Laptop disk failure

[chalkwellstu]

USB rebooting the machine is usually due to an IRQ conflict. Try disabling your COM ports in the BIOS, that'll usually free up enough spare IRQ lines to make the machine behave.

tried that Geoff to no avail.

[DMcCoy]

If your desktop reboots when you plug the usb drive in, either its the usb driver thats at fault or windows simply can't cope with the corrupt file system. Turn auto reboot off (system properties, advanced, startup and recovery. Untick automatically restart). See if it is really just rebooting or if you get a blue screen of death - if you do get a blue screen write down the error message.

[chalkwellstu]

If your desktop reboots when you plug the usb drive in, either its the usb driver thats at fault or windows simply can't cope with the corrupt file system. Turn auto reboot off (system properties, advanced, startup and recovery. Untick automatically restart). See if it is really just rebooting or if you get a blue screen of death - if you do get a blue screen write down the error message.

Hey thanks 'Bones' i gave that a try and got the BSOD, and it was basically a memory dump. HOWEVER, it didnt blow until i'd managed to get the files off it i needed

Many thanks to you, Synack,Flashsnaps and Geoff for bearing with me while i had a tantrum.