Question about backing up hard drive after floppy boot?

Question

I have a Maxtor One Touch 300GB External USB hard drive. My friends computer won't boot and the Windows boot floppy's don't work. I was wondering if there are any other programs that I can install to a boot floppy that I can use to back up his hard drive onto my USB hard drive. I searched and searched and cannot find anything that even relates to this topic. Please help! He is using Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2 and we want to reformat it and reinstall everything afterward but we can't. (since it won't boot of course!)

Answer 1

If he has the windows os on a CD, I would reinstall windows and then copy everything under that.
Doing it with a boot floppy (98?) you would need the appropriate usb drivers and even then, copying under DOS is a piecemeal thing, you can't just copy everything in one fall swoop.
If XP home won't install on this disc, you could use a fresh new drive, install the operating system on it and then copy everything from the present drive, after hooking it up as a slave.
Low costs for new drives see: http://www.pricewatch.com

Answer 2

Try this........
It works for mine after a crash........

Unplug everything all wires and plugs.......
Next remove your internal battery (small round disk)
Now hold the power button in for 5 minutes.......

This clears your memory or something lol

Put the battery back in the side panel back on and all your cables and plugs.......

Now cross your fingers and pray, then push the power button......
If it powers up it should work fine , if it powers up and has issues then try System Restore to a prior date......

If this fails write all your info down pertaining to the serial number and model number then go to another computor
(library, friend neighbor)

Contact customer support online from microsoft.com then click the online customer support link..... Talk with a Tech for free
If his putor is under warranty call that support.....

If all else fails you can get phone support from the manufacturor,
for a 1 time fee ussually about $49.00 to $79.00.....

Good Luck Hope the first thing works for ya..........

Answer 3

Try taking the hard drive out of his computer and putting it as a second drive in your computer. Then you should be able to access the drive and move the information off it to either your PC or the external drive.

Answer 4

http://www.novacomputers.net/format.htm <