XP Recovery Console; 'Access is denied'

[John Marsh]

A relative's Acer desktop retail XP Pro installation is rather ill.

Is there a way round 'Access is denied' in XP Recovery Console? I'm trying to get hal.dll into the system32 folder.

I have managed to rescue some documents using a Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Live CD. The Ubuntu file browser did not show the WINDOWS folder... or Program Files.

[green granite]

Suggest you read: Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

For full access in the Recovery Console, you might have to use the Set command, if it's available, and you will need to enter the admin PW, Type these commands in the Recovery Console:

SET AllowWildCards = TRUE
SET AllowAllPaths = TRUE
SET AllowRemovableMedia = TRUE

[Mac the Knife]

Before you can use the SET commands you have to have changed a setting in the Local Group Policies - Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options and change Recovery Console to allow Automatic Administrative Login and Allow floppy copy and access to all drives and all folders.

If you haven't previously done this when the system was live then you are SOL....

[mixture]

If you've saved their documents, save yourself the time and stress and just wipe the thing and start afresh.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by mixture

If you've saved their documents, save yourself the time and stress and just wipe the thing and start afresh.

^^^^^^THIS

[Saab Dastard]

In case it was a hard disk crash that caused the corruption, why not buy a new (bigger) hard disk while at it?

SD

[mixture]

Saab,

Wise words indeed.

But I would suggest also considering investing in a backup system. External RAID set or something.

Having to rescue stuff off a corrupted drive should always be a last resort thing.

[John Marsh]

Thanks green granite; I tried SET and was asked for the Security Configuration and Analysis snap-in. I gather that this has to be added to the Microsoft Management Console, before all goes t**s-up, so as Mac says, I'm SOL!

I shall indeed be wiping & reinstalling. I'll see if the HDD manufacturer offers any monitoring/analysis tools. A bigger HDD may well be on the cards.

RAID would be new territory... I have advised re. the importance of data backups, which are usually on optical media & flash drives here.

Thanks for all your advice.

[mixture]

Seagate SeaTools


UBCD