endless reboot cycle!! ARGH!

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Ok- So here is this dying computer's symptoms. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am assuming this all occured due to a virus. my friends laptop was getting affected by i think the winfixer pop up deal. or something very similar.

Eventually one day her computer crashed out. When she turns it on now, it goes straight to the page that askes her how she would like to boot up (safe mode, previous mode, normal mode etc). No matter which way she picks it will load the windows loading page, then cycle right back to that previous page.

I have gone into the bios page and from what i can see her computer recognizes the RAm and everything else. I did the short and long self test as well. The short test passed. But the long test failed. THough I am uncertain as to why.

I am definetly not a laptop guru. BUt before we send her to some computer shop for help- it would be great to have in mind the possible problems.

The other issue is that she has so much stuff on there that she needs. Business files etc. i was thinking of using her system rcovery disks, but am afriad it will just reformat the harddrive and all will be lost.


Any got some advice..possibilities..miracles?

 

first get a copy of knoppix and recover those files..
http://www.knoppix.org/

 

great-

do yo know if i attach a external hard drive, can we just do a drag and drop to get the files out?

 

yes you can use usb hdd or dvd/rw as you please. if you wont be using it as a o/s or you only have a cd drive makesure you download cd version not dvd. with usb hdd you can drag n drop. if using dvd/cd use burning program built into knoppix. it boots from cd and runs in ram, so no install required.

 

forgot to mention it reads ntfs fine so xp file recovery no problem. only warning is dont write to the drive you are recovering from. ie dont move files or create files on the duff hdd. although it is now possible to do this safely its not something i would recommend. then when files safe just reinstall windows.and replace files.
check hdd/cd backup on working pc before reinstall..

 

thanks a bunch katana!

 

no probs good luck