PC is knackered.

[CisMyArse]

Came home to my on standby pc to find an error message (see pics 1 and 2)

Despite following instructions, it restarts then says the same. I'm now desperately trying to save files in HP recovery manager. I have an external drive plugged in ready to back up and I'm unable to proceed. I'm getting another message (see 3rd pic). I can't lose my data - it's critical and I've not backed up in ages 😞.

What do I do??! Help me please.

2nd and 3rd pic

The third picture asks you to click "OK", what happens when you do?

I'd guess that if there's an error the external drive is in the wrong format, they are often not NTFS so as to work on as many computers as possible.

If you get an error moaning about that you'll need to take the disk somewhere where there is a windows machine you can use and reformat it in NTFS format. This will erase everything on the disk. If this is what you need to do this is not tricky and you can either google for instructions or ask again for more help.

If you really can't lose the data get your local professional repair people in to do something.

Depending on what is wrong they can extract the hard drive, put it in a cradle, copy it and then you are safe.

I'm late to this. Are you sorted?

If it has a DVD drive, can you get a Linux Mint DVD created on another machine. If you can then you should be able to boot from that and copy all your data off.

and have you checked whether it will boot into safe mode?

Thanks everyone.
It actually booted in safe mode and I was able to save everything and then Restore it to factory settings. It's all fine again now.

Lesson learned - back up regularly!

Can I ask what you all back up to?

I back up to a mirrored NAS and www.spideroak.com

NAS is network attached storage and mirrored means that it has 2 identical disks, both storing the same data.