blue screen of doom is it a hawardware issue?

[Drogos]

My stepdad has this old pc about 5 years old and is now giving the blue screen of doom.
I thought maybe it is a harddrive problem since i used to have the same model
and that's what it was wen it did it to me.
I ran a diskcheck and it dint do it again for about 20 hrs.
Today i walked in his office and it had the screen of doom and now it keeps doing it wen we try to load windows at one point it wouldn't turn on anymore i changed the power cable and it turn again but the screen still persist.
He has inportant documents in that harddrive he needs recover.
i need u guys to tell what u think the real issue is if uit could be power supply
i have a spare one and another old pc with everything it needs to run but is a linux.
Since i only have a 20gb in it i also have a spare 100gb if is a hardrive issue i need to recover does files.
If i were to place that hardrive as cable select in the other pc with a harddrive with an os would i be able to recover the files that way?
I have swiped and reisntalled and built a few pcs but i never recovered files from a damage drive.

thanks in advance

 

[Hefemeister]

First I would hook the harddrive up to another computer as you were thinking and get the data off of it. That should work just fine. Then you can look here http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/how-troubleshoot-specific-stop-errors-193301/ to start troubleshooting what is specifically wrong with the computer to see if you can get it back up and running for him.

 

[Drogos]

Thanks again man this is a great guide it seems some sticks of ram was bad
is not crashing anymore so is not a harddrive issue as well.
I'm so glad i din't have to go tru **** to fix it
thanks a lot man

 

[Hefemeister]

Good to hear. Take this opportunity to set him up with a backup solution for his "important" documents.