My hard drive has been rendered unbootable and goes to the blue screen of death. I dont want to re-format because of data I want saved. I slaved it in hope to store data on DVDs but I cannot access my folder because it was password protected before it screwed up and so is encrypted (ACCESS DENIED message) What can I do to get into my folder?

I was in the same situation a while ago. There is no real way to get the files back. What you can do is reformat it and after that DO NOT INSTALL any other programs, even drivers. Just the ones you need to get on the internet. Search google for a program that recovers deleted files. Run that and you should be able to recover most of your files. jablonskia@gmail.com

After you recover the files, then you can do everything else like install drivers and anti virus programs, etc. Also- be sure to do a quick format when installing the OS and not the slow one. Keep the file system the same too. All this will prevent the files from being overwrited. jablonskia@gmail.com

I think all u need to do is gain access to folder with your current admin, what i did when i couldn't access my folders...don't worry about format too much, i got 6 disks and just recovered a whole lost disk.

Try to take ownership: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421 Best