HELP!! CRITICAL DATA ON CRASHED WINDOWS PC NEEDS RECOVERY!!

[Remy Paul]

Hi .
My PC with a windows xp sp2 crashed and a blue screen appears and it reboots everytime and loops... Now when this happened on my crappy laptop i used to just re install windows but end up losing all the data on my c drive, basically the main drive.
but on this PC i have some critical data on my C drive in the my documents folder which i did not back up. Now is there anyway i can save my data ???
anyway .. anyway.. Please help out a noob... I cant afford to lose this data.
My business docs and all might get lost and i'm quite worried.

Specs: windows XP Sp2 1gb ddr2 Ram, 160 gb hdd, I have an asus motherboard that i dont remember the specs of.
Please help.

[Martoch]

The first thing you can try an XP repair install...all of your docs will be left in place.
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

Otherwise, you can always add your hard drive as a slave to another desktop to access the data or use a USB hard drive adapter to connect your drive to a desktop or laptop. This is the one I use and it works great...only $25 shipped right now!
Newegg.com - VANTEC CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter - Adapters & Gender Changers

BTW, welcome to TechIMO!!!

[stroyal]

How long does it run before crashing?
The first thing I test is memory, because it is easy and a looping boot can be a sign of bad memory.
Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

Test the hard drive with the manufacturers disk, downloaded from their sight.
The HD might be OK and can be installed in another computer as a second or third drive to save the data.

Edit; Martoch beat me.

Also Welcome to TechIMO!

[JLK03F150]

I'd try getting into Safe Mode (F8) and disabling Auto Restart on Windows Error. If the BSOD stays on the screen sometimes you can see that just a driver is corrupt causing the problem. Then you can update that driver without having to do a full XP repair and all the XP updates.

[osprey4]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Remy Paul

I cant afford to lose this data.
My business docs and all might get lost and i'm quite worried.

Pull the drive out and put it in an external enclosure and try it on another machine.

I'm sorry about your files. Now might be a good time to look for a back-up solution.