Can I recover data from a computer that won't open XP?

Here is my original post:
"My computer is a bit of a zombie but it's been going ok until now. At startup I always have to press F1 to get it going (floppy disks fail) and then it goes to a prompt to start XP or recovery console. After that it normally starts up fine.
Yesterday I tried to watch a video and windows media player prompted me to download a codec. I downloaded it but still couldn't watch the video but otherwise it worked fine.
When I tried to start my computer today, all I got was a blank, black screen after selecting to start XP. Guess I really shouldn't have downloaded that codec.
I can't even do the read and run because I can't get any further.
Any ideas?"
I've pretty much given up on that now and I've got a new (well new to me) laptop. Now I'm just wondering if there is any way to recover the data on my old computer. There's a lot of music and photos I would really hate to lose. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

If desktop, you could remove the hard drinve and install as a slave drive in another machine.
Transfer what you want or need onto CD/DVD or onto a thumb drive.

 

How do I do that? The old computer is a desktop but the only other one I have is a laptop. Do I need another desktop? If the reason for the first one is a virus, won't it infect the other computer?

 

You could try and restore the computer to a running state with system restore through the recovery console.

I would also change the bios to start from the hd or dvd cd and place the floppy last in the start up options if it were failing at startup.

 

Can you get it to boot into Safe Mode?
Usually by tapping the F8 key while booting. Loads minimal requirements for Windows to operate.
From there, if you can make it, you can try System Restore and Add/Remove or do your scans if desired.

 

This is the first problem I'd go for,as soon as your turn it on start tapping F2. If its a laptop" or "Del. if its a desktop." This will enter your bios,whilst there select boot options/first boot device and select harddrive as the first and ONLY boot device,save and exit.

You may get lucky and your computer will work fine.

If this doesn't work and you wish to use recovery software in the future reset it to CDrom or floppy as first boot device or choose fail safe defaults to reset it.

I know you've given up on it but you've nothing to lose if it doesn't work

 

Anytime I have to get into a computer that will not boot and need to transfer data, I boot with a Puppy Linux Live CD, plug in a USB flash key or drive and transfer the data. You have to download the iso file and then burn it with a program like Imgburn (freeware). On another note, I have seen malware disguised as codecs.

 

I can't boot into safe mode. Pressing F8 does nothing.
I tried changing the bios but it didn't seem to make any difference.
When I try booting into recovery console, the same thing happens as when I try to open Windows, a blank, black screen.
I'll try Puppy Linux next.
Pretty sure it was malware. Posted in the malware forum at first but they said to post here and get my system running first.

 

I lie. It says "Starting Windows recovery console" down the bottom of the screen but doesn't get any further than that.

 

to recover the data (if the hd is still ok and not shot) yopu can do several things. use a usb if you can and boot to ram dos. get a program called ntfs4dos and run it it mounts the ntfs drive so you can read the files and transfer them to the flash drive.

if you can not boot to usb then....

get partition magic and create a partition at the begining of the drive (40mb) and install dos there. make that partition bootable so when you turn your computer on it boots dos . again get the ntfs4dos and runit. find the drive with the windows files on it and transfer the files to the flash drive then.

then format the entire drive and reinstall windows so you can sell it and get some of the money back from the new laptop.....

 

I would just get a USB drive adapter and pull the data. They cost about 30 dollars and believe me, you will use it again and again.

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

it's shows about 34.99

you can get them cheaper.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice. I ended up getting it going enough to pull the data I wanted by running the boot disc.
Now to shoot it in the head and throw it off a cliff!