boot cd for windows xp

[ljb]

My laptop with windows xp operating system died a few weeks ago. There are some files I would like to get off the HD. I went to Best Buy and they said they could do it for $100. I asked about buying a boot disk/cd. and they were not compliant. I now have new laptop and would like to get a boot cd for old laptop . Still want to try and get data off old puter. What now ?

[headhawg]

Try www.bootdisk.com. They should have what you need.

[rrbauer]

My laptop with windows xp operating system died a few weeks ago. There are some files I would like to get off the HD. I went to Best Buy and they said they could do it for $100. I asked about buying a boot disk/cd. and they were not compliant. I now have new laptop and would like to get a boot cd for old laptop . Still want to try and get data off old puter. What now ?

Why did the laptop die? What makes you think that having a separate boot disk will enable you to get your files?

[njcurveball]

I am faced with questions like this all too often. I have to make one editorial comment, would you give your mechanic this same information? My car died is not very helpful. Does the starter turn over? Is there gas in the car? Perhaps it is just a flat tire or perhaps your engine is on fire?

OK, now we need some information here. There are 3 simple things to start. First are you getting power to the laptop? Does it turn on when you press the button? Does it start to boot and give you an error message?

Please give the board some info when you post these questions if you expect a good answer.

Batteries go bad all the time. Power Adaptors also can go bad. Heck, the power button itself could be broke.

Worst case scenario is the hard drive is corrupted and you will not be able to pay anyone a reasonable price for the data recovery.

Open suggestion to everyone. Buy an external hard drive and keep your important stuff backed up there. 300 gb is less than $100 these days. Well worth it!

Jim

[csperberg]

Barring that it wasn't HDD failure, couldn't you take out your old hard drive and stick it your new one as a slave HDD and then transfer the files to your new drive?

Now if your new laptop doesn't have dual drives you then could have dual HDD's for for added space. Once the files you want are off it I would just format the HDD.

I'm not sure how your laptop is set up if it can handle dual drives or not, I would think if it is new that it should be able to.

Or if you think it is just an OS problem as to why your old one won't boot up and you can still power on. Then why not just go to any download site and grab a copy of XP. Burn it to a CD-R and try running a repair of your old XP. This is not illegal to do since the XP you had a licensed version and that is actually what you pay for not the actual disc they come on. I just picked up a used computer that had nothing more than HDD failure. I stuck a extra HDD I had laying around. I downloaded a XP OEM version, this is the kind that comes preinstalled on a computer unlike retail versions which come in a box with documentation. I used the XP key on the side of the box and it registered it with no problems. I do believe the OEM versions allow you to transfer your OS up to 10 times on different hardware, but you can only have it running on one system at a time.

Just some ideas that will cost you nothing or one CD-R at the most.

[skate]

I am faced with questions like this all too often. I have to make one editorial comment, would you give your mechanic this same information? My car died is not very helpful. Does the starter turn over? Is there gas in the car? Perhaps it is just a flat tire or perhaps your engine is on fire?

OK, now we need some information here. There are 3 simple things to start. First are you getting power to the laptop? Does it turn on when you press the button? Does it start to boot and give you an error message?

Please give the board some info when you post these questions if you expect a good answer.

Batteries go bad all the time. Power Adaptors also can go bad. Heck, the power button itself could be broke.

Worst case scenario is the hard drive is corrupted and you will not be able to pay anyone a reasonable price for the data recovery.

Open suggestion to everyone. Buy an external hard drive and keep your important stuff backed up there. 300 gb is less than $100 these days. Well worth it!

Jim


ah, hes probably looking for some stats and not some crazy ideas.:lol:

[njcurveball]

ah, hes probably looking for some stats and not some crazy ideas.:lol:


Well I am sure your post certainly solved the problem for him! Nice Job! :ThmbUp:

[tupper]

You could also download almost any recent Linux live CD for free, and use it to rescue files/restore NTFS drives.

A small, quickly downloable live CD that works well on older computers is Puppy Linux: http://www.linux.com/feature/56429

You might also try Damn Small Linux: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

[ljb]

Why did the laptop die? What makes you think that having a separate boot disk will enable you to get your files?
I don't really know why it died. I had left it running and downloading data from the internet for about 3 or 4 hours. I came home and looked at computer. Screen saver was up. I clicked on start-- shutdown and forgot about it. next morning I turned on laptop and screen was nearly invisible. I could just see enough to know it was in boot process. I then turned off computer and hooked it up to external moniter. I tried to boot it and external moniter display was the same as laptop. I assumed video card bad and perhaps hard drive also bad. Took laptop to Best Buy and was told to buy new laptop. It looked like $400 or more to repair this one. They also told me they could retrieve some data from this laptop but it would cost $100. I would like to try and get data off old laptop but it is not worth $100 to do so. Hope this clarifies my original note and question. I don't know if having a separate boot disk will enable me to get files. I would just like to try if it is not too expensive.

[ljb]

ah, hes probably looking for some stats and not some crazy ideas.:lol:
Actually I was/am looking for a boot disk.

[njcurveball]

I could just see enough to know it was in boot process. I then turned off computer and hooked it up to external moniter.

What happens if you try to boot in safe mode or go into your BIOS?

[wes]

http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/xphome.html



wes