Blue screen came up saying something about ftdisk.sys

Now when I boot it says there was a disk error and to press ctrl+alt+del to restart... and it restarts to the same page... any ideas how to fix without losing my work?

Can you get into Safe Mode?

Try booting into Safe Mode options:

After the power-on and BIOS POST or your Logo screen repeatedly tap the F8 key or hold the Ctrl key before Windows starts.

If not what is the make and model of the computer?

What XP disks do you have?

Before it let's me hit f8 a screen comes up with my computer's specs and at the bottom it says <del> to resume or <f12> for boot menu. So I can't boot into safe mode.

It's a dell dimension 4400. I don't have the xp recovery disk. =/

Dell has an interactive trouble shooter here:

http://support.dell.com/

Click Troubleshooting and FAQ's then Dimension 4400 then

How Do I Install the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system on My Dell Computer?


As to your data in a worse case scenario you can slave this hard drive in another computer to transfer your data assuming that the hard drive is not mechanically damaged.

Originally Posted by jephree

As to your data in a worse case scenario you can slave this hard drive in another computer to transfer your data assuming that the hard drive is not mechanically damaged.

I guess I will reinstall windows then....

I didn't think about doing this with the harddrive... I'll do that, thanks.

No problem. Let us know how it goes or if we can help further.

I tried to put my harddrive in another computer to copy the files off and when the computer booted it said Harddrive S.M.A.R.T. Status Bad.

When I hit F1 to continue it booted normally and when I tried to access it, it wouldn't. I can't remember what it said, but it was some sort of error msg.

I'm going to install windows on a new harddrive I had, but is there anyway to get the info off the bad harddrive?

First off are you sure that the jumpers were set correctly? Slave? Assuming that you slaved it?

Secondly is there a manufacturer's label on the hard drive? What make is it? Most manufacturer's have diagnostic tools that you can run.

Originally Posted by jephree

First off are you sure that the jumpers were set correctly? Slave? Assuming that you slaved it?

Secondly is there a manufacturer's label on the hard drive? What make is it? Most manufacturer's have diagnostic tools that you can run.

Yes, I set his to master and mine to slave... then when that didn't work I tried a few other combos to no avail.

It's a western digital 40 gig, model - wd400bb-75clb0

Might as well run the diagnostic. This one works in Windows but there is also one that loads from a boot floppy if you should prefer:

http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=3