Accessing a hard drive via USB

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Is it possible to access the files on a faulty hard drive via a USB cable hooked up to second PC, without booting the faulty PC?

[Ninti the Mad]

I am not sure but I believe both PC's would need to be one for any transferring of files.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I am not sure but I believe both PC's would need to be one for any transferring of files.

I don't need to transfer files, just edit a couple withou booting the drive they're on.

[Ninti the Mad]

And how do you expect to edit them without any power to supply the PC they are on?

[Mike the Metal Ed]

And how do you expect to edit them without any power to supply the PC they are on?

Thats what I was asking, that seems to be the unsolvable/impossible part.

[Ninti the Mad]

have you tried getting into safe mode on the bad PC?

[Mike the Metal Ed]

have you tried getting into safe mode on the bad PC?

First thing I tried.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Is there a BIOS settings screen on Windows XP? It'd be the only screen I could keep the PC on while I edited the files without it resetting. How about if I kept it on there while I edited the files?