Why not have them install a new hard drive and reload the operating system on that and then use a SATA/IDE to USB adapter to try and salvage your information from the drive ?

Once you have captured what you want to save onto the new drive then you can clone the new drive onto the old one (which wipes the old drive info out ) and you will have a clean install of everything if you have trouble in the future. Just remove the defective drive and put in the cloned one and your right back in business. (Will still need to update it though if it's not been kept current)

Is your hard drive a Sata or IDE type connection ?

I had a black screen in XP one time. Did some research and looking around and found theses adapters.

The reviews WERE NOT encouraging. Seemed about 1/2 the people that tried them could recover their data, the other 1/2 said they had no success or worse yet it smoked their drive which meant recovery was never going to happen. If your backed up and have a new drive what do you have to lose ?

The setup I got was under $20. I was trying to recapture and save some pictures that were irreplaceable. I took a gamble and it worked. I removed the old drive attached it to the SATA adapter, plugged in the power supply then the USB into another computer. It showed up as another drive and I was essentially able to read and save anything I wanted or needed from the drive that would not boot.

I have since used the adapter to clone many drives. Neat thing about cloning is it does operating system, all programs, pictures, files, settings everything.

It was a tough lesson and I know I probably got very lucky in recovering my data.

The question is do you feel lucky enough to try it and maybe risk losing the data for good. I was willing because I was not sending my drive away or paying the high $ fees.

Keep in mind my disclaimer below.

Good Luck hope you are successful.

(Adapter.jpg)

Adapter.jpg (76KB - 114 downloads)