My hard disk crashed when reloading software. It crashed once about a week ago and I got it back. Not this time. I get this message:

1720-SMART Hard Drive detects imminent failure (Failing Attr: 02)
PLease back up the contents of the hard drive and run HDD Self Test in F10 Setup.

How do I back up the contents when I can not get to it?
When I press F10 it goes to Computer setup. I've tried all the Safe Modes and they all go back to the 1720-SMART Drive failure screen.

I bought Avanquest System Suite 9 which has a boot disk but all I can do with it is see the hard disk. It did some kind of test and everything passed. The files are there under the explore of this software but I can't get to them. Any suggestions? Jan

I am not familiar with that software but what error do you get or what exactly happens?

What prevents you from "getting to them"?

Another alternative is to slave this drive in another computer or put it in an USB enclosure to retrieve your data.

Everything I try goes back to this :
1720-SMART Hard Drive detects imminent failure (Failing Attr: 02)
PLease back up the contents of the hard drive and run HDD Self Test in F10 Setup.

It's a black screen with the above message at the top. There is a blue box at the bottom that says F1 and ignore. It also says F10=ROM Based Setup.

F1 takes me to the screen where I can choose Safe Mode or the other modes which go back to the above 1720 Smart message.

When it crashed, I had started a software loading and left for the evening. When I came back I had the blue screen of death. There was a storm when we were gone so power may have gone off.

I can't get to the "C" drive or just don't know how. I don't know how to slave it to my desktop. I also do not know what you mean by put it in a USB enclosure. I am typing this on my desktop. It is my laptop that is crashed. I have to leave for a couple of hours but will check back later. Thank you for any advice.

Originally Posted by janstitching

I bought Avanquest System Suite 9 which has a boot disk but all I can do with it is see the hard disk. It did some kind of test and everything passed. The files are there under the explore of this software but I can't get to them.

As said I do not know this software but you implied as a boot disk it can see your files but you cannot access them.

I was wondering why? Is there an error or is this software not capable of doing this?

If an error you may simply need to take ownership of the files as seen here:

How to take ownership of a file or a folder in Windows XP

Basically you need a new hard drive and reinstall XP. Assuming you have data to retrieve you can remove the hard drive from the laptop and connect it to your desktop. Either internally with an IDE adapter or externally with a USB enclosure.

Another shot would be to boot a Live CD such as Ubuntu in order to access the files but again you need somewhere to move them e.g. another hard drive.

Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

Thanks Will try these.