ORIGINAL: r2champion
I have accesss to a drive enclosure that you speak of to transfer the files someplace safe. I have not tried booting from the XP cd, but might give it a try once the files are transferred. I agree with a complete reinstall of XP, I have done this a few times before on some of my older computers. The only thing that really worries me is that when it is trying to load, I cannot hear the hardrive kick in. I am not sure if it is because is simply hasn't loaded enough to "prompt" it to start turning, or if it is malfunctioned. If the hardrive has gone caput, what are the chances of saving the files?
Would a BIOS update be worth a try if I can do so?
Thanks for your help once again.
The hard drive should start to spin as soon as power is supplied to it, that is, as soon as the machine is turned on. It may well be that your drive is dead in which case, the chances for you to recover your data are just about nil. That said, there are places that will recover data from dead drives but their service is usually very expensive.
I wouldn't think a BIOS update would help, but I have seen stranger things happen.
Sorry for your troubles.