Excellent suggestions by Alvin, I'd also add one more possible approach.

If the amount of data is significantly less than 20GB (say, ~2-3GB), it may
be practical to image your data to CD-R/RW using a DOS-based partition
manager. BootIt NG (http://www.bootitng.com) for example will do this very
well (supports DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW too). 3GB "actual" would require 5
CD-R/RW's max, maybe less w/ compression, depends on data. For lots of
data, the number of CD-R/RW media might be unwieldly/costly, but in a pinch,
it will work. Then clear your HD (use BootIt NG here too!), reinstall the
OS, then use BootIt NG again to restore your partition, but this time as a
D: DATA partition to the new OS.

Just another option to consider.

HTH

Jim


"charles" wrote in message
...
My computer dell inspiron 8100 doesnt start properly
because of bad sectors in the boot drive and ntfc problem
the specialist said. Error message : a recently installed
programme has caused damage to your system pleaseremove
it. Impossible to reinstall windows xp home without
reformatting the disk. Do you know a software or a
possibility to recover my data 20 gigabytes?
please help