4th Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD

Okay, I know my hard disk is dying, and I need to back up my files before it goes. Can anyone tell me how to do that (maybe step by step)? I'm pretty decent at computers and programming, but not at troubleshooting hardware problems. I just purchased an external hard drive so I can back up the files I need. Could somebody explain to be how to do this? When I press F1 to continue from the error on startup, it gives me another one:

Windows could not start, following file is missing or corrupt:
<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please reinstall a copy of that above file

How do I copy this file (could I copy it from a disk from a friends XP OS?) I would really like to get into XP (in any mode) so I could backup the data.

Also, I heard it suggested that I could slave the bad drive to another PC and access the files from there. How would I do that exactly?

If anyone can give me a play by play so as I could simply backup my data as easily as possible it would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
papercrate

 

I would recommend getting Norton Ghost for this task OR if you purchase a new drive it comes with a program for cloning your existing hard drive.

Your best bet would be to use your external drive internally in your PC with Windows XP installed and put your new INTERNAL drive (most ext USB drives can be used as internal if you take them apart) and your current internal drive chained together on the IDE channel.

If you have the program disk that originally came with your current bad hard drive (maxblast for maxtor) you can use it to simply clone your failing drive to the new drive by putting the maxblast boot floppy in the PC and choosing the drive to drive copy.

Using it Externally with NO working OS would require you to find a working windows XP system and connect your drive internally and the other externally and copy files that way.

Ghost Sometimes can clone your existing drive to an external one but it does not always support every external USB drive. Basically you would boot off the Norton Ghost disk and it would allow you to clone your current drive to the external one outside of windows.

All of the above is ONLY possible though if your drive still functions.

Good Luck