Computer (Windows XP) Problem

[daltore]

Personally, I would third the Linux LiveCD. If you don't know how to use Linux, I suggest learning at least enough to get around the graphical environment of Knoppix to be able to access your hard drive in case this kind of thing happens again. It is a very useful tool that can save you a HUGE amount of pain. Also good for accessing files on really old machines to which you don't remember the password! And if you have a hard drive that is physically damaged and the computer repair place can't get any data off of it, often times, Knoppix can! I had a dead 40 GB a few years ago, and the place couldn't copy the drive with their machine because it registered the drive as broken, so I took it home with a new drive and did it all on my computer without a single lost bit! Maybe something to do with the fact that I was only accessing a KB at a time (took about 12 hours for 15 gigs of data), but still.