HELP! Computer Down

[patmac6075]

I have another causality....
My Compaq DC5000MT Pentium4 3.2GHz 1GB RAM running WIN XP pro picked up some sort of virus a couple of weeks ago. Thought I could just go back to a good setting from a couple of months ago....it worked (albeit much slower) for a few days. Came into my office this morning and the Hard Drive was just spinning away....tried to click on the screen....nothing so I just shut the power down.
When I tried to power back....nothing...just a black screen....shut it down and tried to start up in Safe Mode, goes through about 3 lines of what can best be described as DOS code....then freezes up again.
The computer is not so important to me as the data on my HD (No, of course I didn't back it up ).
Any help would be very much appreciated.

[S Templar]

Hi do you have the original install Cd?

Boot from the Xp install Cd...when prompted press [R]
Choose Windows installation [typically by pressing [1]
When prompted for password.
Press Enter.
Type chkdsk /r [note space ]
When fininshed.
Type Exit
And press Enter.

If no joy - repeat the above and type
chkdsk /f

Or..
Safe mode with command prompt..
Log on as administrator.
Type.
%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

This should launch System Restore.
Choose date prior to the problem.

This looks complicated - but it has worked for me.
How to use Linux live Cd to backup files from a dead Pc

Rescue Cd.
http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootab...download-list/