How to recover your folders/files when Windows won’t boot
When your computer won't boot into normal or safe mode it might due to (any one or more of)

• The filesystem on your hard drive (your "HD") is corrupted/damaged
• One or more critical Windows files needed to boot and on your HD are, themselves, missing and/or corrupt
• Hardware problems (including but not limited to the drive itself)

When all’s said and done you’ll want to have a machine with all problems fixed. But, for the near term, you may want to first try and recover your personal files from HD if possible. Once your personal files are safely backed up, you can then (and comfortably!) fix the rest of your problems (including, if need be, reformatting your HD and/or reinstalling/repairing Windows)

Approaches to the problem

When your computer won’t boot (and assuming you haven’t been backing your stuff up in the first place – which is a no! no!) you basically have two approaches to try and get to your personal data still on your hard drive

1. Remove your HD so you can then connect it to a friend’s computer (e.g via direct cable or by putting it inside an external enclosure) and try retrieving your data while booted on friend’s computer or
2. Boot your computer from CD or flash drive (since you can’t boot from HD). By using the right bootable CDs/flash drives you can often (but, of course, not always) recover your files from your hard drive while it's still inside your own computer!

The following steps show how to try and recover your files using bootable CD and/or USB flash drive (And even if you plan to remove your HD to fix it, i'd advise it's still worthwhile and helpful to download/burn and simply have these "emergency rescue CDs" at hand and available whenever needed)

Step 1: Boot into the Windows Recovery Console
> If you lost your hard drive due to a crash or virus you might need to first fix the filesystem on the disk before you can access the files/folders in Step 2
> Run the Windows command chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console to scan and fix filesystem errors

The Windows Recovery Console allows you to run chkdsk. Chdsk is a Windows tool that verifies and fixes your HD’s filesystem

• If you have your Windows Installation CDs see this post to boot into the recovery console
• If you don’t have your Windows Installation CDs don’t despair!
  > You can download the XP Windows Recovery Console here.
  > For Vista, you can download a Vista Recovery Console here
  
  Download the .iso file and burn it to CD. (.iso image files are CD image files. any CD burning software will burn .iso files or you can see here for freeware tools and instructions)

>> Important note: Chkdsk can take a looonnng time to run (sometimes hours). Especially if you have a large hard drive.
===>> Do not interrupt chkdsk
===>> Don’t assume chkdsk is hanging unless you wait at least 30+ minutes for the screen to change! (e.g. waiting for it to change %complete)

Step 2: Boot into Knoppix (an alternate Operating System)

Knoppix is another Operating System and it's free! (it's a variant of the Linux operating system.) It runs on MOST hardware (let's hope your computer is included in the set!). Once you boot into Knoppix you should (hopefully) be able to just connect a USB flash or external hard drive and then simply copy/paste your files to recover them!

1. Go to the Knoppix home page
2. Click the Downloads. Select a download site near you
3. You want Knoppix v6.0 or later. For the English version of v6.0.1 look for a download named KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso. Download and save it (this is a big download)
4. Also download KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso.md5 (this is a small/quick download and gives you the MD5 hash check sum value for the first download to verify you got it OK
5. To verify you downloaded the file completely/correctly you can install a handy tool HashTabs. Right click the Knoppix .iso file you saved, select Properties->File Hashes. The MD5 hash sum value should match the one you saw in Step 4 (if the download keeps failing somewhere during this long download time, see the "Hint" below)
6. Now simply burn the Knoppix .iso file to CD and then use it to boot up your own computer
7. Alternately, you can also easily create a bootable USB flash drive for Knoppix! (see below)

When Knoppix starts, hit Enter (or let it timeout) to select each of its default options as it tries to start

• Once Knoppix starts up, you'll see a different (but similar and largely intuitive) user interface
• The first icon along the bottom left is like the Windows Start button to list all the programs now available to you under Knoppix
• To its right is the Knoppix file/folder explorer icon. Click it. Can you navigate through all your folders and see all your files?? (we hope!)
• Close file Explorer. Plug in a USB device directly into a USB port on the computer. Click to re-open the Knoppix File Explorer and copy your folders and files to the USB device!

Knoppix even makes it easy to create a bootable Knoppix flash drive!
>> Click Start->System Tools->Install Knoppix to flash disk
>> Select your desired target flash drive and click OK. Then just wait till it’s done!

Hint: If your computer is having problems downloading this large file, it might be an issue with your network connection settings.
1. Open Device Manager. Click Start->Run, enter: devmgmt.msc
2. Look under the Network Adapters category for your network adapter device
3. Rt click Properties. Is there a Power Management tab?
> If yes, click it. Then uncheck the box so not to "Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power"
4. Also check Control Panel->Power Options to make sure your power settings set to Never for everything (so they don't go to sleep)

Thanks LookingAround! Great Tutorial! (again!)

If I might add...
another technique to recover files from a damaged hard-drive is to use a tool like...
Apricorn' Drive Wire ... http://www.apricorn.com/product_deta...e=family&id=39


Another
Western Digital also has a clone/"ghost" utility in their drive utilities...
Whether this utility would work with all drives is another question.
My new drive was a Scorpio Blue, so I accessed the Data Lifeguard tools, here...
http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...id=702&lang=en

I started to use the first on a recent drive upgrade, upon the recommendation of Route44.
I ended up using the second, as it seemed a little more direct / straight forward for my new WD drive.
It seems to me that the first is a great product... no regrets... I just have another tool in my toolbox!
Since Apricorn's product is useful for 3.5" eide, or sata, as well as laptop drives, it seemed to me to be a great little investment.

Thanks LookinAround and B00kWyrm for taking the time to compose and post this great info!

And B00kWyrm - love your avatar. (I've been a Honda auto owner since 1975.)

If the following conditions are true (Windows New Technolgy and drive formatted as NTFS), install Windows NT in a different directory to get your files.

or you can have two different operating system on two different hard drives but on same pc that always worked for me.

Or you can try to use software to recover it. It is easy to operate.
If the OS cannot boot, bootable CD based on WinPE is great choice. Run the programme from a bootable CD which protect your data you you want to recover.
I know EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard is a good software for recovering. Maybe it could help you.

Thanks everyone
I took an old copy of XP w/ service pack 1 and did a repair install and it seemed to work. All I have to do now is get all my updates and change all my settings back.There are still a few glitches ( windows media player won't work for one) but I can atleast back up my important data and do a clean install.
Thanks again for all of your suggestions.