Hi marioc,

The fixes i listed should work unless you have major hardware failure. A bluescreen is generally an indication that this is not the case. Try the above. It should atleast get you into windows to be able to backup your data, then you can reinstall windows if need be.

If you can post back what the error on the bluescreen says there may be something easier you can do.

Just to add my two cents worth-- unless the drive has been physically destroyed (as in with a hammer-- or a torch) you can recover the data-- it just depends on how much you're prepared to invest ( how much is that data worth ?)
Laboratory-level data recovery companies catch criminals from drives that have been deliberately wiped to "military specs" ...Overwritten up to 10 times-- the data is almost indestructable-- at least partial files can be pieced together-- painstaking stuff and $$$$$$$$$-- but they get convictions.

Well it's for a client and I don't think she'll go that far into getting her data because it's not that crucial.

I'll post what error it gives me in a sec...

My 2 cents worth Hope shes not paying for this because if you just want to extract the data a USB enclosure is the quickest way to get to the data. Why waste 2 hour screwing around when you could get the data in 5 mins or less.

The blue screen reads: Stop : c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\systemRoot\system32\config\software
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Beginning dump of physical memory
Dumping physical memory to disk: ## (counting down with numbers)

And when it says that, it'll count down to a number and restart and go back to the same blue screen; it just loops.

Matt is quite right-- though that drive won't boot... if it spins up-- you could get the data off by slaving that drive to another-- you may be able to read/extract those files even though the registry is corrupted.