My PC won't boot properly, please help

[Mize]

It means your disk is hosed. Instead of recovery mode try recovery console and then run chkdsk...long shot as someone said before.

I really think you're going to need a new hard disk with an OS to try to read that old one. In the future use two HDs and have XP backup the first one to the second every night at midnight so you don't lose data.

 

[PSman]

It means your disk is hosed. Instead of recovery mode try recovery console and then run chkdsk...long shot as someone said before.QUOTE]

How do I run recovery console?

 

[Mize]

Boot to xp cd and choose recovery console?
There's a way to get to a dos prompt from the cd...

 

[see colon]

How do I run recovery console?

when you boot from your windows CD, it'll detect your previous windows install and ask if you want to format, delete the old install and reinstall, or run the recovory console.

if chkdisk doesn't fix the problem, and you're feeling lucky, you can also try the delete and reinstall option. generally it doesn't actualy delete all of your old information, it just burries it in the users directory. but there are definatly no gaurentees. i'd try the recovory console first for sure. if there's anything really import on the drive i would hook it up to another computer and back everything up as a second option, then try the dirty install as a third.

just be carefull and try not to loose your moms.... yeah, i could make a hundred jokes here. just be carefull, ok.

 

[Frank]

To see if your computer is working as expected, download and burn Knoppix, and boot from that CD/DVD. If it works, the hardware is fine and you might want to reinstall Windows. If something is broken, it will show when booting Knoppix.

 

[SugarCoat]

Boot to xp cd and choose recovery console?
There's a way to get to a dos prompt from the cd...

in my experiance recovery console has been pretty useless, its easier to just let windows repair it via reinstallation of the core windows files.

 

[see colon]

To see if your computer is working as expected, download and burn Knoppix, and boot from that CD/DVD. If it works, the hardware is fine and you might want to reinstall Windows. If something is broken, it will show when booting Knoppix.

booting Knoppix off a CD won't do much for you if it's a hard drive issue (like it sounds like it is). sure he could scan the drive for errors but why would he want to download a large disk image just to do what he can do with his windows CD.

in my experiance recovery console has been pretty useless, its easier to just let windows repair it via reinstallation of the core windows files.

it's not useless if you know what the problem is. but yeah, in this case, this will probably be the solution.

 

[Fred da Roza]

My computer work fine for many years. Today when i turn my computer on it keep on going to the

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

screen

Then after 30 seconds, the computer restart itself, and going back to that same screen again.

Is there anyway to fix this?

thanks

Just a guess here but I suspect that your master boot record is corrupt. Norton Utilities use to have a tool to repair this but there are no guarantees.

Just a couple of question to see what your options are? Do you have a spare (old) hard drive that you could install as the primary drive. You could install windows on that drive and see if you can access your existing drive.

Did you originally have multiple partitions on your drive? When I had 1 hard drive I normally had 1 partition for programs and the OS (C: ), and the other for data (D: ). This allowed me to reformat the C and reinstall Windows without losing any saved data. If you didn't originally configure your PC as such that option is out but potentially something you should do in the future.

Hope that helps.


Fred

 

[Fred da Roza]

in my experiance recovery console has been pretty useless, its easier to just let windows repair it via reinstallation of the core windows files.

Same experience here as well, recovery console has been useless for me as well.

 

[Mize]

I wouldn't trust Norton to repair a boot record. I once had mine hosed and rebuilt the partition map using a linux boot to figure out the partition sizes and fdisk to rewrite without formatting. Freaked me out that it worked Not newbie stuff by any stretch and very risky.

I would really go the route of a second disk - it gives the chance to copy over the important stuff to the new drive before making risky moves with the bad drive.

 

[Fred da Roza]

Most likely it is partially salvageable - but it's not easy from here on out.
Best course is to get a new HD, disconnect old one, install OS on new one, reconnect old one and then try to "explore" and find your old files from the new OS install. Be sure to install the new one as master and the old one as slave if they're on the same channel.

What Mize said.

 

[Fred da Roza]

I wouldn't trust Norton to repair a boot record. I once had mine hosed and rebuilt the partition map using a linux boot to figure out the partition sizes and fdisk to rewrite without formatting. Freaked me out that it worked Not newbie stuff by any stretch and very risky.

I would really go the route of a second disk - it gives the chance to copy over the important stuff to the new drive before making risky moves with the bad drive.

It worked for me once but as I said no guarantees. Never used linux boot or fdisk (fdisk successfully) to fix a MBR but it's not like it has happened often (twice in 15 years).

Nowadays (and for the last 10 years) since I have a separate partition for data, I just reformat and install when I encounter problems like that. Nothing important lost this way and still fairly hastle free.

 

[Mize]

Yep. And as I mentioned, HDs are so cheap these days that having one for nightly backups is money well spent.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

i did an XP reinstall (repair existing option) last weekend. (refused to boot). it preserved all my files...EZPZ. took about 2 hours (including time i was away and it was waiting for me to choose something). probably less than 1 hour if i just babysat it.

 

[see colon]

PSman, how's this comming along? did anything work for you?

 

[PSman]

PSman, how's this comming along? did anything work for you?

Sorry for taking so long to response

Well it's Hopeless..completely hopeless. I tried everything, and nothing work. Now the computer is out cold, completely dead, it won't even turn on anymore. Look like i have to do an XP reinstall and reinstall EVERTHING. Look like i lost eveything I saved on that computertoo.

Thank you everyone for your patient and your help. You guys are big help.

 

[Ty]

If at all possible, you should NOT reinstall XP on that HD. You should install it on another HD, and use the broken one as a second HD. Then use windows explorer and see what data you can pull off of it.

I believe someone mentioned this above and this is what I've done before and it truly is the best cheap and easy option available to you when trying to recover data.

 

[Fred da Roza]

If at all possible, you should NOT reinstall XP on that HD. You should install it on another HD, and use the broken one as a second HD. Then use windows explorer and see what data you can pull off of it.

I believe someone mentioned this above and this is what I've done before and it truly is the best cheap and easy option available to you when trying to recover data.

Yep, and if you have an old HD, it's free. If you are going to reformat and reinstall you really have nothing to lose at this point. 2 cables to plug in and a jumper to set. Just make sure you ground yourself by touching the case.

 

[Sobek]

You're probably better off running fixboot and fixmbr from the Recovery Console rather than chkdsk...chkdsk causes more problems than it fixes.