I had to fix my uncle's Hp desktop recenty. He a similar problem where it would go to windows screen and then restart. I fixed it by booting up to safe mode and doing a system restore to a time before the problem arose.
So your fathers laptop just turnsoff soon after you push the power button?
If the documents are important you should think about gettting a harddrive enclosure for the laptop harddrive. Oh best bet is to see whats wrong with it and make decision from their whether its economical to fix it or replace it.
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My Laptop:
Dell 700m
1.8ghz Centrino, 80gigs, Win XP Pro sp2, 1gig PC2700
Intel Graphics Card.
R.I.P. My Dreamcast 2000-2004