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HELP!! PC broke

245

Comments

  • JasX
    JasX Posts: 3,996 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    bossymommy wrote: »
    So looks like a new hard drive then.

    Almost certainly not, unless your HD iss failing its maanufacturers low level diagnostics its a good drive, yes you can't test it if its not seen in BIOS but since you can;t get into BIOS you have no idea what might be going on there either.

    Were I in your shoes I'd
    1-test the drive, be it low level diagnostice or popping it into another desktop and seeing if its readable.

    2-after recoverign any data you need unless the drive is failing aforementioned low level diagnostics just repair your existing windows installation (requires windows disk or access to a restore partition) and/or reformat your existing drive and reformat/reinstall windows froom scratch.

    a new hard disk will never & has never come with windows pre-installed.
  • gonzo127
    gonzo127 Posts: 4,482 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 6 January 2010 at 9:58AM
    honestly i would try ubuntu, all it will cost you is the download amount of 700mb and a CD, you can run it in liveCD mode first to check if all your system components are supported and if so you can install it (even as a duel boot so you dont wipe windows or any of the files on your hard drive) and it will run pretty much everything you will need (other than certain programs however there is pretty much always something else that will do the same job)

    JasX advice is also a very good starting point, just because windows will not boot does not mean your components are broken!
    Drop a brand challenge
    on a £100 shop you might on average get 70 items save
    10p per product = £7 a week ~ £28 a month
    20p per product = £14 a week ~ £56 a month
    30p per product = £21 a week ~ £84 a month (or in other words one weeks shoping at the new price)
  • bossymommy
    bossymommy Posts: 358 Forumite
    edited 6 January 2010 at 10:02AM
    But how can i run this (if i downloaded) if pc is not picking up disc drive at start up?

    My brain is cabbaged now, so am off for few hours to build a snowman. Thanks for all the advice, and will check back later for anymore updates :-)
  • gonzo127
    gonzo127 Posts: 4,482 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    since you are currently using a computer to access the internet you could hook your hard drive upto the computer you are running as a secondary hard drive, to do the tests on windows

    on the ubuntu route it can be run from a normal USB memory stick or same as the windows route above
    Drop a brand challenge
    on a £100 shop you might on average get 70 items save
    10p per product = £7 a week ~ £28 a month
    20p per product = £14 a week ~ £56 a month
    30p per product = £21 a week ~ £84 a month (or in other words one weeks shoping at the new price)
  • JasX
    JasX Posts: 3,996 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    bossymommy wrote: »
    But how can i run this (if i downloaded) if pc is not picking up disc drive at start up?

    Most come as a bootable CD or floppy so so long as you have a CD or floppy drive working you can boot diagnostics from it (hopefully said drive setup as a bootable drive in BIOS)

    Also since you can't access BIOS you have no idea if the drive's being seen or not


    gonzo127 wrote: »
    since you are currently using a computer to access the internet you could hook your hard drive upto the computer you are running as a secondary hard drive, to do the tests on windows

    could be a laptop and they might not have the right adapter to take a bare 3.5" drive

    bossymommy wrote: »
    My brain is cabbaged now, so am off for few hours to build a snowman. Thanks for all the advice, and will check back later for anymore updates :-)

    /jealous

    got up today hoping to be snowed in but was a pityful amount of snow in my part of london and all trains were running :(
  • gonzo127
    gonzo127 Posts: 4,482 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 6 January 2010 at 11:06AM
    ah yes JasX didnt think of that, if thats the case will probably be the best bet to use the USB memory stick idea with ubuntu as that should at least give him a working computer without having to buy a new one for the time being
    Drop a brand challenge
    on a £100 shop you might on average get 70 items save
    10p per product = £7 a week ~ £28 a month
    20p per product = £14 a week ~ £56 a month
    30p per product = £21 a week ~ £84 a month (or in other words one weeks shoping at the new price)
  • Right then...... i am downloading ubuntu to laptop, and i take it i will then be able put this onto usb memory stick and just plug that into pc? Will this have any affect to the laptop im using? Can i just delete it once i have it onto memory stick?

    Then i take i should be able to start pc fine once the stick is in there?

    Still not buillt a snowman....waiting for the kids to join me :-(, have tons of snow in the midlands :-)
  • phxweb
    phxweb Posts: 99 Forumite
    Ok we seem to have many 'doctors' hear treating simptoms and not acctually trying to find out the problem.

    Lets start with:
    1.What model is your computer, Brand and model is you have it.
    2.What version of windows.
    3.Do you have a windows disk/recovery disk that came with your machine
    4. Have you tried repeatedly pressing F2 or Del or F12 as soon as you turn on the machine to get into the Bios

    With out knowing your machine make / model i can help much further
  • phxweb
    phxweb Posts: 99 Forumite
    bossymommy wrote: »
    Right then...... i am downloading ubuntu to laptop, and i take it i will then be able put this onto usb memory stick and just plug that into pc? Will this have any affect to the laptop im using? Can i just delete it once i have it onto memory stick?

    Then i take i should be able to start pc fine once the stick is in there?

    Still not buillt a snowman....waiting for the kids to join me :-(, have tons of snow in the midlands :-)

    From your previous posts about not being able to boot off a cd then i doubt your pc is set up to boot off a USB Stick. ...... Read my post above
  • phxweb wrote: »
    Ok we seem to have many 'doctors' hear treating simptoms and not acctually trying to find out the problem.

    Lets start with:
    1.What model is your computer, Brand and model is you have it.
    2.What version of windows.
    3.Do you have a windows disk/recovery disk that came with your machine
    4. Have you tried repeatedly pressing F2 or Del or F12 as soon as you turn on the machine to get into the Bios

    With out knowing your machine make / model i can help much further

    Not sure what make/model, it was built up..all seperate parts.
    Running windows xp and yes i have windows disk.
    Tried pressing all those F buttons repeatedly :-(
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