NEED HELP, comp died, cant reinstall windows...

im sorry for typing this much, but i really wanna fix my comp...


Ok, I usually google every problem I have, and i usually find the answer to everything, but now im stuck completely.. My comp worked well, never used anti virus, barely got any viruses at all. Then suddenly my comp started slowing down fast, got worse by the hour. Windows Xp almost completely died, cpu usage was 100% always, I turned off all useless processes but still dindt help, installed anti viruses, defragmented, cleaned, nothing helped, so I formatted everything and installed vista. After that I saw that my video card ati 2600Xt and the current motherboard I have dont go together with vista, they make a mess, make cpu usage also 100%, so i decided to go back to XP, and since I couldnt find my XP disk, I borrowed my uncles... So I installed the xp fine, everything went well, had trouble installing sound drivers though.. but in the end it was all good, but after like 2 days, comp slowed down, couldnt do anything on it, after i restarted, got some error at startup, some system file was missing... I have a 250gb Hardrive, divided into 2 partitions. 1 for windows, 2nd for storage. I really want to save the 100gb of storage i have, and bought an external hd for that. So, after i got that error on start up, i tried going in with safe mode, didnt work. When safe mode was loading, said some system files was missing or corrupt, i think it was windows/system32/config/system.sys or something.. anyways, i googled it, found some solutions from microsoft.com or something, and replaced that system file with some new one, restarted, and now some new system file was missing like NTFS.sys or something like that, anways, i replaced like 5 of those missing/corrupt files and got tired, why not just reinstall all windows.. So i tried it. I started the installation, i decided not to format everything, just to install fresh copy of windows, but, it gave me an error, sorry i cant remember all of it but it said something like Setup Cannot continue, Hardrive corrupt. Press "something" to exit.... Well i didnt believe i have any problems with my HD, it worked fine for over a year already, so I just formatted that windows partition, deleted everything, and started installing windows Xp again.. this time i didnt get that error, the setup went farther than that.. it copied some system files at first, with that blue screen, then restarted the computer to start the setup, BUT before the installation, again, NTFS.sys missing, or another system file i replaced some time ago... how could it get missing when i just started installing everything.. from a good cd, not scratched up.. well, i tried to test if it was the CD that was the problem. i downloaded some Windows Xp SP 3, read comments, ppl said it worked excellent.. I burned it, tried it, same problem.. After the comp restart and wants to install xp, theres always some file missing or corrupt.. i tried replacing it with new ones, tried the commands that copied the files from cd:i386 to my windows/system32 folder and stuff like that, and once, the installation of xp started... Said like 39 minutes remaining, i thought i finally fixed it.. well, then i saw that those 39min, dont last 39min.. each min=10min... i waited, left it to install for whole day, entered the serial code and everything.. finally it got to 6min left, and got stuck... i let it install for whole night, 12 hours, and in morning still at 6%.. stuck.. i restarted the comp... again, stupid system files missing... just when comp turns on, asks if I want to Boot from cd, and if i dont, on that same screen, in bottom appears the ""A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+alt+del to restart", i always get that error, and when i try safe mode, it tells me which system file is missing... sometimes even when loading the files in safemode it just gets stuck and doesnt do anything... Ok, my hardrive is really dying.. but i still want to save all the storage files, and thousands of pictures i have there... I have the external hd plugged in, its probly drive G: i think, and all my storage files are on drive D:, does anyone know how I can copy all files on drive D to my external Hd through the command prompt, which i open with the installation cd after i press R to repair windows.... I need to copy all files/folders from D: to G:, and i cant remmeber the names of the folders... is there a command which shows me all the files and folders in the D: drive? and wats the best way to copy all the files to the external HD??? and does anyone kno wat to do with my comp after i have my files i wanna save...?? Do i buy a new hardrive??? is it possible still to fix mine? do i delete the 2nd partition? any help would be appreciated, and sorry for typing this much... really tried to explain my problem...

Athlon 64 3800+
ATI HD2600XT
3GB RAM
250GB HD
'custom built'

 

Sounds like the HD is going bad. You could do a couple of things.

Take the HD out of the PC and put in a different PC as a slave drive and then copy over your data using your USB external for storage.

You could download and create a bootable CD of Diagnostic software from the HD manufacturer's website usually Maxtor/Seagate or Western Digital. Do the Long test and see if it can fix any errors. Then reformat the partition and try the Windows install again.

Go ahead and get a new HD (yours will be going permanently bad very soon ) install Windows and then attach the old one as slave and move the data over.

If you want to try recovering the data using a command prompt the Recovery Console won't let you access anything but specific Windows folders so it will do you no good. You will need a Linux live CD to get a more powerful command prompt or try this bootable one. You will need to burn the CD as an image using imgburn or similar software.

Then Plug in your USB external drive
Reboot computer using the CD.
Allow it to start from Cd, click yes anywhere it doesn't auto load.
From menu #9 (more)
#5 NTFS tools
#3 Paragon Mount Everything

Drive C: will probably be your USB
Drive E: will probably be your Pc's WINDOWS partition
Drive F: will probably be your PC's D: partition

You can use the R>dir e: [to get a list of files to verify this is your Windows partition]
R>dir c: [to verify this is your USB drive]

Any commands you were going to run in Recovery console can be run after typing R>f: [to change your working directory to your data partition]

These command examples below assume that C: is recognized as your USB drive [you may have to use different letters] the command Dir gives a list of files on a drive. The drive letter followed by a : and <enter> switches you to that drive. So f: <enter key>
*******
Copy e:\filename.ext C:\filename.ext should work to get a file on to your USB
****
To copy whole directories/folders you need to use xxcopy and "" around the path if it contains spaces. [The "/s" tells it to copy subdirectories]
XXCOPY E:\My Documents\ C:\backup\ /s = bad
XXCOPY "E:\My Documents\" C:\backup\ /s = good
****

Let me know if you need help with command syntax or anything. That CD contains the HD utilities for Seagate and WD as well.