I seem to have had a series hard drive malfunction(desktop) and cannot
get windows to load.
I was considering buying an external hard drive as it was, but I was
wondering if i could by an external hard drive, install xp(using a
laptop) on the external and boot up my computer that way that so I can
get all my data before re-formatting the internal drives??
your help iand input is appreciated.
No. You can't install XP on the external hard drive and you can't install XP
on one computer and then move the hard drive to another computer with
completely different hardware. Here are some ways to get the data, assuming
that the hard drive itself is physically healthy:
1. Slave the hard drive in another computer with a working XP install and
copy the data off using Windows Explorer.
2. Use Knoppix (Linux) or a Bart's PE to copy off the data.
3. Buy a new internal hard drive, clean-install Windows and then slave the
old drive and copy off the data.
All that depends on you having a fairly high level of computer skills, other
computers with which to work, and that the hard drive with the data is
physically good. Only you know your skill level and whether you really
should just take the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not
your local version of BigStoreUSA).
If the hard drive has physical problems and the data is important, you
should do *nothing* on it. Every time you spin that drive up, the
possibility of retrieving the data decreases. In that case, contact a
professional data recovery company such as DriveSavers or Seagate. These
companies' services are not inexpensive, but only you can determine the
worth of your data.
DriveSavers -
http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services -
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/drs/services.html
Malke
