Help - I might have trashed XP!

[FunkyT]

I accidentally kicked the power socket and turned off my desktop. It's now stuck in a loop (restarting during the Windows XP loading screen).

I'm trying to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP but not having much luck.

I get as far as installing the SATA driver disk, the system recognises the HDD but states that there's no partition. I'm being asked to format the disk in order to reinstall Windows.

I'd like to repair the existing installation - help please!

 

[FunkyT]

Thanks for the feedback lads!

I tried to boot in safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last normal working config and normal - none of these work.

I've installed Windows on an old IDE and it works fine. The "dodgy" SATA drive is detected on POST (VIA controller) and is listed in Device Manager. However, it's not displayed in My Computer.

I've tried another SATA on the same lead & channel and it's accessible without problems.

Is my Samsung dead? If so, how easy would it be to extract the data?