URGENT - Laptop messed up!

Hey all, my laptop at work has just messed up big time.

I installed Norton Antivirus and did a scan, near the end my screen went black with linies across it.

Now when I boot it up I get a stop error, with a BSOD.

I tried using startup disks to get to DOS and do dskchk and scandisk but to no avail...

A win2000 repair from th cdrom didnt work either - it couldnt find a win2000 OS to repair!

Question is this - If I reinstall Windows 2000, will I have my files intact - I have project files which are essential, so will they still be there, and I can burn them to a cd, then do a format and reinstall?


Thx folks

BSOD in most of the cases is a sign of hardware problem, the error description may give you a clue about the faulty hardware. I think you need to refere to an authorized repair service if your data is really essential.
By the way if your drives are NTFS formatted you wont be able to check them by DOS, and you CAN reinstall Win2k and have your files intact, but i am affraid its a hardware problem.

Thanks for your reply.

I try to boot up my laptop and it gets so far... the windows 2k splash screen appears, and the progress bar gets to about 3/4 of the way up b4 the error starts.

I did try to reinstall win2k, but it said that the install could not be performed as the harddisk was damaged or not formatted/partitioned properly.

Oh dear.


I have just bought a laptop Harddrive IDE converter that allows you to connect a laptop harddrive to a desktop IDE port.

Maybe I can slave it in to a desktop pc and still read the data....

heres hoping.

thx

So, you see it seems like a hardware problem. You may not be able to access the hard drive of your laptop if the partition table is messed up. If so try using some of advanced recovery tools.

Hey, thanks for the help.

I dont know an auwful lot about the internal workings of a laptop, but does anyone know, or point me to somewhere on the web, that tells you HOW to remove a laptop harddrive??

I have bought an IDE converter and I want to try and slave it in the my desktop PC.

I just need to know how to remove the laptop harddrive so I dont wreck the laptop...


Thx

Check your laptops manual, my brothers has a little door at the back that unscrews and the drives pulls out but this verys inbetween modles and brands.

Most laptop hard drives dont have the option to be set as a slave. you will prolly have to set it up as a master on the secondary ide channel.

As long as you can figure out how to open the thing up, getting the HD out should be straightforward.

For example, an IBM Thinkpad I had...just remove a screw, pop off a plastic thing and pull it out. The drive even had a little cloth handle. :)

The Dell Inspiron I have right now you just take a screwdriver to it and remove the drive cage.

What model laptop is it? Look around for tech manuals for it, or just poke around. If you're really stuck then post pics of the side, bottom, etc. and maybe we can give some guesses...