Hi.
I have gotten great help on this forum before with a badly infected computer.

Now I have an old laptop which is not definitely infected, but my first mission is not to save it -- just to get a few files off it.

The only way into the computer is via floppy, or I suppose, network or USB.

The CD drive died last week.

I did not have a backup of a few current files. Now XP Pro will only boot part way, complaining of missing or corrupt OS files.

I BELIEVE that the files I want to recover are small enough to fit onto a floppy.

I want to do this, if anyone can lead me in the right direction:
Boot it up with a floppy. (It does boot with a Win95 floppy, but won't recognize drive)
Get the 10G drive recognized.
Browse the directory structure and copy the files to spare space on the floppy, or onto a new floppy,
or if it is somehow not impossible, copy them to a USB thumb drive (I have a thumb drive with Win98 drivers).

I have Google searched over and above my normal desperation search and everything is bootable CD, but that won't cut it here.

Please help.

J
(PS Please move me if in wrong forum)

{Moved to more appropriate forum~~boopme}

When the going gets tought, the tough get going, was xp using ntfs or fat 32?

It would be easy if you could borrow an drive adapter

Thank you, my tough friend.

ntfs.

J

that's why a dos boot floppy will never see the drive, it's going to be a tall mountain to load enough into ram from floppies to copy those files, and then if they are in my documents and they were encrypted it will turn into steep slope mountaineering

With a cable adapter and a couple of quick tricks, even that will be overcome

Hmmm...
A. I can try to fix the CD drive. It powers and lights but the PC has stopped recognizing it, even at boot. Load an OS or reinstall XP.
B. I can wait til the day I "find" an adapter and put the HD in a regular computer.
3. I thought I remembered a utility from SysInternals that accessed a HD through ethernet, but maybe I dreamed it. (It's not on their site)
4. Other.

J

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....amp;name=2.5%22

you could just drop it into an enclosure(if it fits)

or try to find something like this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16812232002

if it works?

abandoning task for forseeable future.

I have a spare CD drive for it somewhere in storage back home. Will try that one day if I don't get the files off by another way.

Thanks for your help, Wookie Man.

J

Getting one of those adapters or cases has been one of my roundtuits for quite a while

Course now we have sata hard drives in laptops, about the time I get all the tools I need they up and change on me

Laptops are a real pain

Masscool has a enclosure I got from newegg that accepts IDE or SATA. Around 20 bucks