Hi guys/gals.

I have a computer that has Windows XP Home Edition on it, it was blue screening really bad and while I am no guru, I am not an idiot either, however, I think I pulled an idiot move based on some other advice I was given and it isn't looking well for my PC.

I was told that basically it was a win32k.sys error and to rename mine to win32k.old and it would start back up with a fresh copy of it. Well.... it didn't!! Don't beat me up over this, I already have a million times.

What I am doing is booting it with a CDRom with this program called NTFS4DOS and I have it reading and can get into dos now, but can only read from the A:\ directory, but I can't seem to get it to let me rename my win32k file back to the proper name. It keeps telling me invalid directory.

From here, I have an A:\ , can I possibly get to my win32k file and name it back like it was so I can get back on this pc just long enough to get my files backed up, those irreplaceable ones!

Hey Tam, welcome to PCHF.

That advice was partially true, certain files are replaced in the system32 directory, but these are .dll files not .sys.

You can also access your drive via your Windows XP Setup CD, are you able to do this? The NTFS disk will only work if your disk was formatted in NTFS as apposed to FAT32 in the first place.

The disk I am using is on a CDRom, I don't have a Floppy Disk in the house anywhere.

I tried to use the XP disk, but this didn't work either, all it wants to do is reformat this computer, and it doesn't give me an option anywhere in the setup process to just repair it or anything of the kind. Which is odd, but it is an older computer so maybe that is why.

I bought the program from Bootdisk.com as I was advised to do and I made the boot disk on a CD/DVD and put it in there. It allows me to do anything I want on the "A Drive" that it created to mimic a floppy drive, but will not allow me to access anything to do with my hard drive. Unless I am doing something wrong there.

Hi have you set first boot device to CD rom in the BIOS?Set first boot to CD rom in Bios put in XP install disk press F10 to save and exit?

How to format HDD :How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP

Yes I did all of that.

The problem is, this pc has some crucial data on it and I don't WANT to format it until I get those files off of there. I know how to format it, I am pretty much a master of that one with kids in the house. But this one, I want this data off of that hard drive before I make that step. This computer contains data on it that I would never be able to replace and I desperately want it from there before I format it.

I know it can be done, but I just am not sure how to go about it when I can't access that c drive from this bootup disk.

You could try a repair install?

Perform a Repair Installation

Bootdisk.Com

Make a bootable cd just like a floppy disk.

As I mentioned previously, and I don't understand why either.... my Recovery CD that came with the computer doesn't give me this option, it just goes straight into wanting to put it back like it was when it was shipped and I can't do that until I get those files from that drive.

All of my Dells allow for a repair, but this Sony one doesn't seem to want to give me that option at all. I don't get that either and that's what has brought me here. I am completely lost on this problem.