BSOD WinXP, hive file corrupted. Data ok?

[realityhack]

Hi all,

On behalf of a friend (who's just called).
Who owns an XP laptop going through a BSOD cycle, which has umpteen months of research materials for their thesis, and who (naturally) hasn't taken a backup...

Pointing me towards what appears to be this error on the knowledge base by virtue of the quoted-over-the-phone:

Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

Her laptop goes from this to a 'dumping physical memory' routine, and stops. No joy with safe mode, and I'm not attempting to talk her through that article - probably wouldn't attempt it if I had the box in front of me tbh.

Upside is (apparently) she made recovery disk(s) a while back.

Question is, do you think her data is fine? Would she be able to remove the disk and mount it as an external using a 2.5" case/cable, and get the files she needs?

Or is this a simple, routine matter that we could trust a shop with? I'm anxious not to give her advice that would cost her the data. She cares not for the machine itself, just her work.

Cheers for any help.

RH

[Toad]

Personally I would remove the drive and attach it as an external onto another machine in order to get the required files off it. Then reinstall it and try whatever recovery methods takes yer fancy.

[The Wikir Man]

It's fairly routine - data should be fine if you took the hard drive out.

If you replace the hive with the backup copy, then you just end up with the machine configured as if it was back then - essentially it replaces the registry settings.

I've done it before and ended up with the default backup hives that Windows makes - too old to be really useful, but good enough to get the machine started to get any information off it.

If she's not fussed, I would stick the hard drive in an external caddy and then ditch the laptop or reformat the drive once she has the information off it. Most PC shops would be able to "fix" it (restore from the backup hives) but it's something that can be done pretty easily - have a google for the error and there are lots of walk throughs on how to do it.

[expat]

Or consider a Linux live CD, to boot the machine in order to read the hard disk and back up its contents.

Personally I wouldn't trust a shop, wouldn't trust trying to steer the user over the phone, and in fact wouldn't trust myself more than I had to. Get the data out somewhere safe and get the user to verify it. Then save it a different way, just in case she was too hasty on confirming it OK.

[realityhack]

Thanks all.

Have passed the message on - retrieve data by removing drive, placing in caddy and attaching as external to another PC, verify & back up data, then reinstall drive and attempt recovery methods. In that order - They have someone who will be able to do that. She passes on her thanks and gratitude. Fingers crossed.