Data file too large for floppy

Hi,

I have many problems with my system. It's a Compaq running Windows XP Home. I was having problems with booting, but I ran the Recovery Console and it seemed to fix itself for a couple of months. This time it kept giving me the master boot error and asking me to run the system disk. Soooo, I finally got it to recognize the Compaq Recovery DVD, to no avail, cuz it kept looping after that. So I used a Windows XP, MS-DOS Startup disk. When I do a directory of the C drive only three directories are showing up (and Windows isn't even one of them!).

One of my important data files is there though and I wanted to copy it, but it's too large for a floppy and I can only get the system to recognize my C drive and the A drive. It won't recognize the D drive (just a partition of the C drive), the E drive (DVD-RW), or the F (CD-RW) drive. hummmmm.

I'm not convinced that all my data is lost, but it sure appears that way. Any suggestions? I don't know if it was a hard drive error, or a virus or what, but now it's obvious that my operating system is toast.

Some of the many, many errors I have received along the way include:

Master boot error
config.sys is missing or corrupt
<windows root>\system 32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt

Do you think it would be worth the money to take in the PC to Computer City or somewhere or should I just try to reformat the hard drive?

I know I'm asking a ton of questions, but if I could get that one file off of my hard drive before I do anything, I'd be majorly happy. It's my address book that's I've had in 4 different computers, so it would be impossible to replace.
I guess trying to get it to recognize my CD-RW drive when I've booted from the MS-DOS disk is my main question.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all in advance!

Cherie

 

if it were me, i'd try and install your h/d in someone eles computer (friend/relative), preferably xp. set yours as "slave", and see if you can access it. if you can, then i'd save/move the file, etc. as far as the cd drives, i'm sure that the drivers aren't loaded (also happens when you boot into safe mode), and that's why they don't work when you booted off of that disk. can you boot into safe mode at all??

 

Have you considered using a usb flash drive or trying to do a simple netwok?

 

It would have to be an identical enviroment, as in the exact same hardware, otherwise it more than likely won't run due to hardware and driver incompatibilities.

Even if you installed the different drivers, you would then have problems with Product Activation.


impopop, not sure if I fully understand your post, but if you can get to the Recovery Console again you can use the comman fixmbr.

 

Thanks to all of you who have responded!

First, I have not been able to get to the Recovery Console -- I was able to get it to recognize a Compaq Recovery DVD that Compaq has you create when you first get your system (in lieu of a system CD). It has two options on it

a) Restore software to its originial shipping condition and maintain all your data

b) Reformat your hard drive and reinstall everything from shipping status

I chose the first option cuz I wanted to try to save my data. However, it would never complete cuz once it had you reboot, it begain its lovely error conditions again. That's when I went to booting from the MS-DOS disk and was only able to see three lousy folders on the directory command. The one data file that I wanted was also visible and I wanted to copy that. Is there a way I can add the CD driver to that MS-DOS startup disk and get it to recognize my CD drive? The DOS disk doesn't have an edit command or anything so I was unable to edit the config.sys file. It didn't have an autoexec.bat file in it either.

I don't have a USB flash drive -- do you think it would be recognized if I were to purchase it?

Also, don't know how to set up a network between this computer and the one that's seemingly fried cuz it says that I have to install software on BOTH computers.

Can't run fixmbr cuz I can't get to the Recovery Console.

Hope all this jibberish helps. Thanks again so much to all for your help!

Cherie