this may well be long winded, my computer has been running fine until 2 days ago, everytime i started it up it would get as far as the windows xp start screen then the computer would restart and would continue to do this until i just switched it off. i have a duel bios mb so tried booting from back up bios but again it would only go as far as the xp start screen then restart. it will not even start in safe mode, it starts to load then freezes. i then tried booting from cd and running the windows repair consul, i have tried to run chkdsk but it freezes at 35%. i then went and BOUGHT another hd and a new copy of the windows xp home, set this up and used my old hd as slave in the hope i could access all my files this way, but to no avail, it shows up as c:/ but when i try to open it i get the message that the drive is inaccessible, is there anyway i am able to GAIN access to this defunked drive? any advice would be appreciated. I use a program from runtime software called Getdataback NTFS that works very well, but costs money.. The last time I mentioned that software someone here suggested an alternative which was free... Hopefully they will respond with that free program to save you some money... I will dig through google to see if I can find the free one. But I know that Getdataback NTFS works great fro bummed drives having used it many times in the past for clunking crashed drives as well as drives like yours.if it saves my hd then i don't mind paying, my kids are devastated as there is stuff on it they want SAVED and am more annoyed with myself for not backing stuff up for the last couple of months, a lesson learned there i think, cheers for that matehttp://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

Here is a link to the software I use called GetDataback NTFS.... There is a free download to try against your system. If the trial version detects all your data you can then grab 5 free files with it and PAY $80 if you want to buy it to get all your data.

*** I am hoping that someone will share that free programs link to save you some money.

Download link is here to save you from navigating if you want to try it out.

http://www.runtime.org/gdbnt.zip
Good Luckdude, i can't thank you enough for pointing me to this programme, i downloaded the trail version and ran it, O.M.G i can't BELIEVE this is on sale for just £40 ($80), not only is the easiest programme to use it is well worth more than what they sell it for, like i say, i can't thank you enough, cheers mate, and if we ever meet... the drinks are on me,