bad hard drive-windows xp won't boot

[mera1]

Getting message that "Pri Master SMART Status BAD, Backup and replace. Press
F1 to resume." When press F1, Windows starts to boot then get message
"Windows did not start successfully". Gives options to start windows in safe
mode, last known good configuration, and normal. Tried all, but just keeps
looping starting with the "Pri Master" message above. How can I backup data
when cant get into windows? Do I try a bootable CD to get into windows and
try to backup files before hard drive totally fails? Or is this the end of
the road?

 

[peter]

This is the end of the road........your backups should have been done
continously.
After the HD fails is not the time to be thinking of backing everything up..

At this stage its time to buy a new HD and reinstall everything
good luck

pk

 

[DL]

You can try slaving this hd on another sys.
But maybe too late

 

[ColTom2]

Purchase you a copy of Spinrite 6.0 and it most likely will fix your hard
drive problems for you. It's a bootable CD that transfers the good data out
of the bad sector to a good sector and then blocks out the bad sector from
being able to write back to it. Takes a little over an hour to run on
average HD at Level 2, which as I say repairs most failed HD's.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

I don't normally recommend purchasing a product, but this one is well
worth it for HD problems.


Getting message that "Pri Master SMART Status BAD, Backup and replace.
Press
F1 to resume." When press F1, Windows starts to boot then get message
"Windows did not start successfully". Gives options to start windows in
safe
mode, last known good configuration, and normal. Tried all, but just keeps
looping starting with the "Pri Master" message above. How can I backup data
when cant get into windows? Do I try a bootable CD to get into windows and
try to backup files before hard drive totally fails? Or is this the end of
the road?

 

[Twayne]

Isn't that a little overkill when chkdsk /r does the same thing?
Spinrite's a good product, but if that's all that's needed, chkdsk /r
will do the same thing, so, unless you already have Spinrite ... . To
verify this, run chkdsk /? from a command prompt and look at the R
switch.

Twayne