How can I back up files from my seemly broken Acer Aspire 5920 that won't start?

My Acer Aspire 5920 has been working fine until yesterday when it froze so I went to the start menu and restarted the system. When it was starting up again, it started checking and scanning all my files.

When this finished it powered off and now whenever I try and turn it on the power button lights up, the 'Acer' screen comes up and then all I get is a black screen with a blinking underscore ( _ ) in the top left hand corner.

How can I either fix this problem, or more importantly back up my files before I try and do anything. I have thousands of music files and I REALLY do not want to loose these.

Thanks

 

Hmm, it's kind of strange that you're just getting a blinking underscore...

If you have another computer, I'd pull the HD out of your laptop, stick it in a 2.5" external enclosure or a docking station (USB 2.0 or esata, if you have the port) and plug it in. You can access it like you would a thumb drive (don't try to boot to it).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817366014
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=hard_drive_dock-_-17-348-028-_-Product

 

If your HDD is SATA and you have a desktop computer with SATA controller, you don't need any additional hardware. The connectors are same for SATA desktop and laptop HDDs.