Dead Laptop?

Miss_Tee_2

Hi all, I hope you can give me some good advice about this, I'm not very tech savvy and I don't really know anyone who is.

I have an Acer Aspire laptop that I bought almost exactly 2 years ago. It has Windows 7 Home (Premium I think - I'm at work & don't have the details with me but I'm pretty sure). It's a good basic laptop and has been fine for me, all I use it for is a bit of websurfing, the odd few documents, loads of photos and I backed up my entire CD collection on it a few months ago. I do have most of my important docs backed up elsewhere (couple of thumb drives) but in compressed versions, so I'd rather not lose the laptop's contents all together until I can back it up again properly.

Anyway, about 3 weeks ago I started occasionally having trouble starting her up. When I hit the power button it would get half way through loading and then go to a black screen that did nothing, if I moved the mouse the screen would darken to a slightly duller black but nothing would happen and I'd have to power off. When I tried again it would take me through Startup Repair. Sometimes when this happened it would repair itself pretty quickly and I'd be able to continue on to Windows normally and sometimes I would have to go through and reset to an earlier point to get it to 'go' but I was always able to get in eventually.

When this started happening I looked around on-line for help forums, including this one, and figured I needed to have a proper clearout. I downloaded all the recommended (free) software I could find for registry cleaning and Anti-malware and spyware. I have CCRegistry Cleaner, Spybot Search & Destroy, Malware Bytes (which I removed once it went past the free trial but removing it seemed to kick off another spate of woe) and another Anti Spyware thing I can't remember the name of that was recommended by someone on here. I also downloaded FixBee and then ran them all, one at a time. It took ages and seemed to throw up a few things that needed scrubbing, so obviously my AVG (also free) hasn't been doing the best job.

Anyway, sometimes it seems to have worked for a few startups but it obviously hasn't solved the actual startup problem completely becuse I still get the screen now and again, so I went through the lot again this weekend and now I can't start the laptop up at all. It still goes to the startup repair screen (the second time I try to power up in a row) and I can still try to reset it to a previous time but it doesn't ever actually log on to windows.

As I say, most of my stuff is backed up elsewhere but not absolutely everything and only in a compressed version. Am I best to try to find a local repair shop? Is there anything I can try myself? Can I get my files backed up in safe mode do you think? (I don't even know how to get to safemode on this computer - I've used it on previous laptops but I don't know how to get to it on this one).

Sorry to write a novel but I figure the more info the better the chance that someone can help.

Thanks in advance for any advice

P.S. Oh and if it is in any way relevant my Open Office 2010 keeps disabling itself too, I've had to repair it through the Control Panel twice just to be able to read Word documents I had saved on my C drive. No idea if that's as a result of deleting something I shouldn't have during registry cleaning or what - I only noticed the problem after running all the cleaning software and could access my docs before all the startup issues began, so that may just be some overzealous cleaning.

Lifeforms

To just jump right ahead, do you have restore cd's/dvd's (often needs to be created when computer is bought) or a separate recovery partition?

I'd suggest if there are so many problems you try and just factory reset it back to beginning, and start again. BUT this will wipe all data.

So you need to back up the data. If you can't even get it to load, potentially windows files could be damaged which stops this, or there's something mean stopping it from loading. Going into safe mode would allow you to see what is being loaded in the background.

One way to do a back up if to take out the hdd, and throw it in an HDD caddy, use as an external hdd to gain back access to your files (copy them elsewhere) and would show up if the hdd itself is the problem. (unable to read drive/files etc)

Try and look at the bios/boot options (before windows even start loading) to see if you have any recovery options there, or hit F8 as soon as you turn it on (keep hitting it fast) before the windows screen loads (or doesn't!) to see if that brings up any options, including safe mode. But again be aware that if you restore it using those options you will loose data, so you want to ideally back up previously.

closed

backup properly to external hard disk or dvd (using caddy or boot disc http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Paragon-Rescue-Kit-Express.shtml http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/download.html), then factory restore it (instructions are in the speedup sticky thread)

macman

Why didn't you back it up fully when you had the chance-you had 3 weeks to heed the warnings? Startup Repair is a sign (among other things) that the hard drive may be about to expire.
Hopefully it is just the OS corrupted due to sectors failing, and you will be able to recover some data by removing the drive and using it in a USB caddy with another machine. Otherwise, forensic recovery starts at about £350.

Miss_Tee_2

Lifeforms - Sorry, I should have said I'd tried this too - I thought I would be able to restore using a System Image Disk (which I created over a year ago) but when I put it in, as directed, it said it didn't recognise the disk content. I don't have any other disks, as everything came pre-loaded with the Laptop.

Macman - I realise that not 'backing everything up properly' seems stupid to a techie but I don't have an external hard drive or any other computers in my home. I do have 2 thumbdrives containing most of the important files I would want to keep, so that (should the worst happen) I do still have small versions of all my photos etc. but it's not ideal. As I said, this started happening around 3 weeks ago but it happened the first time just before I went on holiday for a week, so I couldn't do anything until I got back anyway. As I say I'm not very tech savvy at all and I didn't know that this was anything more than me needing to clean out my registry etc. to start off with (which actually seemed to work for a few days). If I knew much about computers I'm sure I wouldn't have got to this point in the first place.

MandyAW92

First thing take off your important file to an external hard drive (buy one - they are not too expensive), so you don't lose this information.
Then you should factory rest the laptop, which restarts the machine removing all information on it.
Start the laptop up and see if its working with any issues.

macman

Miss_Tee wrote: »

Lifeforms - Sorry, I should have said I'd tried this too - I thought I would be able to restore using a System Image Disk (which I created over a year ago) but when I put it in, as directed, it said it didn't recognise the disk content. I don't have any other disks, as everything came pre-loaded with the Laptop.

Macman - I realise that not 'backing everything up properly' seems stupid to a techie but I don't have an external hard drive or any other computers in my home. I do have 2 thumbdrives containing most of the important files I would want to keep, so that (should the worst happen) I do still have small versions of all my photos etc. but it's not ideal. As I said, this started happening around 3 weeks ago but it happened the first time just before I went on holiday for a week, so I couldn't do anything until I got back anyway. As I say I'm not very tech savvy at all and I didn't know that this was anything more than me needing to clean out my registry etc. to start off with (which actually seemed to work for a few days). If I knew much about computers I'm sure I wouldn't have got to this point in the first place.

But you do have a DVD drive, so you could have backed up to that, or use cloud storage. Sorry, but you don't need to be 'techie' to know that if the hard drive fails then you'll lose all your data. All hard drives fail eventually, it's not if but when. 2 years is less than average but certainly not unknown. And it doesn't have to be drive failure, you could have the laptop stolen, have a fire/flood etc. Always plan for the worst case.

Lifeforms

Lectures (agreed with or not ) aside. Did you create the disks yourself when you got the machine, or were they supplied? Does the disks look damaged, marked, scratched, or have they just been sat in their wrapper waiting for this moment?

Next step is to contact Acer and see if they can [strike]give[/strike] sell you the recovery data needed.
Before that, throw the HDD in the caddy which you need to go buy now and back up any data. Run a disc check on the hdd and see if any errors come up sector or otherwise.
If it does, you can purchase a new HDD pretty easily and then using the recovery software you should be able to install windows etc.

NiftyDigits

No need to purchase any Recovery Media, but re-installation is more labour intensive without it.
First thing that I would do is to use an Ubuntu Live CD/DVD to save any important data to disc or thumb drive.

Then to decide on whether you would like to repair or replace the hard drive. You can replace this yourself, believe it or not. Perhaps thirty minutes for a novice.

Once you replace the HDD, it will be a matter of reinstalling the OS using this image of Windows 7 x64 Home Prem SP1, together with manual activation and Drivers and applications from the ACER Support website.

Easy as pie. Will walk you through it if you decide to go forward.

Miss_Tee_2

Thank you all for your replies, hopefully they will be of help to others in a similar position.

I don't know why but I thought the system Image route was worth another go (don't know what I did wrong the first time but this time it worked), so it took 5 hours lastnight but I got my system back as it was last year (with all my pictures still in large format) and only lost a few pics that I probably have on Facebook etc. and am not that fussed about and a couple of articles and documents that I can either write again or aren't that important anyway. Everything else (including my CD collection) was backed up in small file size on the thumbdrives and/or my mobile. I've loaded everything that I had on those devices back on to the Laptop and I've downloaded a ton of Anti-Virus/Malware/Spyware & Registry cleaner software, so hopefully, after I make new System Image disks tonight, I'll be back to a nice healthy (if slightly slimmer-lined due to smaller music files) system that's all backed up.

Thank you for all the suggestions of how I could use my harddrive as an external harddrive BTW. Although I won't be using that idea with my one and only (now) working computer, I do have an ancient laptop that literally blew sparks and stopped working about 4 years ago. I've been hanging on to it for reasons entirely beyond me but it may now just turn from being a rather expensive paperweight into a handy little external harddrive.

Cheers!

closed

tons of av/cleaner software aren't normally a good idea if you want a smooth running machine.

recuva may be able to get back some of your lost data

macrium reflect free is a good backup method, preferably to external hard disk, not flash drives.