rescuing files on bootcamp partiton after catastrophic crash

Hi all, I have a major problem in that my Windows XP partition has suffered a major meltdown and i cannot load up XP in normal mode or safe mode as i am met with the ghastly blue screen of death every time and the computer shuts down.

This is very worrying as i have some very important files i would like to rescue from the bootcamp partition which are on the desktop in XP. I didn't hvae chance to back these files up which i always do with my other work.

Does anyone know if its possible to access files and folders on the desktop of XP via the BOOTCAMP hard drive in OSX. I have been doing searches and even tried installing ubuntu to read the XP drive but no luck.

It seem frustrating as the drive is right there in OSX but i can't seem to access any of the information i want on it!

I would really appreciate any help with this.

Which format is the XP partition using? NTFS? FAT-32?

Even if your XP partition is formatted as NTFS, you should be able to read it from the OS X side but won't be able to write to it. Can you read anything at all? If you can read (see) the files and the format is NTFS, all you need then is a driver so you can write and copy from the dead partition.

And, have you tried to repair the partition?

Thanks for the reply.

The drive is in NTFS and yes i can read files on it. I won't be needing to write onto it so there is no problem there. I just want to be able to copy some files that are on the desktop (in XP) and so therefore should be on the bootcamp partition accessible from osx.

The main problem i am having is finding the files i need to copy in the bootcamp partition. I'm Guessing i need to find the desktop folder and the program files folder but i can't find either of them using spotlight.

So then i can access the drive easily but i can't find any file systems i can recognise or have any idea how to.

I haven't thought about repairing the partition and i'm not sure exactly what you mean by this. Wouldn't repairing it mean wiping all the data? The bluescreens are caused by a nasty virus which has also stopped me being able to load in safe mode.

I guess the most important question is how do i go about finding the desktop folder or my computer folder within the bootcamp partition in OSX?

Being infected by a virus is a different matter. Normally, you can transfer files from a NTFS partition to OS X. The permissions will be wrong, but that can be fixed easily enough from OS X.

However, with a virus infection in play, there is no telling what damage it has done to system files or other data. You should be able to navigate your way around the XP partition regardless. Spotlight is probably not going to be any help finding anything on the XP side.

You can try to navigate around the XP side by using the Finder. Since XP is not running there is no way the virus could block that.

Doing a repair of XP by using your XP boot disk is not going to work because it will not clear the virus. The only thing that's going to work is a reinstall of XP. Of course that will destroy all your data.

Thanks chscag!

I have since found the folder and other info i needed on the bootcamp partition in OSX. The desktop folder is located in the bootcamp drive in the 'documents and settings' folder, then in the 'owner' in 'desktop'.