Windows XP partition problem

My problem is that I have an XP machine that trys to boot when it reaches the stage of when it should get to the desktop it just throws up a blue screen (which I don't get time to read) and reboots... normally I would just reinstall XP over the top, but when I boot off the XP CD I get to the partition section and it tells me that the existing partition is unknown.

Does anyone know what I can do to get the data back of of the HD?? It's a laptop btw.

The closest product I how come across that will do it is called ERD Commander 2003 but the problem is the price..... $4000... HUH!!!

Anything else that'll let you boot from CD and restore the partition without loosing files???

Thanks

Here are a couple of good freeware data recovery tools, just in case. The second one can be run from floppy, so that may be a possibility, or alternatively you could put that hard drive in another machine as slave and use either one to get the data off:

PC Inspector

Restoration

To try and recover the partition, boot with the WinXP CD in the drive and go to the recovery console. At the command prompt, typw "Fixboot" followed by "Fixmbr". Then type "chkdsk /r" and let that run.

Quote:

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Originally posted by SuperSparks
To try and recover the partition, boot with the WinXP CD in the drive and go to the recovery console. At the command prompt, typw "Fixboot" followed by "Fixmbr". Then type "chkdsk /r" and let that run.

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Fixboot and chkdsk /r did the trick

That's great news. Thanks for posting back and letting us know :)