I have Packard Bell machine its around 3 years old Recently it really slowed right down, taking ages to process webpages and other info, whilst giving off a continuous processing noise from the hard drive. Then lastnight as I tried to boot up so that I could run virus software etc it began repeatedly processing the windows XP startup page and then rebooting.

I rarely use this machine now as I have a new laptop but it dos have alot of precious photos and uni work on it that I never quite got around to backing up! I would run the recovery process but that will erase everything - is there a way to recover the info on it at all?

Your help is much appreciated!

Ash, August 2006

You don;tr say what Operating System you are using but I'll guess Windows 98 or Windows ME. The reason that your machine slowed down is because the hard disk got fragmented. Try starting the machine and pressing F8. Then select SAFE MODE. When you are there select: Programs, accessories, system tools, defragment hard disk. It will take a long time so you may want to do it over night. Once it is done try booting again. The run disk Disk Cleanup from Accessories again and then do another defrag. If this doesn't work or you need more, do a repost with more information like what does it do instead of boot?

Terry, August 2006