Mistakes and/or bad HD

[clydefrog]

I am working on my dentsist's computer and the thing will no boot into windows. When it starts up it stays on a black screen with a blinking cursor and after a couple of minutes it says "Error Loading Operating System". See what happened somthing happened and his son tried to reformat (which is doesn't know how to do or even knows what it means) and plus he doesn't have an Xp disc. Ive tried backing up the data with Bart PE but when i go to file managment no window comes up. Did he erase his partition or somthing? Or is the hard drive cooked, becuase sometimes in the post test it says somthing like "data error, replace hard drive". Plus I tried the test in Bart PE and it failed. Anything i can do to try to find any data? Or should i just reformat and if that doesn't work pick up a new HD

 

[CrossFire851]

I would say if the info is valiable try to recover it. Some here can help you with that. I would say get a new drive. That one sounds like it's had it. What is the computers specs?

 

[clydefrog]

blah its an Insignia they bought it at Best Buy. 512mb Ram, 120GB HD, i believe a P4 2.8 or 2.66. I can't boot into safemode, so i think somthing happened to the operating system. Could i try to re-install windows without reformatting? Or could i try to repair it via XP disc. man my grammer was bad, btw thanks for quick response

 

[Rik]

If you have a spare data cable give it a try!!!!

 

[clydefrog]

don't have one

 

[clydefrog]

Guys real quick i put in the Xp disc and went to check the partition and it says that Partition 1 for example 140000789mb and also 140000789mb free. Does that mean that nothing is currently on the hard drive???

 

[bushwhacker]

HOLD IT FAST!

You should take that hard drive out and bring it to computer shop and ask them to back up the doctors files if they can.

Then ask them for the tips.