Laptop problem..

katie1986

Hi

My laptop has suddenly decided it doesn't want to load, and just brings up a blue screen. I've had one of my tech-savvy friends look at it for me, and he's tried to boot it from a cd, but apparently it's disabled and he doesn't know how to re-enable it from the BIOS screen? (Sorry if I'm getting anything wrong, i'm justy going off what he's told me).

I was wondering if anyone could help with this, or do I just have to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop. The thing is it has lots of sentimental photos on it, as well as various bits and bobs including my CV and my dissertation that I completed a year ago, which means a lot to me. I know I ws stupid for not backing anything up, but if I do have to buy a new laptop, is there any way I can get them back?

I'm currently abroad atm, so if there is a possibility it can be fixed, when i get back, where should I take it to? It's a Packard Bell (groan) btw, and being over 3 years old, the warranty has well run out.

Thanks in advance

macman

No reason to get a new laptop, could be just hard drive failure, could be OS corruption, a number of things. Take it to a laptop specialist shop (not PC World) when you are back. The odds are that the data is recoverable, but depending on what has failed, that could be relatively cheap to recover, or very expensive (if the HD has failed badly). Or you could pull the HD yourself, put it in a £20 USB HD caddy and try and copy over the data you need to another PC.
While you are away, please write out 100 times 'I will back up my data, I will back up my data'...

chunter

Go into bios, set 1st boot device to CD/DVD drive.
Ser 2nd boot device to be HDD 0

katie1986

chunter wrote: »

Go into bios, set 1st boot device to CD/DVD drive.
Ser 2nd boot device to be HDD 0

We have done, but it's still not working because it says booting from the CD drive is disabled, and my friend didn't know how to change that?

katie1986

Can't highlight the CD drive to enable it, but will try booting from CD via F12 and let you know...

katie1986

Tried the F12 button, which gives me the option to select CD/DVD option, but it just brings me back to the same menu; must be because it's disabled.

Not sure what the next step is...

katie1986

anyone?

johnmc

We need to know EXACTLY what messages you are getting, please.

My P-B lappy threw a wobbly a few weeks back, came up with the message that the registry was corrupt and wouldn't accept the XP disk as being bootable.

If it won't boot from the installation disk you can burn the Win98 boot files to a CD and add some files from a Freeware program that will enable you to read NTFS files.

katie1986

Ok... it starts as normal, and then goes to a screen which says 'we apologise for the inconvenience but windows didnt start properly etc...'. I then select start windows normally, and it goes to a blue screen which says:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Disable or uninstall any anti-virus, dis defrag or backup utilities. Check your hard drive config, and check for any updated drivers. Run CHKDSK/F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x00000024 (0x00190203, 0x832870A0, 0xC0000102, 0x00000000)

Thanks guys

gillette147

Hi,
I am having a similar problem. I know it is the hard drive because I dropped the PC.
My blue screen says "Unmountable_boot_drive" and just endlessly cycles between that and the other "We apologise ..." screen.

It won't go to bios when I press F12 and it won't see a CD.

Any ideas please?

johnmc

kati1986 wrote:

STOP: 0x00000024

Yes, that's a corrupt Registry entry. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

I sorted mine by taking the hard drive out and put it into a PC (also on XP) and then copying the default registry over the top. I was then able to start the laptop (total time < 15 minutes) and take it back to a previous restore point.

If you have anyone who is IT capable then it's a simple process. You will need a cable to do this, either internal or external USB cradle (local PC shop sell these for about £10).


There is no such thing as a boot disc that will let you get into DOS to do this. I created a Win98 floppy, copied the files to my PC, added some files which enabled NTFS support. I didn't fancy the idea of transfering the files this way, though.