Hi, please can someone help me as i am desperate. I bought a laptop just over a year ago and have had hell with it ever since. About 6 months ago i went to turn it on and it just wouldn't load on to windows it just stayed on a blank screen so i had to face the decision to wipe my whole hardrive and lose all my software and work. Anyhow this worked although i had to start all over again with it. However the problems didnt stop here, i started getting a few little problems now and then, like it froze everyso often and made a strange beeping sound when i touched the keyboard, random error messages used to come up, and then my worst fears confirmed, i turned it on yesterday and it loads on to windows, i log on, however it just freezes. I cant click on anything, although the mouse moves around. I have been told that i have to wipe the hard dirve again, which i cant bare to do, as i have lots of software and work on it that i dont want to lose. PLEASE PLEASE can someone help me, or point me in the right direction where i can get help, or confirm that wiping the hard drive is the only way to get the computer back. I have tried quite a few things, such as starting it up in safe mode etc. none of them worked though. please i would be grateful for a reply form anyone that can suggest anything.

Call me a cynic, but is that a DELL laptop? Dell HATES making good computers.

If you are woried about loosing date then here is what you can do. If you are not intimidated by the idea of cracking that puppy open and playing in it's guts then you have to get a NEW harddrive, install that, and buy an external HD craddle for that old harddrive.

Otherwise, i strongly suggest the hammer method. Namely, hit it with a hammer until it stops complaining.

Welcome to D-A-L Perdita19

What is the make & model & number of the laptop?

Many manufacturers have both destructive & non-destructive recovery options.
They equate to either a Clean or Repair install using a full version XP CD.

Check your manual or post the above info & we can find it online.
Look for instructions on the non-destructive recovery options. This will save your data while reinstalling XP.

As newbie_geek points out in a worse case scenario you can remove the drive in order to extract its' data. This can be done on a standard PC with an adapter like this:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5160538.html#

thanks for the replies. i dont think removing the hard drive is an option as i dont have experience, or knowledge of doing this.

having spoken to Toshiba it looks like the only option is to reinstall windows and wipe the hard drive. i tried a system restore in safe mode which was unsuccessful. Also windows xp is not on a seperate CD (it is included on the recovery CD).

Make and model - Toshiba A30-141

thanks for the help

well i would like to take this oppourtunity to point out the wisdom and value of backing up your data. Might i suggest a USB 2.0 external HD, only costs 100 bux, maybe, but it saves well than twice that if you have a catastrophic crash.

Unfortunately everything I see RE: Toshiba XP recovery only offers the complete format option.

Depending on how valuable your data is removing the drive is fairly simple. You just need a desktop computer & the afore mentioned adapter.

We can walk you thru the process or you could seek out a local shop depending on the value to you.