About to throw my PC off a cliff.........Please Help

OK, so this is my last ditch attempt to recover what's on my computer. I am not a savvy user, but have tried just about everything at this point that I can find on the web. Here's the problem. My computer has been stuck in "configuring updates 3 of 3 0% complete" loop for over a week now. It will continuously get nowhere and then restart itself. I've tried everything you can try from the F8 menu but cannot (1) enter into safe mode nor safe mode with networking, (2) restore to an earlier point because when I get to that option, I am told "no restore points are saved on this drive". I think this is because I was getting warnings a few weeks back that the c: drive was full and I needed to delete a lot of stuff (my kid was saving video files, etc on the computer). The only things I seem to be able to do are either: (1) hit F12 and get into the boot menu, or (2) get into safe mode with command prompt. However, I've tried various commands I found on the internet once in command prompt and have so far had no luck. And, i'm told if I do anything from the boot menu, like re-install my windows software, I will wipe out all my personal files.

So, if I can't restore to an earlier point and can't re-install my software, are there any other options, either from command prompt or otherwise, that can break this loop at least long enough that I can extract my files form the computer before reinstalling windows? HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!

Hello Mailbox, and welcome to Vista Forums

There is a way in which you can save your data,
You can download Ubuntu Desktop, burn it onto a CD,
and then extract your files.
Visit this page and follow the instructions,
If you have any questions about how to proceed,
then just ask, there are enough members on this forum who can help you with that.

Good luck
Sweet

Thanks, but this didn't help. I can't use my computer that I'm trying to fix because I can't get it out of the loop. I tried downloading Ubuntu onto a disc from a different computer and then tried turning on the problem computer with this disc in the drive. Nothing happens, the computer isn't seeing/looking for a disc in the disc drive. It just goes right back to "configuring update 3 of 3 0% complete" on the screen. How do I get my computer to read this disc if I can't even start it in safe mode? Can I do something from safe mode with prompt? I even tried going to the boot menu with this disc in the drive but nothing.

You need to use the disk, but make sure that first boot is the cd/dvd drive. f8 will usually let you choose boot options

You can use safe mode, and just use dos cmds... like before windows came out. Just polug a usb drive in and do a copy command.

OK, so now I'm in my disc drive on the computer and when I look at the directory of files on the disc that I burned Ubuntu onto, i don't see any exe file that responds when I type it in at the command prompt. So, now what? Thanks.

Oh..... hehe you might have not burnt the disk correctly.

You need to burn the iso image as a proper disk. |this is a very typical first time whoops... But atleast you have the dvd back.

Heres a great how to from ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Once you get ubuntu running, it will look alot like win98...