Acer notebook won't boot Vista

[banjankri]

Normally I know enough about computers to fix the problems I create myself, but from time to time a problem springs up and I have no idea how to fix it, or even what the problem actually is. 

My laptop won't boot up Windows Vista.  It blue screens about 5 seconds into Vista loading up, then it retarts itself.  The Repair utitilities that I can run won't touch whatever the problem is.  I've run system restore but it doesn't do anything.  And I thought I had backups made, but apparently the backup utility won't even recognize them.  I'm aware that the easiest solution to my problem is to just re-install Windows, but Acer never gave me a re-install cd.  Apparently it's been put onto a Partition on the hard drive that never gets deleted when you re-install.  Only problem is, before I do re-install it (however I manage to do that) there's some pretty important crap I need off the C drive, and possibly the D drive. 

Now, it's been lying around for a bout a month, my laptop and I'm getting pretty sick of not being able to use it.  I've thought about at least 3 solutions, but I'm not sure if they'll actually work.  Solution one is the laptop hard drive adapter I've got.  Should make it so that I can plug the hard drive from my laptop into the cables on my PC and get the info I need that way, but I'm not sure how to do it, and when I did it before with some test hard drives it never worked.  Solution two goes hand in hand with my loathing of Vista, and that was just to install XP onto the system, but I have a 64 bit processor and I dunno if 32 bit xp will run, plus I'd need all the drivers to even make anything work.  And solution three was to use someone's Vista installation dvd to do practically the same thing and once I had the info I'd just erase everything and start over. 

Now, if anyone has any ideas or anything of use I am eternally grateful!

Oh, the error code from the bluescreen...
0x0000007b (0x80599bb0, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

[patio]

0x0000007B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
(Click to consult the online MSDN article.)
Windows lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process. Typical causes: Installing incorrect device drivers when installing or upgrading storage adapter hardware, or a virus.

Courtesy: MSDN.

The best option it sounds to me is to hook up the drive to a Desktop to retrieve your data and start over.

                               

As far as which OS to go with that can only be determined by you. I'd say that if you're frustrated with Vista then upgrading to XP would be a good choice...it will run fine on a 64bit CPU.
You need to spend some time however at Acer's site to make sure that machine has XP drivers for all the components.

I'd leave the hidden partition intact as well so you have the option down the road should you decide to return to the Vista Experience.

The adapter above is about 8 Bucks at any PC store...it's known as a 2.5" to IDE adapter.
Good Luck and keep us posted.

[Eg0Death]

0x0000007b (0x80599bb0, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

This error relates inaccessible boot device.   Did anything change before you started getting the restarts? 

Getting the data off the hard disk is recommended. 

[banjankri]

If XP will operate on the processor, can't I just install it and access the information I need from the other partitions using it, then re-install Vista?  So, let's say I do that, install XP onto a newly made partition and try to run it, how do I go about getting all the drivers I need?  Will the computer be functional enough to do that, if it doesn't have any drivers how's it going to work?

As for hooking the lappy HD to my desktop, I'd love to, but I'm unsure how to do it as to avoid damaging either my PC or the HD for my laptop.  I mean, it seems fairly straight forward, but aren't there compatibility issues if the HD for the notebook requires SATA cables and all that business?  Aside from that, the connector to the cables on the PC has an extra pin that there is no receiver for on the cables on my PC.