This problem is on a Toshiba Satellite Pro A10 running XP Home. On starting I get the Toshiba start-up screen and there is a regular clicking from the HDD. After 20-30 seconds I get:

IDE #0 ERROR

then a pause, followed by the following codes from the boot agent (Intel FE v4.1.09)

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent
Insert system disc in drive.

I have a nasty feeling that the HDD has died. I can replace it if required, but is there any way of extracting the files from it before I go this far?

I have the System recovery discs, but they appear to wipe all the data from the HDD, so I haven't gone that far yet. I also have PC Beginner available which looks a bit more hopeful, but I'm going to be on a learning curve on this one.

using a desktop computer and an adapter like this I would try to save any data files first and maybe do some diagnostics after that

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_...6&sku=17705

I wouldn't spend a lot of money on that laptop unless I had already replaced the battery and upgraded the ram

It's likely that the IDE error is referring to a problem with your hard drive.
The other stuff (the lines starting with PXE) are the computer trying to boot from a network - which is what it'll try to do when it can't find a hard drive to boot from.

The definitive test would be to run a bootable diagnostic on your system. You can get one from the website of the manufacturer of your hard drive (usually for free).

Not having much luck finding a bootable diagnostic so far, still looking.

Meanwhile, I've got an adapter cable but need to check one thing. There are more pins on the HDD than sockets on cable. There is a group of 4 pins on the right, then a gap, then the main group of 44 pins. The top right pin of the main group is marked pin #1. I'm assuming this matches up with the socket marked with an arrow head on the cable. Does that sound about right?

the 4 pins are for the power?, look in a regular computer at the power connectors on older hard drives(ide) or cd-roms, is it like them?

Pic attached, the four pins are the ones at the right. I guessed at power, but can't confirm it.

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=Serv...eJumperSettings

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=Serv...eJumperSettings

that should be the jumper block of pins and you can ignore