Please help my computer is dead :(

A:I

I was goign to suggest, if all things go bad. Stick the drive in another pc and transfer all your documents onto a differen drive.

angelcake

I have just got back in now, the computer is still frozen on the above screen

I pushed 1 and a 1 came on the screen and then pushed enter

If I were to get the files off onto a pen drive how do I do this please? I have 1 and am happy to just get the photos off.

...also thanks old codger I will look through those now

Thank you everyone for advice.

angelcake

This morning still a frozen screen so switched off, Found a red recovery floppy disk (not sure it will help as its windows 98) Also found 2 master backup disks so put cd1 in with the floppy and managed to get chkdsk that way so that is running now.

when I got it up it said the following (This is typed out by me and some of the characters are a little different as my keyboard on laptop didn't have it! like ~ is at the top of the letter):

Problem Found

The Size of the C:\SYSTEM~1\_RESTO~1.1 File is being misreported. Some Programs might be unable to find the entire file, or there might be invalid data toward the end of the file

TonyMMM

I would forget the recovery console option that you are using - instead do a repair of the existing XP installation...

Insert CD, boot from the disk [EMAIL="-DON@T"]-[/EMAIL] don't press R when it asks - instead press Enter when it asks if you want to install Windows. It should then say something like "There is an existing version of XP on this machine, do you want to repair it" or words to that effect. Tell it to go ahead and it will reinstall XP over the existing version, leaving all your programmes and files intact.

Note - If it doesn't tell you you have an existing version of XP on the machine- don't go any further because it will do a compeltely fresh install and wipe everything else off !

basmic

Right, I feel I have a soloution for you - but your machine needs to be able to startup from CDs.

Download PE Builder v3.1.10a - self-installing package and install it. Allow it to find your Windows installation files, when it asks.

Stuff a blank CD into the CD drive, choose the Burn to CD/DVD option, and click the Build button. Now let the PE Builder do it's stuff, and it will start burning to the CD after a few minutes - perhaps as long as 5-10 minutes, but it took about 2 minutes on my own computer.

After a couple of minutes, a CD will pop out the drive - on this is hopefully your lifesaver: BartPE!

Plug your USB disk in, and leave it into the dodgy computer, and turn it on, then stuff the CD into the computer's drive, and make sure there isn't a floppy disk inserted - then just wait for it to load. Now three things could happen here:
1) You were too slow at putting the CD in, and it to did a normal startup, and try to load the broken version of Windows.
2) You put the CD in, within good time, but it never bothered trying to load from it and it loaded the broken version of Windows.
3) It loaded BartPE!

Soloutions (hopefully):
1) Leave the CD in, turn the computer off and back on again. If it's setup properly, it will try to load the CD after doing the self diagnostics.

2) You need to enter the BIOS to change some settings. Usually you need to press DEL, ESC, F1 or F2 on the keyboard. It will often say which key to press, to enter setup - ie: Press <DEL> to enter the setup utility. Sometimes it might call the "setup utility" BIOS, CMOS or diagnostics.

Next you will need to find something that looks like either boot order, or boot sequence. Chances are, if it's not starting up from the HD, it's set to boot from either the floppy first, then the HD, or the HD - my own feeling is , it's set to boot from floppy. So change this to boot from floppy, then CD/DVD, then harddrive (might be called HD 0 or HDD 0).

Once this has been changed, exit and save your changes. The machine will restart, and hopefully load from the CD!

3) With a bit of luck, it did load BartPE. If so, see below.

Now, assuming you're into BartPE, click the GO button and find the A43 File Management Utility - this the equilivent to Windows file explorer. Find your files, photos, etc, and copy them to your USB stick.

angelcake

thanks tony - tried that and went out left it on! it had frozen on searching for previous versions of microsoft windows thats for nearly 3 hours now!

Basimic I have a laptop with windows vista on, you say allow it to find windows installation files.... do you mean from computer as I can't get on at all I can't even load windows up. If its ok to download that file from my laptop I shall try it, thank you

echelon101

I am going to wade into this discussion.

My assumptions are that:
1. Your computer doesn't work, although you are getting past the first boot process ie you can enter the BIOS/Boot Order
2. You aren't a techie
3. You have a Vista disc and you might have an XP disc
4. You can't repair

I have been in the same situation, although I was a slight techie.

1.First off you need to get into the BIOS which should be labled as something like System Setup when you load the computer. Then switch to CD Boot.

2. Download UBUNTU onto a CD, it is basically an Operating System that runs off a CD ie you don't need a working hard drive
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition - Supported to 2011)

3. One UBUNTU has loaded up you then need to follow this guide to the letter
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingANewHardDrive#Mount%20the%20Drive

4. Insert a USB disc or external hard drive and follow these instructions again to the letter
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount/USB


Hopefully that should get all your data off that you need.

Then;

5. Reboot and take out the UBUNTU CD

6. Insert the XP CD and follow the Instructions to installing a new partition, which basically starts with "I want to format my drive"

old_codger1

angelcake wrote: »

Basimic I have a laptop with windows vista on, you say allow it to find windows installation files.... do you mean from computer as I can't get on at all I can't even load windows up. If its ok to download that file from my laptop I shall try it, thank you

Basmic and Echelon1 are telling you to do, essentially, the same thing... install another operating system altogether, ('BartPE' in the case of Basmic and 'Ubuntu' in the case of Echelon1), but onto a CD and then boot the PC that doesn't work when from that.

This means that you will be able to carry out simple functions, like copying files to a pen drive, without altering your hard disk at all because you're not installing the operating system onto the hard disk of the PC that doesn't work, you're only installing it onto the CD disk and using that to boot so that you can access your drive.

I've never used BartPE and have no experience of it but, from the description, it probably sounds easier than using the ubuntu route, (strange thing for a linux techie to say but there we are ), because it burns, (installs), onto the CD disk and mounts the windows partition so that you can copy your files from it, using software you're already familiar with... well, sort of

I'd try that first and see how you get on.

If I was doing it I'd use the Linux route but that's because I know Linux. I suspect echelon feels the same way.

The point is you only want to carry out a relatively simple function, (copying a few files), so let's not complicate matters too much.

BTW, have a valid windoze licence? If not you may have a problem when you come to reinstall.

basmic

angelcake wrote: »

Basimic I have a laptop with windows vista on, you say allow it to find windows installation files.... do you mean from computer as I can't get on at all I can't even load windows up. If its ok to download that file from my laptop I shall try it, thank you

If the laptop has XP installed, I don't see a problem - make the CD with the laptop, then use it on the computer.

I've never tried to use BartPE on Vista systems before, but I don't see any obvious reasons why it shouldn't work.

old_codger1

basmic wrote: »

If the laptop has XP installed, I don't see a problem - make the CD with the laptop, then use it on the computer.

I've never tried to use BartPE on Vista systems before, but I don't see any obvious reasons why it shouldn't work.

Presumably she's just creating a 'LiveCD' which will run the op. sys., (albeit very slowly), so she can access her files and the pen drive device?