XP Crash

quackers · 16 Jan 2008 at 09:29

My sisters old p3 desktop crashed on her yesterday morning, now this pc isnt connected to the net so it rules out most spyware/virus type things. Nothing has changed, apart from the printer jammed so she restarted it.

It gets about half way into xp loading, flash of a blue screen and it restarts. I've unplugged everything bar the hard drive, changed the ram, changed the psu still the same, even in safe mode. It wont let me do a recovery from the xp cd either, the option just doesnt show up!

I'm hoping i can get into windows to get some work off, as she hasnt done any backups :eek:

Can anyone recommend anything else i can try or any decent recovery cd's?

Dano · 16 Jan 2008 at 09:37

Take the hard drive out and put in a different pc as a secondary drive, boot up and drag the data off.

quackers · 16 Jan 2008 at 09:44

That was going to be the next move dano, i tried and failed to get xp installed on a new drive, it just wouldnt boot up properly. It's a nightmare, i might give that a go tonight.

quackers · 16 Jan 2008 at 19:39

I've managed to get the drive to show up in windows, but i'm getting bad blocks in the computer management and i'm unable to access the drive.

I know its terminal, but can anyone think of anything else to try?

BigBoy · 16 Jan 2008 at 20:45

find the microsoft WINPE builder and build a WinPE bootdisk boot fromis and run the chkdsk programin there then use the explorer to copy the files you want to a usb drive/stick job dont.

Oh and by the way it sounds like the hard drive has died.

quackers · 16 Jan 2008 at 23:50

Yep the hard drive has died a death, you should hear the noises from it

BigBoy · 17 Jan 2008 at 09:10

Do A google For Hyrens Boot CD. There are some very good disk tools on there that may help you.

Priapus · 17 Jan 2008 at 15:23

BigBoy said:
Do A google For Hyrens Boot CD. There are some very good disk tools on there that may help you.

I doubt any software will help with a dead hard drive.

BigBoy · 17 Jan 2008 at 17:16

Correct but there are some tools on the CD to repair it enough to get your information off.

firewallblocked · 17 Jan 2008 at 22:20

Ice On Fire said:
I doubt any software will help with a dead hard drive.

It depends how dead it is. Using Acronis True Image I backed up a dying drive to an external drive, but it did take 24 hours! to image. The data had to be saved so it had to be done.