comp died any ideas??

surfsister

Hiya guys eed some help urgently!!

I did a systemn restore but somehow the computer c losed down before it was finished and now it won't work!! It starts to load up and shows the windows xp screen with the logo, then shows master slave drives and lots of rows of text then keeps going in a loop back to the xp screen. Any ideas what i can do?

Sometimes a screen comes up with a choice of start in latest know safe mode
or latest working mode but it doen't give time to click on either.

Thanks anyway

wakandem

hit F8 just after the post on start up, normally the pc beeps. You should then get a start up menu. Select safe boot and it shoyld then give you the option to restore. If that doesn't work then do it again but continue into safe mode. Back up your doc's if poss. depending on what happened you may need your xp disk to do a recovery or reinstall, either way most of your progs may not work but your docs will be safe on a restore and if you do a reinstall then you will lose everything so back up .

wakandem

just to correct my post - you shouldn't lose your docs unless you format the drive

surfsister

excellent thanks guy will give it a go I think buying a new laptop for uni made the old dinosaur jealous! Always great help on here.

nesssie1702

Gosh - could have done with this info last night when my mum's PC wasn't working. It keeps crashing about 10 minutes after being switched on. Think it's time to get a new one as it owes her nothing - but would like to salvage the info on the Hard drive first....

johncolescarr

nesssie1702 wrote: »

Gosh - could have done with this info last night when my mum's PC wasn't working. It keeps crashing about 10 minutes after being switched on. Think it's time to get a new one as it owes her nothing - but would like to salvage the info on the Hard drive first....

If none of the system restore tools work, you can rescue your data by using a Linux live CD, if you have enough RAM (about 256 or higher) use Ubuntu as its quite like windows in use, otherwise use Knoppix. See the links below for instructions on how to do this. Live CDs wont affect your machine, it'll run off your RAM (ie doesnt touch your hard drive so wont affect it, always choose the option "try without installing"

What you can do is get into your machine, grab the data and copy it to a pen drive or external HD etc, then re-install your origional Operating System (or if you like it, try Linux!

http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://www.knoppix.org/

surfsister

thanks all let you know the result

nesssie1702

johncolescarr - have downloaded ubuntu, but notice that the files are zipped. Will I need to unzip them before it works on the dodgy PC?

Not only that, but as the file is 698MB, my PC won't let me burn a copy, as it says that my CD doesn't have enough space for the file size. My mother's PC doesn't have a DVD drive on it, so there's no point in my putting it on a DVD instead.

Are there alternative unzipping programs that will work with Winzip?

johncolescarr

nesssie1702 wrote: »

johncolescarr - have downloaded ubuntu, but notice that the files are zipped. Will I need to unzip them before it works on the dodgy PC?

Not only that, but as the file is 698MB, my PC won't let me burn a copy, as it says that my CD doesn't have enough space for the file size. My mother's PC doesn't have a DVD drive on it, so there's no point in my putting it on a DVD instead.

Are there alternative unzipping programs that will work with Winzip?

What you need to do is take the file you have downloaded (it should be called [something].iso) and burn it to a CD as an image so it will boot from your CD drive. You should be able to do this with your normal CD burning software. This should allow you to fit the 698MB file onto a normal CD disc.

You will then need to make sure your PC boots from the CD/DVD drive first. For most PCs, reboot your PC and hold F8, F2 or F5 (or del) key. You will be presented into a new screen (this is called the BIOS), where you can change the drive boot sequence. Change this sequence so that your CD/DVD drive is before your hard drive. The link below is a guide to do this.

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-648-modifying-boot-sequence

Once you have done this, save and close. Put the iso image disc you have created in the CD/DVD drive, and reboot your machine.

You should now be presented with a Ubuntu boot screen. Choose the option "try Unbuntu without installing" (or something like that) and then your in!

Once your in, attach your external hard drive, memory pen, etc. This should automatically connect and will put an icon on your desktop. Then go to "Places" at the top of the screen, in the drop down menu, the hard drive of your computer should be shown (it will say how big the drive is) click on this and you should be able to get in to your old hard drive. The find your files and copy them to your external storage (just copy and paste). This can take some time if there is a lot.

When its finished, right click on both external and internal drives and select "unmount", then disconnect your external drive. Your files are now safe!

I would test that you can open your files from your external drive before you do anything with your old PC just incase.

After you are certain you have rescued your files, you can go about either restoring or re-installing windows (or linux).

I'll check this thread regularly so post any questions if you get stuck

John

nesssie1702

Thanks John - I think my initial problem with trying to burn the disc was that I tried to burn a data disc - I'll try again.....

Percy1983

Surely if the PC is crashing after 10 minutes its a sign of it overheating? I hover inside around the fans and heatsinks can fix this.

Also you could always slave the old drive on another PC and extract everything that way.