[ShauNotDeaD]

I got the problem that hundreds of other people have gotten: after installing SP2, my computer would stall out at the blue windows XP screen right before the login screen comes up. I looked this problem up on Microsoft's website and found it well documented and a solution was provided. So, I did as it said.
I put the Win XP CD in my CD drive and booted from CD, then went to the Recovery Console. After going into my first and only instance of Windows, and typing in my Admin password (which was nothing as I had never set it) and pressing enter, I arrived at the command prompt as the instructions said I would. It then told me to type "cd $NtServicePackUninstall$\Spuninst" which i did and pressed enter. Then I was instructed to type "batch spuninst.txt" and press enter. Upon doing so, the screen began to continuously loop "Access is denied" scrolling down my screen. I don't know much about dos commands, so I was wondering if someone could help me out with a way to get around this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, I can reformat, only there are files I must retrieve on my hard drive; namely, documents needed to be turned in for an English portfolio due Thursday of this week as my final grade . Also, I don't have the resources needed to back up my hard drive. I have looked into using Knoppix to boot from CD, but the .iso files seem to be over 700 MB though it says to put it on a CD (I don't have a DVD burner). Lastly, the website with directions on how to use Knoppix is down. PLEASE, someone gimme a way out of this situation.

[peterh]

You have a number of options:

1. If you have room, install Windows XP again in a new folder e.g. c:\Windows2 and then you should have access to your files.

2. Set up a new hard disk and install Windows XP on that, attach your original HD and then you can get access to your files.


I suggest getting a CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW drive as soon as possible so that you can backup your data (you don`t need to backup the entire disk), to prevent future disasters....