laptop won't load up please help!

angelcake

I have had a lot of trouble with this laptop being real slow etc, I took it to an 'expert' who 'tweaked' it and it was ok for about 2 weeks and now won't load up at all! it keeps loading in windows xp and won't atually load in properly, it just starts again! it has done it about 5 times now and I need some valuable work off it!!

It is a Dell laptop and mostly has stuff saved on the D drive! Please help!!

Chippy_Minton

Does it start okay in Safe Mode and remain running? Tap the F8 key a few times before the Windows XP logo appears and choose Safe Mode from the menu of options.

angelcake

No, I tried safe mode and it does the same! Then I tried 'last good known configuration' and it did the same still!!

Chippy_Minton

Have you run the Dell diagnostics? Switch on, press F12 when the Dell logo appears and choose Diagnostics and let it run through the tests.

Also, do you have a Windows XP CD?

angelcake

Ok ,Doin diagnostics now not sure bout the xp cd cos its works comp and the office is a long way away! Although I may have one from my desktop! how would that help? as I really need to get the work without it messing up!

sho_me_da_money

This could be many things but probably hardware related.

I would say your Hard Drive is f$$ked.

The only thing i can suggest is to try and recover your documents, back them up and buy a new HDD.

Dont do any of this until you have run the Dell Diagnostics though.

If you pass the test then it's likely your Windows is corrupt.

Either way you will still have to back your stuff up.

There are ways you can do this but sho has made your life easier by going to the trouble of finding you a guide on how to do this here:

http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/laptop-notebook-help/2006/06/11/connect-laptop-hard-drive-to-desktop-computer/

You owe me a :beer:

p.s. your XP CD may work to try some windows repair tactis through the recovery console but usually laptops can be picky about what CD they boot of (usually require the one that came with it)

richyrichuk

angelcake wrote: »

Ok ,Doin diagnostics now not sure bout the xp cd cos its works comp and the office is a long way away! Although I may have one from my desktop! how would that help? as I really need to get the work without it messing up!

if u have very valuable work, i wouldnt mess around with install things. i'd take ur hard drive out ur pc and back it up straight away! dont do owt else then put it back in, and fix it from there. atleast my way u can wack everything on USB sticks so u have a portable copy of ur work....but depends if there is any inderpedent PC shops near u cos if not ull have 2 do it ur self...

sho_me_da_money

By the way, If it is your Windows that is corrupt then i dont think you need to back up at all

why?

Well windows is installed on your C drive and you said all your stuff is on your D drive, which indicates there is a partition.

All you have to do is delete the C partition and install windows back on it and leave the D as it is.

When windows finishes installing, the D will be intact with all your documents!

You owe me another :beer:

richyrichuk

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

By the way, If it is your Windows that is corrupt then i dont think you need to back up at all

why?

Well windows is installed on your C drive and you said all your stuff is on your D drive, which indicates there is a partition.

All you have to do is delete the C partition and install windows back on it and leave the D as it is.

When windows finishes installing, the D will be intact with all your documents!

You owe me another :beer:

yes but any documents on desktop or anythin in shared docs or my docs is lost, and for a novice (sorry angel cake) pc user it might be hard to remember were files are and also emails if outlook or thunderbird is user than u also lsot all of them.

angelcake

I haven't a clue what I am doing so don't worry about apologising!!

Thanks for all these replies I will try them out and get back to you.

Donnie the link doesn't work? It needs a password and won't let me in annoynimously!!

(grr...all I need!! My ppp server was down for a bit so couldn't log in here to see your useful advice!! fingers crossed for me then people!!)

Donnie

If you need the work off it, you can use a Live CD to retrieve the info for the time being. It doesn't install anything to your computer.
Think of it as Windows running off a CD. You'll need a USB stick or similar so that you can transfer your important files from your HDD.

Some nice people have already created the CD. All you need to do is to download it and then use Nero or similar to burn the downloaded image to a CD.
Once done, you'll need to set your computer to Boot from CD and hopefully you'll have a nice Windows like interface from which to work.

So, you'll need an computer with CD burning capabilities to get started.

Start by downloading this file and saving it to the computer; ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V5.1.1CD-2007-01-04-EN.iso

I'm off for a walk on the beach.
Hopefully someone will talk you through the relatively simple steps. Otherwise I may have to do so later.

More info about the Live CD here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoppix here: http://www.knoppix.org/ and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveDistro

Once you have retrieved all of your important files, you can get the machine fixed.