Computer will not boot, need to recover files.

[tahuhali]

The computer is a Dell Inspiron 2200 Running Windows XP Pro. It would not boot, only gave me an error message telling me to hit crl+alt+del to restart. I suspected an MBR failure. I received the computer from a friend, so i did not have the boot disc to enter the recovery console. I obtained another working XP Pro boot disc, and used to to rewrite the MBR. This has not improved nothing, in fact the situation seems worse them before. it shows the initial Dell screen and the says "a disc error has occurred" and tell me to hit crl+alt+del to restart again. I see that I have no other option than to reinstall the OS at this point, but there are some documents i wish recover from the hard drive before i do so.

What is the best way to recover these files?

 

[voyagerfan99]

Pull out the hard drive and attach it to another computer with an adapter like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152&cm_re=IDE_USB-_-12-119-152-_-Product

 

[tahuhali]

well

i'm not willing to spend that kind of money for a method i don't know will work. The files aren't that important.

 

[voyagerfan99]

Then try downloading SLAX (Linux LiveCD) and burning it to a CD. Boot to the CD and copy the files over from SLAX.

http://www.slax.org/get_slax.php

 

[The_Other_One]

Those little USB to IDE/SATA cables work pretty well. I use mine frequently. Though if the computer is new enough, you could always pop the drive into your computer (assuming it's SATA and your computer has SATA) Though I think the 2200's were IDE... Linux is probably the way to go