copying files within recovery console

[RambunctiousAmoeba]

My windows installation is thoroughly screwed up, and I need to know if there is a way to copy files that were in My Documents, as well as on the Desktop, to another hard drive that I have hooked up to my computer. Could this be accomplished via the recovery console? If so, how would I do that?
If it can't be done using the recovery console is they're some other program(free) that is bootable so that I can copy those files. I don't have another hard drive with a copy of windows on it or I would just boot the computer using that copy of windows and transfer the files that way.

Any help on this matter is greatly appreciated.

 

[P0ldy]

I'd just use a live Linux CD -- an operating system that boots off CD. You get full GUI with most of them (SimplyMEPIS, Knoppix, etc) so it's basically a drag and drop if you aren't accustomed to command line.

Distrowatch.com.

 

[jaykleg]

For future reference, the inconvenience in using Recovery Console in this sort of situation can be mitigated somewhat by using enabling this local policy:

Recovery console: Allow floppy copy and access to all drives and all folders

Since Home Edition doesn't have the policy editor I guess it wouldn't work on anything but the Pro version of the OS. Of course this information is not useful in this case anyway since you have to set the policy before you need the feature in Recovery Console.

Edited in an attempt to remove evidence of illiteracy.