Laptop won't boot -can I load up XP to ram and get files?

rubadub

My dell inspiron just gets the normal screen at the start and then the white underscore in the top left corner just blinks and nothing happens. I cannot get a safemode or anything. I went into the settings and did a diagnostic check and all seems OK. I put in a XP disk and it recognised the HD as the correct size.

I have a "ubuntu" linux boot disk which loads to RAM, is there a way to get XP to load to RAM like this, and then would I be able to at least back up my important files and then format the whole thing again.

Or any other suggestions?

Tallon

If ubuntu boots into it you can access all your files that way. i've done it many a time and took all files off a PC without booting XP

rubadub

Do I need an external HD formatted to some linux format though? The laptop is NTFS and my external is NTFS, however I do have a 16GB usbstick which I could wipe and reformat if neccessary.

If I could just drag and drop to the external it would be perfect.

Tallon

Yeah you should be able to just drag and drop to any source

MarkR

If you follow this guide you should be able to run ubuntu from the 16gb drive and copy over any files to your usb hard drive or the flash drive itself.

rubadub

Brilliant! thanks guys, will let you know how I get on later.

Tallon

MarkR wrote: »

If you follow this guide you should be able to run ubuntu from the 16gb drive and copy over any files to your usb hard drive or the flash drive itself.

Not necessary, he can already boot to Ubuntu

ricman

Plug in an external drive, and just boot up linux, and drag files over to drive e, or f,external driVE.
You could install linux mint if theres 5 gig of free hardrive space.And burn files to cdr disk.
see here http://linuxmint.com/

Snowbat

rubadub wrote: »

Do I need an external HD formatted to some linux format though? The laptop is NTFS and my external is NTFS, however I do have a 16GB usbstick which I could wipe and reformat if neccessary.

NTFS write support has been available in most Linux distributions since 2007.

MarkR

Sorry, hadn't read it fully. Drag and drop and sorted.

rubadub

Back up & running! many thanks to all.

Only hiccup was when I put in the external drive it could not mount it, it said if I had windows I would have to plug it in and properly do that "safely remove USB device" thing down near the clock. Seemed to think it was still in use by windows, it also gave some commands to try to force it but they didn't seem to work, though I have no clue about linux. Anyway put the HD in another PC and removed properly and it mounted no problem then.

mach1982

If it ia a Live CD, you'll need to go to /mnt/media/ as the Live CD will see your drive as external drive .

softdancomputer

Or if you're more happy with Windows, use UCBD4Win http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm