Tomorrow I have to recover some information for someone on a non-working computer running windows 7. I can't get to safe mode, get it to boot normally or do a working startup repair, but I can get to the command prompt using a program I have. How would I use to command prompt to copy out all the files in the C:\ drive into one of my externals? So I can clean install 7 again. Please help or link me to some reading.

Tomorrow I have to recover some information for someone on a non-working computer running windows 7. I can't get to safe mode, get it to boot normally or do a working startup repair, but I can get to the command prompt using a program I have. How would I use to command prompt to copy out all the files in the C:\ drive into one of my externals? So I can clean install 7 again. Please help or link me to some reading.

The command you probably want is XCOPY. I am presuming that this is still available in Windows 7

Tomorrow I have to recover some information for someone on a non-working computer running windows 7.

Heck of a lot easier to use Ubuntu Live CD
Just boot up the CD and choose the Try Ubuntu option and then you can navigate the entire hard drive with ease and drag and drop all the stuff you want to copy.....

Best Luck :)
PP

try connecting the non working Hard-Drive as a slave to a working machine...then copy the files for backup.

try this at c:\ drive:

xcopy *.* d:\ /e /h

*.* - copy everything
d:\ - assuming d drive is your destination where you want to copy the files
/e - copy directories and subdirectories
/h - copied hidden and system files also

actually you can get all this parameters at command prompt type:

xcopy/?

Goodluck!

Connecting a slave hard drive and using xcopy command will be the best choice. You can seek help by typing xcopy/?

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.