Retrieving important files from a computer that wont boot up

[aniki]

My brother's computer hangs during the boot process and for some reason I cant fix it...thus I need to fdisk and reformat. The problem is he NEEDS to grab some important excel and mp3's files he failed to back up before this problem. Is there anyway to get these files. BTW, I have already tried hooking the Harddrive to my computer, but, Win2k halts the bootup.

 

[Electric Amish]

I'd boot it with a floppy and then copy the files to a floppy. Depending on how many files it is, it could take a long time. That's assuming any of the files will fit on a floppy.

amish

 

[bacillus]

what OS? can you try starting up in safe mode?

 

[flambus]

you should be able to hook your bros hardrive as a slave on your computer.

 

[MrBond]

Hook another drive to it, get to a command prompt, and run xcopy32 to copy over directories he may need. xcopy32 /? will give you a list of comand line switches and help info.

 

[Sundog]

<< but, Win2k halts the bootup. >>


The info Bacillus asked for plus what is this drive connected as (secondary slave, secondary master, primary slave)?

I would make sure to rejumper the drive as a slave.