HELP! I need a computer expert's advice!

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

PULLEEEZE someone tell me you can help me.

The situation:
A friend. Cash-strapped single mom with 4 kids - one autistic had a Compaq PC running XP home edition. Don't know what service pack. It won't boot. I'm thinking bad boot sector/virus/etc. The OS came preinstalled with no backup media like all the cheap bastards do now. She never made/lost/whatever a rescue disk.

QUESTION: is there any application that will allow me to make a bootable CD to get to the HD to extract all her data (financial, school, health, etc.) without having the Windows setup disks? I've seen program like ubcd4win and others that allow you to make a boot disk - but they all want the windows setup disk,

Any suggestions - or is she just screwed?

[AllegroRondo]

1. If it comes down to it

you can remove the hard drive, and install it as a secondary hard drive on a working computer. That would at least let you look through the data, assuming its just a bad boot sector.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

3. That's a thought - so if

it's just a bad boot sector, the working machine will recognize the rest of the drive?

[AllegroRondo]

6. it should

but if it is a virus, the working computer is now vulnerable. make sure you have good anti-virus software running.

but I would try Breeze54's suggestion of making a boot disk on another computer first.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

7. I've tried - but

I don't know anyone else running XP. We run 2000 at work, and mine at home is Vista

[Breeze54]

9. Try a Vista boot disk anyway!

Is she getting any power at all? I didn't see that she was totally dead.

Is there a blue screen?

If so, have you tried 'safe mode'?

ALSO! Try unplugging it and let it 'rest' for a little while

then plug it directly into the outlet, without the surge protector.

Also try replacing the MB battery.

[SacredCow]

5. That's my vote, too....

depending on the machine, you might have to set it as a slave with the jumpers and possibly change the boot order. But overall, this is the easiest approach.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

8. Will this work if the "working"

PC is running Win 2000? My old box is 2000 and sacrificial for the most part (Just bought a new HP with Vista and ain't NOTHING dubious getting installed it it...) If the bad one and the good one are both formatted NTFS will the good one see the bad one?

[AllegroRondo]

10. it shouldnt matter

the good computer is just going to treat the bad hard drive as a secondary hard drive, it wont care what OS it has/had. As long as the files on it are in a format that the working OS can read, you should be OK.

[SacredCow]

11. Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem.

I recently installed an XP drive as a secondary in a Vista machine. The only thing I had to do was change the boot order, because it kept wanting to boot up from the old (XP) drive.

[Breeze54]

2. Does she have a recovery CD?

Try that. Do NOT do a FULL RECOVERY. That will wipe out all the data & programs.

Only do a partial recovery.

OR try this...

Recovery CDs System Restore Boot Disks

Compaq™ Boot CD Boot Disk, Compaq™ Desktop Boot CD Boot Disk
http://www.recovery-cds.com/laptop/search.asp?keywords=Compaq+Boot+CD+Disk&recor=1

Does it have a floppy drive? Make a boot disk on your computer.

Is she getting any power at all? Did you check the fuse in the back? The battery?

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

4. She has NOTHING. It does have

a working CD drive that I've set to boot from. I'll check the Compaq link you included. Thanks

[ghostsofgiants]

12. Knoppix could be another option...

http://www.knoppix.net/

It's a Linux distro that boots and runds from the CD so you could use it to access the C: drive, I believe. (It's been ages since I heard about doing that so I could be wrong about it.)