how to retrieve the data in a corrupted Windows?

[kwfine]

I am not familiar with computer technically, but I would try not to do anything silly in my PC, anyway!

I can see my WindowsXP only get a 20GB C drive, and no paritition.

I have 5 GB personal data in the computer.
I am thinking if there are tools that can be used to retrieve my data in case my Windows got corrupted or just stucked at the welcome screen.

[patio]

Are you saying the machine is now wonked and won't get past the Start screen ? ?
If so there are procedures to try and salvage that data...

What i think you are saying is your expecting this to occur down the road. In that case I'd recommend a backup program such as Acronis True Image to regularly backup your data...newegg.com has about the best price on it right now. At any price it's a good investment.

patio.   8-)

[ale52]

To add to Patios suggestion:

Get another hard drive (internal or external) to back up your data to.  If you back it up to the only drive you have and it tanks on you, backup software like Acronis (which is an excellent recommendation by Patio & about $30 at newegg as a download) won't do you any good.

Alan <><  

[soybean]

In addition to what patio and ale52 said, do you have CD or DVD burner?  Those, of course, would be a way of backing up your data.  You might view this as a short-term solution and another hard drive (preferrably external) as the next step in increasing your backup capability.

[kwfine]

I have a CD burner, but don't have enough money for the software you have recommended to me.

Is it possible to use commands to retireve the data from a corrupted windows before you have a clean installation?

[soybean]

Since the only software recommended so far was Acronis TrueImage, I presume that's what you're referring to.  Do you have burner software?  I would think you do, since you have a CD burner.  

As patio said, "Are you saying the machine is now wonked and won't get past the Start screen ? ?"

[kwfine]

...

As patio said, "Are you saying the machine is now wonked and won't get past the Start screen ? ?"

No,  it is ok.
But I just would like to learn how to save the data from a corrupted system before I format it.

[soybean]

What about the answer to this:

Since the only software recommended so far was Acronis TrueImage, I presume that's what you're referring to.  Do you have burner software?  I would think you do, since you have a CD burner.  

[RankenTech]

Is it possible to use commands to retireve the data from a corrupted windows before you have a clean installation?

It is. If your data on your hard drive is not corrupted and just Windows is crapped out, you can use a boot disk to get to a command prompt.  http://www.bootdisk.com makes this very easy to do. Find your version of windows and download the utility, and run it to create a new boot disk.

Once you're at the command prompt, you can use some simple commands to retrieve your data (or what's left of it  :-/ ) copy and move are very simple ones to use to transfer data to another drive, such as a flash drive perhaps? xcopy is actually very useful for doing large backups. brush up on your DOS commands, you can find many useful sites with google.