getting into vista's files form xp

ok so it looks like a virus wiped my boot sector on my vista install, i dont have a disk so i cant repair. but it dual boots xp and i was wondering if its possible to get into the files on the vista install, its not allowing my access by default its not even prompting my for a password. I have over 100 gigs of music that i would relay hate to lose
it allowed me to get to the sign in screen once but it denied my password, something about being corrupt. Now when i boot in safe mode it stops at crcdisk.sys and boots to a black screen with the mouse pointer

 

go download knoppix or xubuntu or heck even ubuntu livecd and boot from it, copy files over to something that will be safe and der ya go. u can pretty much access any partition with linux.

 

relay? i didn't know linux could go around permissions.

 

No (for XP), Vista has its own system, it cannot be edited via XP. Ask a friend for Vista disk they are all the same (different edition does not matter. However, the bit version does, example: If you have Home Premium 32-bit, an Ultimate (or even a Basic) edition 32-bit will work just fine, However if you insert Home Premium 64-bit it won't work (remember that in THIS example you have Vista Home Premium 32-bit edition). Also, if recall correctly of what I have read (please correct me if I am wrong) Vista Boot system is not a text file in like XP.

I don't know about the Linux thing. But I think asking a friend for a disk or downloading a clean un-crack ISO of Vista will be easier. Repairing windows boot takes about 3min max on my system, but I tested this during Vista public Beta 2 as there was a bug that damaged the boot system of Vista, so time could be different. I think now it has a system that diagnosed the problem and repair the part that needs to be repair, and not just repair the boot system just like that.

 

yes almost forgot about that, vista has a really nice repair tool, just pop the disc in and goto the repair option. but if all else fails linux will let you copy the files off the drive. hope this helps

 

Sorry for all the spelling errors on my post, I just corrected them. I forgot to re-read myself.

 

Aherm...

 

Try this one out http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

 

I know this is not exactly legal, but for all intended purposes, i would suggest you download a copy of vista (if you cannot find the OEM recovery disc) and use that to recover the boot partition. It is not exactly pirating, as you have already purchased the liscence for the machine you are using it on, and you are only using it for repair reasons. As the vista disc is an all-in-one solution, any copy should do, just make sure you get the right bit-depth (32 or 64) and you may need your liscence key handy...

If you do not want to go this route for obvious reasons, then do as morris suggests and use a ubuntu live cd to copy off the data.

Good luck!