Windows xp not booting . . . ! ! !

[street.soul]

My frnd has a HP laptop which is quite old now and has xp on it. After putting a pen drive which was used in a college pc sp u can imagine the amount of viruses in it :bleh: and now the xp is not booting. It shows the microsoft windows xp boot screen and then the logon screen goes black and only the mouse cursor is seen. The same happens in safe mode only the mouse cursor is seen in the logon screen. Guys the data in c drive is very important so is there a way of getting the data back ?

 

[thetoxicmind]

Try running Knoppix to access the drive and backup the IMPORTANT data.

 

[thetechmind]

try the live cd...else try the windows 'repair' option.

 

[street.soul]

Wont the repair option in the xp cd delete the files in the c drive. If it doesnt then its the best option right ?

 

[thetechmind]

Wont the repair option in the xp cd delete the files in the c drive. If it doesnt then its the best option right ?

the repair option repairs windows and leaves the installed programs as is. u need to use the repair option when its asked the 2nd time. not the 1st initial repair option....

read here ---> How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

 

[bivunlim]

If you have any doubt with mind about the data in C drive going deleted, just grab a Linux live cd, boot from it, save the important files and then repair or reformat..