I am currently using Windows XP. I have not got the autorisation code and the 30 day trial has ended. I am goingto buy a ne copy in the next couple of day, but want t oretrive some files from my PC first as I do not want to lose them. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers

Simon

you will need another HD (or a second computer)

if you have access to a second computer (which you can open up without getting into trouble) plug the HD in as 'Slave' you do this by doing 2 things;
1- Position on the ribbon cable- most IDE ribbon cables have space for 2 drives, your master should be at the top, the slave plugged in to the other one
2- The jumpers- this is a little plastic component with metal contacts which shorts out 2 pins which tells the drive what it is. You need to make sure they are correct on both drives (master should be set as "master" or "DS Master" and slave should be "Slave" or "DS Slave. Alternativeley, you can set them both to "Cable select" (CS)

then, just copy and paste the files to a removable storage device, burn to cd/dvd or save on an external HDD

if you dont have access to a 2nd computer, you will need to get a 2nd hard drive. When you get windows, install it, register it and plug your other hard drive (with non-activated windows on) as slave (see instructions above), then, simply copy and paste to the other hard drive or some removable storage device.

It is reccomended to have Windows installed on a seperate drive (or partition of a drive) this is because, if you have a problem and need to re-install windows, you do not lose any important data.

Hope this helps
Mike