Using DOS Shell in PC-Doctor to get files off a laptop

[bartley]

Hi,
I have an IBM T41 laptop with windowsn XP on it. It has/had a virsus which now causes the machine to hang after windows has loaded and the icons come up on the screen. Only the mouse works.
When I go into the diagnostics and the DOS Shell I can't see my directories on my C drive instead only files I dont recognise. The prompt says PCDR<c> instead of c:

My questions are as follows:
1. How do I get into the normal c: drive?
2. Will I be able to copy my files onto a USB drive from dos?

Appreciate any help
many thanks

Bart

[fwilson]

bartley,

Dos will only read FAT partitions not NTFS partitions.  To rest the drives it ignores file system and tests tracks and sectors directly.

To accomplish what you want to do, remove the hard drive from the laptop and using a USB adapter mount it on a workstation and copy the files wherever you wish..  There are many inexpensive USB devices that will allow you to do this, search for SATA USB adapter.

-Fred