I have an HP laptop that suddenly got a SMART hard drive failure imminent message...but wouldn't ever completely boot again. When I try to boot in safe mode, it lists some stuff on the screen, flashes a blue screen with words that I'm not fast enough to read, and then restarts itself. Choosing to 'start the computer with the last known good settings' will get it to show the Windows booting screen, but it will flash the same screen and restart before it shows the desktop. I know that the hard drive is toast. However, I have a bunch of data on there that I would really like to get off before I replace it. Is there any way for me to do this? I have the recovery cds, but I don't know what to do with them. Can I run a chkdsk or something? How do I get to a dos prompt? Thank you for your help!

To be really certain of recovering your data you'd be best to take it to a tech with facilities to slave a laptop drive & then copy your data over - anything else always risks the possibility of further damage. Next option is to borrow an XP disk and get to the recovery console & run chkdsk as you say - it's always worth a go. Finally you could try your recovery CDs - normally it's a case of setting your laptop to boot from the first CD & you should then get the option to restore your laptop to its original configuration - there may be options to do destructive (lose everything) or non-destructive (saves your data) recovery but either way, if your disk is terminal the extra strain or reinstallation may make it unreadable without expensive recovery systems. "I know that I'm mad - I've always been mad..."

For best results slave the drive in a computer with a known good working system with adequate drive space to copy off the data. You may only get one chance to copy off the data. Do not initially run chkdsk. Chkdsk may attemp to fix errors in areas you are not interested in. Copy first then do chkdsk or any other recovery techniques on the next attemp to copy the data off.

I took it to Geeks on Call to have the data recovered and they kept it for over two weeks without touching it (it was promised to be ready in 5-7 days). The computer will boot all the way until it has to open the desktop, and then it crashes. Is there a way to get to the data from DOS? I tried to buy a laptop hard drive convertor (to put the hard drive in a desktop system so I could transfer the data) but no stores in our area seem to have them. I'm pretty good with computers normally, I'm just not sure how to proceed. Thanks for your help, though!

Well, you can get an external USB enclosre for 2.5" drives, fairly ineexpensive, so you can plug it into your desktop. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&bop=and&description=external+enclosure&srchInDesc=2.5 Rule #1: Good Computers don't go down. Rule #2: There is no such thing as a good computer.