Blue Screen of Death

[timothy]

Originally Posted by Lil bastard

If you can afford to lose the data, try DIY fixes. If your data is irreplaceable, then spend a buck and take it to a pro.

I run a mirror backup on an external hard drive, updated every few days or so. If my comp fails, I fix it and reload everything from the EHD.

Replacing the hard drive, partitioning it and so on is not very difficult, there are numerous sources on the net giving you 'computers for dummies' instructions.

If you're like most, your data is more valuable than the comp, so I'd suggest taking it to a pro. May cost a couple bucks, but worth it in the end.

Good points. I will add to that by saying a pro does not equal best buy. There are companies which specialize in data / hard drive recovery and they are the ones you want working on the data.

Before going down that path I'd at least suggest chkdsk as it can often rebuild a boot sector enough to get the machine running and backup your data. If that does not work, the next trick is to get your Linux-savy friend (you have one of those, right) to use a bootable Linux recovery CD or mount the drive as a path in their machine and copy the data that way. I've done this several times with great success.

[cas951]

Not sure if you've done this before but try this. Buy one of these adapters. If you know how to remove your hard drive you can connect your hard drive to this and connect to another computer. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=3770&SRCCODE=WEBGOONET&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

If another computer is able to read your drive. See if you can see Documents and Settings, look for your user name in this folder since this is where most of your data resides. Taking your hard drive to a Data recovery specialist will be costly.

[ChrisZang]

been there done that

You have basically the following options:

a) get the drive out the laptop and get the external cable and you should be able to get your data off the drive

b) *Maybe* you can re-install the O/S WITHOUT erasing what's already on the disk:

WARNING: These instructions are written from memory so proceed with caution:

Boot your laptop with your XP CD
Do NOT choose the "recovery" option, choose the option to do an install
During the next questions you can either choose between wiping out the hard disk and do a fresh install from start - DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION
- OR -
to repair an existing installation - that's what you want to choose

that's about it

Good luck

[jmatta]

I second (third?) removing the hard drive and hooking to another laptop or desktop, whatever is available. I use an Apricorn EZ external drive to back up my laptop. When hooked to my desktop, I can read and copy all/any data I wish. As mentioned, sounds like your boot sector is corrupt.

I've had to "rebuild" my son's hard drive a couple times after he visited some torrents site and downloaded garbage.

[mookarma]

Thanks guys.... I will try to get my computer whizz friend to hook it up to his computer, and suggest what you've all said. I guess new tires will have to wait even longer

[Bry]

Another vote here for testing the drive externally on another computer.
If it is completely dead, you *can* still retrieve the data, but it will cost more than a few dollars. I've worked with the Ontrack data recovery service a few times, and they can recover data from physically destroyed hard drives... but you will remember writing that check, it aint cheap.