Harddrive won't boot

[ComputerGeekInTraining]

Hello all.  I stumbled onto this forum through a google search and have been reading some of the posts.  I haven't found anything on exactly the problem I am having, so I thought would post.  Thanks in advance for any help. 

I have a hardrive that won't work, and I need to know if there is any way possible to get data off of it.

The defective harddrive is a Western Digital, model number:WD800BB-88JHC0
Operating System:  Windows XP Pro Version 2002 sp2
computer:  mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP-M 2800+
2.13 GHz 480 MB RAM
Virus protection: Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic

I read the topic "Please Read this first" and hope I have given enough information, but if I haven't let me know.

I did a really stupid thing and am a little emabarassed to tell my story, but my husband and daughter are extremely mad at me for losing their music and picture files, so here is my story...

I recently did a clean install of Windows Vista Business on my computer.  I did a clean install because I got the message telling me that it couldn't be verified that my copy of windows was genuine and would need to do a clean install.  I should have stopped there but didn't (first mistake).  The install did copy all of my files from XP into a folder called windows.old, so I still had all of my previous files.  After installing, Windows Vista didn't work well...there were so many computer compatability issues, so I decided I wanted to reinstall XP.  It wouldn't let me reinstall XP because of compatability issues, so I then (this is the really big mistake) I created another partition and installed XP on the new partition.  When I tried to reboot the computer, it would get stuck right after checking the harddrive.  I then bought a new harddrive and installed Windows XP on it which is working fine.  I am now wanting to get the music and picture files off of the defective harddrive but am having no success.  I set up the new harddrive as master and the old harddrive as slave and tried to boot up that way, but it is getting stuck when it checks the drives.  It comes up "status ok" and then stops.  The computer won't come on.  I also tried creating a bootable floppy disk and made the floppy drive my first bootable drive, but the same thing happens...it gets stuck at the same place.

Is there any way for me to get to the picture and music files on the bad harddrive and copy them to cd's or are my husband and daughter going to be mad at me forever?  Help!

[Computer_Commando]

...
The defective harddrive is a Western Digital, model number:WD800BB-88JHC0...
... I set up the new harddrive as master and the old harddrive as slave and tried to boot up that way, but it is getting stuck when it checks the drives.  It comes up "status ok" and then stops.  The computer won't come on.  I also tried creating a bootable floppy disk and made the floppy drive my first bootable drive, but the same thing happens...it gets stuck at the same place....

Same hard drive, same problem.  If I waited long enough, computer would finally boot, but was very slow.  I would go back to connecting old drive as slave and then boot Windows into Safe Mode (continue tapping F8 when computer starts up).  Menu will come up, select Safe Mode.

I'm not sure what the problem was or why it started, but I now believe it has something to do with the many partitions and the Partition Table is corrupted.
http://www.computerhope.com/fixmbr.htm

[ComputerGeekInTraining]

I tried the F8 key before and nothing happened.  It would just say it was going there but never did go.  I even left it overnight and still nothing.  I didn't try continually tapping the F8 key tho.  Would that make a difference?  I will try that.  Thank you.

[patio]

Yes it will make a difference...start doing it way before you see the Windows logo screen...

[ComputerGeekInTraining]

One more question...sorry, don't mean to be a pain.

I tried pressing the F8 key continually, but I'm still unable to get to the old harddrive.

If I reinstalled Windows Vista on the new harddrive, should I be able to get to the data on the old harddrive?  And, if so, could I do a clean install of Windows XP onto the new harddrive after I get the data off of the old harddrive or would there be a possibility that I would mess up the new harddrive also?

or...maybe I should just give up on this and learn something from this experience?

[Computer_Commando]

One more question...sorry, don't mean to be a pain.

I tried pressing the F8 key continually, but I'm still unable to get to the old harddrive.

If I reinstalled Windows Vista on the new harddrive, should I be able to get to the data on the old harddrive?  And, if so, could I do a clean install of Windows XP onto the new harddrive after I get the data off of the old harddrive or would there be a possibility that I would mess up the new harddrive also?

or...maybe I should just give up on this and learn something from this experience?

No, don't hold down the F8 key, key tapping it.
Vista?  Stick with XP.
The issue is the old hard drive, not what you do with the new.  Get that old hard drive to boot, whatever it takes.