[labradorlost]

I have an old hp laptop (with a whopping 5 gig hardrive )and a european model compaq, both started acting funny around the same time ( they would freeze or none of the files on the desktop would be their). I'm not exactly sure but I beleive it could be from a e-mail virus my wife opened (not once but twice!!!) on each computer. I'm going to reformat the HP and install xp but their are some files I would like to retrieve from the Compaq. If I'm not dreaming, how would I go about this? The computer will not start in any safe mode option, and if I do manage to retrieve these files how should I handle them so as not to reinfect my computer.
Is their anything I can do or do I just have 2 expensive paperweights ?
Labradorlost

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you could remove the hard drive from the laptop and get a 2.5 inch usb hard drive enclosure...then connect it to a working computer and immediately scan it with an antivirus program...being non bootable the virus programs (if any are present) shouldn't execute and infect the host machine...so you shouldn't have to worry too much about that...but obviously...take as many precautions as possible. once you scan it and clean it you can pull all the important files off the thing

[dsenette]

you could remove the hard drive from the laptop and get a 2.5 inch usb hard drive enclosure...then connect it to a working computer and immediately scan it with an antivirus program...being non bootable the virus programs (if any are present) shouldn't execute and infect the host machine...so you shouldn't have to worry too much about that...but obviously...take as many precautions as possible. once you scan it and clean it you can pull all the important files off the thing