My computer crashed and i got it fixed but they never knew why it crashed originally. Since then it has "crashed" again. It loops the Dell menu and it will not load windows at all. It wasnt at first but is now asking for a password. I dont remember my password or know if thats what it even wants. Someone please help, I really need to get it to work even just long enough to back up what i have on it.1 person needs an answerI do too

Retrieve the data with one of the methods below. Then I suggest you take it to a better tech. Don't use a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place. If retrieving the data doesn't sound like something you can do, the tech can do it for you. 1. Pull the drive and put it in a USB drive enclosure or use a USB drive adapter. Attach this to a computer running a working install of XP/Vista/Windows7. Use the working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd or copy it to an external hard drive. I prefer not to do this if I know the drive is infected because there is a chance of infecting the host system. In these cases, I use #2 below. 2. You can boot the target computer with a Bart's PE (XP only) or a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix or Ubuntu and retrieve the data that way. This has the additional advantage of telling you whether the problems you're having are hardware or software-related because if the computer behaves perfectly under Linux you know that Windows (software) is the culprit. Conversely, if the computer misbehaves under Linux you will know that there is a hardware problem. Here is general information on using Knoppix for data retrieval when you can't get into Windows: You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a CD/DVD burner OR a USB thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external USB hard drive. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable CD*. If you are doing this in an older operating system (XP or Vista), you'll need third-party burning software like Nero, Roxio, or the free ImgBurn (Windows 7 can burn .isos natively). Burn as an image, not as data. Then boot with the CD you created and Knoppix will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the USB thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use the K3b program. *If your computer only has one optical drive and you want to use that drive to burn data or need to test the drive, you can create a bootable USB thumb drive running Linux instead of a bootable CD. This website will show you how to do that - http://www.pendrivelinux.com http://www.knoppix.net http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder Also see - http://lifehacker.com/5504531/the-complete-guide-to-saving-your-windows-system-with-a-thumb-drive And for future disaster recovery strategies - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Backing_Up MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!