My Laptop won't boot

hoops120

I have a HP laptop, about 18 months old, running XP. The battery has been a bit iffy lately, and last night it conked out completely, just as I was turning it off

When I started it up today, it wouldn’t boot .

It goes to start up and brings up a black screen with the options 1)safe mode 2)safe mode with network 3)safe mode w/configuration 4)last known good config and 5)windows normally. I have tried all of those but none work

I don’t have recovery disks, but I have worked out how to access the system recovery on the computer (F11)

I am reluctant to do that though, as it suggests that all my data will be deleted/ lost. Most of my stuff is backed up, or not that important. There is one recent folder of photos that I haven’t backed up yet though, which I would really hate to lose.

I am not very techie, I would really welcome advice.

I bought the laptop from a well known chain and it has two years guarantee, though I don’t know if that covers this sort of scenario.

Even if it is covered and they get it working again, I doubt they will find/ restore my photos

So if I do the sytem recovery myself will I be able to save/ restore/ recover the photos?

Or would I be better paying to take it in and getting someone to get the photos off it and then to recover it?

Thanks

fwor

Generally speaking, a system recovery ~should~ just install the Windows system files and leave everything else alone, but it's hard to be certain without actually trying it.

In the unlikely event that it should attempt a clean install of Windows, you ~should~ get a warning that it would format the hard disk, at which stage you would obviously choose to abort the process.

If your attempted system recovery fails to get the laptop running again, there are several recovery tools out there that will allow you to boot the system with a CD-based OS (usually a version of Linux) and copy off your data to a CD or pendrive before sending the laptop for repair under warranty.

Here's one example of such a utility:

http://trinityhome.org/

iwanttosave_2

I was just about to suggest the same as fwor, my laptop recently did something similar so I downloaded a copy of knoppix to a disk and booted it on that which meant I could save all my photos and files to memory stick before doing a fresh install of windows and it worked fab.

-TangleFoot-

If you or someone you know has access to a working PC with a CD-RW or DVD±RW drive you could download a Linux-based Live CD such as Ubuntu* and burn it to disc. If you then boot your laptop from that disc you should be able to access the data stored within and back-up your precious data.

Alternatively you can take the hard disk out, stick it in a suitable enclosure and copy your photos somewhere else before putting the hard disk back in the laptop and running the system recovery utility.

*You could of course order one to save yourself the effort, but you'd have to wait several weeks for it to arrive.

S0litaire

Check your local newsagent for a "Linux" mag, (around £5 mark) the cover DVD is usally bootable into a "Live" version of a Linux OS (The "Live" Operating system runs on your RAM not the hard drive). So you can use it to recover items from the Drive on to a USB stick or Drive.

It may feel diffrent from Windows but at a pinch you'll be able to find what you need...

hoops120

OK, Thanks to you all for the advice

I;ll have a go at this tomorrow and let you know how I get on

hoops120

An update:

What has been suggested above sounds very simple, so I have been and bought a copy of a magazine and have got the system up and running with a copy of ubuntu.

So far so good, but after that I'm stuck! I presume I do not want to install it, as that suggests it will wipe/ overwrite what is on the disk?

So I am working just from the disc and I have searched for files which i know should be on the disk. but nothing is showing from a "search" and although the system seems pretty straightforward the names of folders/ files etc bear no relation to what I am used to and I haven't a clue where to look for my pictures

Does anyone have any other suggestions of what to look for?

As a complete novice with these things I am tempted just to take it into a local computer shop and pay him to locate/ save the files and then reload the software. (i have been quoted £70 for this, but at least it will rescue my files, which returning it under guarantee won't. Plus I have been advised the guarantee only covers hardware and not software, which this seems to be)

Anyway thanks for your help so far

fwor

Hopefully you are running Ubuntu as a LiveCD, as suggested above, and have ~not~ installed Ubuntu. If you go to Places, Computer you will see your hard disk, mounted as a device with a name something like "80.0 GB Media". If you double-click on it you will see the contents of what in Windows was your C: drive.

In all probability your photos will be somewhere like Documents and Settings/<your Windows user name>/My Documents/.

If you insert a USB pendrive it will be autodetected and mounted. You can simply drag and drop or copy and paste from the relevant places of the hard disk into new folders on the pendrive.

Note that you probably won't be able to move or delete files from the hard disk, as by default these are mounted readonly. You can change that if you need to.

Browntoa

you should see you hard disk as another drive , look on the file explorer, it will be called C:

the CD calls itself B: if memory serves me right

fwor

Browntoa wrote: »

you should see you hard disk as another drive , look on the file explorer, it will be called C:

the CD calls itself B: if memory serves me right

I've never seen drives called C: anywhere in Ubuntu, but that probably just means I've been looking in the wrong places.

If the OP wants to check the integrity of the HDD before trying to copy files, you can do the equivalent of Windows chkdsk /f by doing the following from the Ubuntu LiveCD:

System, Administration, Partition Editor. This will start up GPARTED - you may need to leave it for several minutes for the drive to be detected. If you highlight your Windows partition, right-click and unmount it, you can then right-click and select the Check option and then Apply, and it will detect any errors and try to repair the partition if necessary.

Be careful in GPARTED - you can cause a lot of damage to the file system if you use options that you don't understand!

hoops120

Ok, thanks for all the advice, I have now found the drive. I had already found it previously in fact, but wasn't entirely sure, and your advice confirmed I was looking in the right direction

Unfortunately I can't access it, it says something along the lines of "unable to check volumes" and then there's a long spiel about either a hardware fault or "softraid", and a whole lot of other stuff that might as well be in a foreign language!!

Time for a trip to the local computer shop I think as I don't want to meddle any further with things I don't understand

Thanks for you advice though, people on here are so helpful!