menu with properties at the bottom, but when clicking on
properties, nothing happens. Is there another way to get around this? I
can't do this or install other software if I can't get the DVD RW drive to
work. Any additional advice gratefully received!

Harry Ohrn said:
You have a lot of work on your PC but haven't backed it up already? From now
on make certain you do.

In order to work with your current files you will likely have to take
ownership of them. Check this link out for instructions on how to do that
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Now get your important data copied to CD or DVD. For that you might need to
install third party software if you can't get XP's software to work for you.
Right click your CD/DVD Burner device and select Properties->Recording Tab
and check the box to Enable recording on this device. then see if you can
copy the files to CD. XP can not write to DVD without additional software.
If you don't have third party CD/DVD writing software you can install the
freeware program CDBurnerXP Pro. It is a good product and can burn to either
CD or DVD http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

An excellent option if you can afford it is to use third party imaging
software like Acronis TrueImage or Symantec Ghost. That way you can burn an
image (exact copy but in a image file format) to CD or DVD. You then have
all your current data safely backed up and can mess around with the system
to your heart's content.

Once you've safely tucked away your important work I'd suggest that you do a
fresh install of XP and start over again.


--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


The knitted bloke said:
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I have an Advent PC with XP home edition as
the
operating system. From memory, there are three options in the recovery
menu
and I elected for the least severe (reinstall operting system without
affecting other work or files). The PC boots up slowly, but the screen
resolution is very low (4 bit colour quality, etc) and can't be changed
via
the control panel. There are multiple error messages when it all loads up
and I key in my password. Then when I try to copy my work (which I can
see)
to discs - CD, floppy or DVD - it won't allow me to do it. There's no
drag a
drop facility, for example, and it won't allow me to individually save
word
documents to a floppy. The frustration is that all the content is there,
but
the PC is effectively useless. I have tried saving work in safe mode to
other discs, but it doesn't like that either. I have thousands of hours
of
work on the PC. Any hope?

Harry Ohrn said:
Can you tell us more about how you did the System Recovery? what type of
disc was it and how did you perform the recovery? How do you know your
work
is still on the PC? Which settings are you having trouble with?

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


message | I do hope someone can help. I have done a very silly thing. When I
went
to
| turn on my PC, I had left a floppy disc in drive A. The PC came up
with a
| message "unable to start NTLDR" and I assumed there was a major
problem.
So
| I ran the system recovery disc. All my work is still on the PC, but
the
| settings are all to pot. Is there an easy way of undoing this silly
mistake
| or of reestablishing the settings I had previously in place? Help
greatly
| appreciated!
|
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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