XP-Home boot problem & drive cloning

My friend's Toshiba Satellite has a problem booting. I've tried all the options: safe mode, safe mode w/ network, safe mode w/ command prompt, last known good configuration, and normally. All choices give me a VERY quick text screen with error messages that I can hardly make out.

Anyway, I suggested WinXP recovery CD but he has very important files on the drive so he would really like to avoid the possibility of messing with the drive.

So here's my plan: clone the drive, remove the original drive, install the clone, and then try the recovery CD on the clone.

Q: Is this feasible?
Q: Does the duplicate drive have to have the same exact specs as the original?

Any help will be very much appreciated. And sorry if this is duplicate post. I'm still searching through this forum but I thought I'd post this message in the mean time.

 

What you suggest is feasible, though a little cumbersome. You should be able to clone the drive to any other drive with enough space.

Incidentally, if you perform a REPAIR installation of Windows, your friend's programs and documents should be kept intact (programs can be removed by the repair install, but documents always remain intact). XP's installation process makes performing a repair install needlessly confusing. At the first prompt you are asked to either "Press R to attempt to repair using the recovery console" or "Press enter to install Windows XP." At this prompt, you must press enter, than press "F8" to agree to the license agreement. Only once you have agreed to the license will the XP installer actually search for previous installations and offer you the repair installation option.

Of course, it is always possible that Toshiba's recovery CD is a REAL recovery CD, in which case it would simply nuke and pave, but it is more likely to be a standard Windows XP installation CD.