OK, finally got it to boot from the CD (had to press F2 as soon as switched on). Unfortunately tho, the continuing saga is that it doesn't give me an option to repair! Will I have to 'slave' it, or are there still other easier options for getting my data?

I've just looked up Hard Drive Recovery Tutorial - How To Slave A Hard Drive but if anyone else has any tips & tricks, assuming I do have to slave it.

Oh, I also ordered Linux and also a Windows PC Repair disk( PC Repair, Recovery, Boot CD for Windows XP / Vista - eBay Repair, Rescue Recover, System Utilities Maintenance, Software, Computers Networking. (end time 20-Aug-09 15:37:19 AEST) ). The Linux guy said I would be able to recover my data when I load that. Anyone got any comments on those options?

Loosie,

How about this as an alternative to slaving your hard disk....

This may be the same thing that you just purchased off e-bay

Try to boot your system off a Linux LiveCD first to see if you can actually access your SATA hard drive. Ubuntu, Knoppix, PCLOS are just some live cds available. They are free to download and use.

Either just download an ISO from any of the Linux sites like http://distrowatch.com/ or just buy a copy from any vendor listed on any linux site. They cost next to nothing ( usually just the cost of the blank disc plus shipping). You could even pick one up from the cover of a Linux magazine.

Once you've Burnt/Bought your live CD just insert it in your CD drive and reboot your PC (make sure your bios is set to boot of CD before your hard drive).

No need to open your PC case or install anything. Everything runs off the CD and you get to access Windows partitions.

OK, after getting Ubuntu up & working, transferring my files to the other computer, I switched on my computer one morning & it started up in Windows! It's been a few days since & it's been pretty much OK! Well, a couple of times it's booted & gone into the blue screen for 'scanning disk for errors'. The first time it did this, it completed the scan, but then froze. I rebooted & 'esc' out of the scan now, which sometimes still happens, but have no other problems.

Now I have loaded Ubuntu properly, as another partition. I'm undecided whether I should ditch Windows all together on this machine yet, whether that would help. I also have my 'puters networked, and this is working fine for Windows but I'm about to go to the networking sect to get help trying to network Ubuntu.

Loosie,

You'll want to keep all Ubuntu questions here in Linux. This is where the staff that knows the Linux and variations will hang out. An Ubuntu networking thread in the Networking area of the forum won't get the responses you need.

Thanks!

Loosie,

Were you able to get your questions addressed? I know that I have seen a few Linux threads - perhaps they were related?

Please let us know if you require anything further.

Hi,
Sorry I didn't get back to this one. Windows was still being temperamental & also Ubuntu wasn't working well because it had such a small partition - Windows taking up the rest of the disk, so I ditched Windows. Now I just have to work out how to network this Ubuntu machine to my other Windows one, to get at that by remote desktop. See my thread under Linux if you think you can help there.... PLEASE!!

Thanks for your time.