First and foremost, if you have important files that are not backed up
and that you want to retrieve your first plan of action should be to
undertake a file recovery operation instead of an operating system
rescue operation. You should only attempt to repair the disk or file
system or operating system *after* you have salvaged your important
files! To salvage your files you will have to remove the disk from the
laptop and then mount it to another computer. You could put the disk in
a USB enclosure or use a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter and mount the disk in a
desktop computer and then use the other computer to clone the disk and
examine it to see if your files can be recovered.
We don't know exactly what is wrong with the laptop, all you can do
(after salvaging your files) is try the recommended fixes and see what
happens. *Anything* can happen when you try to fix these kinds of
problems, if all goes well the computer may boot as if nothing ever
happened and if it doesn't go so well everything on the disk might be
lost... if it isn't already. Hardware glitches, software glitches or
user errors can lead to complete data loss, it's the kind of thing that
you have to be aware of and accept as you proceed with the attempted
repairs.
Using the Recovery Console is usually quite safe, you won't be
installing it on the drive, you will only be booting to it with the
Windows XP CD. The Recovery Console looks like a DOS environment (but
it isn't DOS). You enter your commands as you would in DOS and when
you're done you exit and try to boot the computer and keep your fingers
crossed and see if your attempts are successful. By and large using the
Recovery Console doesn't cause any more problems than the already
existing ones but as I said earlier, anything can happen!
Keep in mind that there is *always* a risk of data loss when you run
chkdsk, this is true even if you have no perceived problems with the
Windows installation. If the disk is a bit "iffy" the risk of data loss
might be a bit greater. Usually, or most of the time, all goes fairly
well and there is no data loss at all, but there is always a risk that
things might not go so well. I always cringe a bit when I run chkdsk on
a bad disk, I kind of close my eyes when I hit the <Enter> key and hope
for the best! You're at the point where you have few other choices, if
you want to try to fix things you have to make decisions and accept the
consequences.
As I said earlier, you don't need to install the Recovery Console and
you wouldn't want to even try to install it on a bad disk or while
attempting to repair a broken Windows installation, you just want to run
it from the Windows XP CD. To start the Console select the repair or
recover option by pressing R, this is explained in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
John
