Question : Problem: Mac OS 10 corrupted but hard drive still spinning. Will Win XP recognize hard drive to retrive data ?

Mac os 10 laptop would not boot. The hard drive is still spinning can I install it in an external hard drive USB case? And do I need to attach it to a Mac system to retrive the data or can I attach it to a Win XP system to retrive the data?

Answer : Problem: Mac OS 10 corrupted but hard drive still spinning. Will Win XP recognize hard drive to retrive data ?

WInXP won't natively read anything from a Mac disk.  There is some software that you can buy that will allow a Windows computer to read Mac disks, but not sure that's what you want in tis specific instance. If it just won't boot and if the disk repair doesn't get you anywhere, the best option, if you have another Mac is to hook them together via firewire and boot the good Mac in Target disk mode in essence making the "Bad" Mac an external drive to the good Mac.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661

As I mentioned in the first post, any specific info you can give us about what you are seeing will help.  Could be that there is some hardware issue that could be fixed by resetting the PRAM or something similar.