text: i need to retrieve the files from my old computer, but the computer will not even turn on? it just beeps at me and some of the indicator lights flash. any idea on how to override this so i can turn it on and get my files off of it? i've tried turning it on without the battery in, and just running it on the ac power. i've tried with just the battery and with both the ac and battery. the computer is an imb thinkpad t22 and is running with windows 2000 (i think) if you have another working computer, you could take the hard drive out of that machine and put it in your other computer as a slave drive.  that way you can boot the working computer, and the transplanted hard drive will show up as the e:/ drive (or other letter, depending on what all is in your system) and you can copy all the files over.  you may need a special adapter to plug a notebook hard drive into a desktop computer, but you should be able to pick one up at radio shack for pretty cheap.