My fathers computer is in trouble. He told me that he boot up one day and before actually getting inot the desktop of windows there was a message that his user profile has been deleted and it went into a default dektop. The hard drive is a 60gig and the only hard drive. I tried getting into windows anywayi could after that but nothing would work (last know good config, normal or even safe mode without networking). I tired doing a reinstall of the os to repair it and during the repair install it said it could not repair due to lack of space or corrupt files(i forget which on) I then attempted ot boot up once again and windows chkdsk came up and did a scan and found a bucnh of system files it needed to repair but then gave error messages saying that the repair failede due to insufficient space. I then suspected some sort of virus cuz there is no way he is out of space unless there was some sort of worm using up all the space. I took teh hard drive and installed it as a secondary in my comp. Windows xp on my comp had a slow time booting up caused by this hard drive and when attempting to access the hard drive through my computer the hard drive was visible but wouldnt allow me to actually get in to see the files. When going to properties the hard drive said that it has 0 free and 0 used space. I tried to do a chkdsk in the properties of the hard drive and it just quit out of it. I forgot when but at some point it said the hard drive was not formated even. I then tried ot check the files through dos command but when typing dir it just listed the hard drive letter again no information. It cant be that it is not formated, it detected some corrupt files when it was on the other computer and it began to load some of windows xp! I am prety much assuming the OS is lost at this point but i really hope i can backup the data of the hard drive so he wont loose everything.

well, it sounds as if the hdrive is preparig to bow out. Unless you have imaging hardware, I am not sure if you will be able to back up anything at this point. You did just about everything I would have told you to do so, good job on the analysis and trouble shooting. Just tell your pops that it looks bad and that he better look into getting a new drive for the system, lest someone here can come up with a finite solution. gdlk

thanx for the response. I really need some of that data is there some place i can take it to that will recover it for relativley cheap?

Recovery usually starts around $1000. Even tho it will not boot, after you get a new hard drive, you can slave the old and try to read what you want. 98% of the population is asleep. The other 2% are staring around in complete amazement, abject terror, or both.

obviously you didnt read my post, i tried slaving it on my computer already but there is no way for me to access it, the hard drive wont function

try Hard drive manufacture diagnostic tool disc for repair