It's been a while now that i have not been able to use my laptop. I purchased it about 5 years ago with ME and I upgraded to XP a short time after that. I never had problems and about 5 months ago i started my computer and the desktop was empty. My background is there but no start bar or icons. I can see whats on my computer from the windows task manager, but i am unable to open or use any program or file. I have the restore disks but it says it will delete any created files. What can I do to save my files and fix the problem? oh and another thing I've lost my XP cd. I read if you put your xp cd in the drive it can fix the problems. My friend has an upgrade XP cd, but will that work or do u need a full, non-upgrade cd to help? Im getting a new laptop soon so i guess i dont really need to completly fix my broken one, I just really need to get those files out of there? Can someone help me?

You can get a laptop adapter that you can use with the new one to slave the old HD and extract the data. http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5160538.html#