the computer died, help!

[saraL]

my brother's computer has died. ...we think. first there was the blue screen of death and now it won't even open in safe mode. we think he'll have to buy windows 7 and reformat his whole computer. [losing everything]

i just checked the prices at staples and the best price is $150ish [with tax and everything] why does stuff have to stop working right before the holidays when you have no money anyway?

does anyone know any promo codes/coupons/whatever for staples?

[scam-master]

Have you the backup cd's to reinstall windows?

[saraL]

he has a vista disk and was checking out to see if he could just upgrade from windows xp [that's what he was using, we went through a ton of drama a couple of years ago getting vista OFF his computer and it screwing up] to vista without losing all his stuff but that's not possible. he'll have to reformat for sure.

i'm kicking myself for not buying windows 7 when it was so cheap.

[jampack]

You can get a disc of Windows 7 from a friend and try it for 30 days before buying it.

[MrDisco]

my brother's computer has died. ...we think. first there was the blue screen of death and now it won't even open in safe mode. we think he'll have to buy windows 7 and reformat his whole computer.

Why do you think you have to purchase Win7? Don't you have your copy of XP still?

Depending on how skilled you are there's a pretty good chance you wont loose everything but it will require a little bit of know-how:
1. buy an external HD chasis/adapter. i.e.:
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=28...re=Thermaltake
(just an example. you'll need to know if the PC uses IDE or SATA HDs)
2. remove the hard drive from the PC
3. connect the adapter+suspect HD to a different, working PC
4. Windows will detect the external adapter and provided the drive isn't corrupted, you'll be able to browse and copy all of your data off of it
5. Run a full (not a quick) format on the HD. if there are any errors buy a new HD.
6. Pop the HD back into the PC and install your OS+apps. Copy your data back.

Depending on how important the data is the above is a pretty cheap way to get it back. If you feel you can't do it there are tons of places that will do a similar job for you.

i just checked the prices at staples and the best price is $150ish [with tax and everything]
does anyone know any promo codes/coupons/whatever for staples?

just sign up for their newsletter and they'll send your a coupon code on their next cycle (usually every 3 weeks or so). or scour the web..they're always posted.

You can get a disc of Windows 7 from a friend and try it for 30 days before buying it.

that doesn't accomplish much. the op is better off getting a copy of Vista (upgrade edition) and running that. good chance they'll keep their data intact and they'll move up to Vista in one shot.

[fleetingleaf]

I agree with MrDisco, just take the hard-drive from the computer and turn it into an external hard drive and take the data from it using another computer.

In the future I also suggest splitting your hard drive into two, so you have a C: drive and a D: drive. Install the OS on C and all your data on D, that way if you need to re-install an OS you do it on the C drive but won't lose the data on the D drive.