Need to backup a damaged hard drive..help

[markiezzi]

Hello,

I have a customers laptop that the boot.ini file is damaged. I tried to restore windows xp home using the XP cd and running the repair utility but it comes up with the file system currupt and chkdsk won't even run. I need a program that will work in dos or as a bootable cd that will allow me to access the file system and back up directories to an external cd/dvd burner. I tried running knoppix and I can not figure out how to get the directory to copy to a cd or dvd. When I mount the drive it says something like dirty drive was force loaded. Any help would be great.

Computer information: Toshiba satellite laptop running windows XP home

Thanks
Mark

[seedubya]

Why don't you just remove the drive and connect it to another PC using an adapter?

[tartis]

Buy an external drive adapter or enclosure for a 2.5 inch drive. Also pick one up for SATA and IDE for future jobs. You can then attatch to your PC via USB and get his data.

[Nathan H]

I totaly agree 100% with Tartis,

I have an IDE HDD to Laptop Adaptor,
A SATA to USB 2.0 Adaptor
and a USB 2.0 to IDE adaptor, then if I have a situation like yours i can connect the drive to my pc and either extract their data direct to CD/DVD or on to a partion on my HDD.

A Word from the wise: Never extract their data directly to your partion, who knows what Viruses/Spyware is on the HDD.

I learnt this the hard way a few years ago, and ended up having to format my HDD, ...........