First, let me make sure I understand the premise of this case correctly. Your old laptop, which contains pictures and other data on its hard disk drive, will no longer boot Windows 2000.

In this case, I wouldn't mess with trying to take apart that laptop… especially if you would like to keep it in working condition. Laptops are fun in that everything has to be taken apart and put back together in a certain order, otherwise you're going to be left with many spare parts on the desk when you finish.

The first thing I would try is to use a Windows 2000 install/boot disk to to a "repaired installation" to the laptop's hard drive partition. (Note that is a "repaired installation", not the "recovery console".)

If that doesn't work, there are other options. Send me a private message if you would like to check out these options.