My Maxtor 6E040L0 finally died this morning, it's been making noises for a few weeks now, so it's my own stupid fault for burying my head in the sand.
I can't start Windows (XP Home) at all. Not in safe mode or anything else. I downloaded the 6 floppy start up discs from Microsoft but they didn't work. I got an error message on disk 5 and it wouldn't go any further.
Then I remembered I had a Maxtor Utility CD that I downloaded about 2 years ago when I had a problem before. I ran that and it recommended a full scan. Did that and it gave the error code caa2a770. It also said back up your data now and replace this hard drive. I did go to Maxtors site to find what the code meant but couldn't get anywhere, I even tried the support forum on there but it wouldn't accept my password and I couldn't get in.
I've had a very frustrating morning and I'm not techy at all, so i find this stuff really hard to understand. So, my questions are:
How can I back up data from a broken hard drive? Or have I lost all my stuff (there is some very important data on there for my husband's business).
Is there any way this drive can be fixed, rather than replaced?
Any other suggestions/advice greatfully received - I don't have much money and can't afford to buy a new PC and even if I get one on my credit card (eek!), can I get hold of the data on my old hard drive or not?
Sorry if this sounds stupid - I really have no clue what I'm talking about and I'm typing this on my husband's PC and he is not very happy with me right now, so I'm panicking a bit.
thanks for reading.
PS hubby is even less techy than me and thinks if we open the PC and look at the hard drive there might be some fluff or something on it that will fix the problem. Is this true?