laptop won't load windows

pc10

cheers and thanks for all the help

albertross_2

When you ran the dell diags, did you run the HD diags? You mentioned that there were some errors.

Do you have a usb key, or router? (A means to get the files off in other words)

You might be able to run recovery console from XP boot floppies, and then run chkdsk c: /R to try and fix a logical HD corruption.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/

When you start the PC what happens, any error? Have you any gizmos plugged into the laptop (pcmcia cards etc).

Browntoa

found this

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper#How_to_mount.2Funmount_Windows_partitions_.28NTFS.29_manually.2C_and_allow_all_users_to_read_only

How to mount/unmount Windows partitions (NTFS) manually, and allow all users to read only

• Read #General Notes
• Read #How to list partition tables

e.g. Assumed that /dev/hda1 is the location of Windows partition (NTFS) Local mount folder: /media/windows

• To mount Windows partition

sudo mkdir /media/windowssudo mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows/ -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222

• To unmount Windows partition

sudo umount /media/windows/

pc10

There were some errors after running the dell diagnostics.

I do have a usb device to get the files off if only I could find them!

I don't have any discs - what I want to do is be able to save the documents that are on and then I can run the Dell recovery thingy to reinstall everything as it was when I bought the laptop.

Thanks for that info about mounting but I can't get my brain around it at all.

CHeers anyway