Computer won't boot.

[Jafa]

Also - some of you might not be aware - about 12 months ago I found that you could buy external HD cases with USB connection for about $30. I grabbed one of these and a cheap second hand HD to use as a backup.

Good option - then you could plug it into the laptop. Need to check the type of connection however - ide or sata.

 

[TurboHead]

If you aren't aware - a Hard Drive is a metal box about the size of a paper back book which will cost about $100 for a 250gb.

 

[VanBerlo=God]

If you aren't aware - a Hard Drive is a metal box about the size of a paper back book which will cost about $100 for a 250gb.

not even, 60 bucks these days for a 7200rpm 16mb cache

plug the hard drive into the laptop using the usb connection method, follow the instructions i set out earlier, do a hard drive scan to check if the sectors are fine (if its corrupted), if it isn't reinstall windows (windows does this quite frequently, its a **** of a system), and put everything back on, and tell mummy you won't be porning as much anymore

 

[beaumont911]

However - this is what I would do.

Grab a copy of Ubuntu.
Grab a USB drive from Hardly normal and make sure it was formated FAT32.
Boot into the Ubuntu live disk.
Copy the entire Windows partition to the USB drive.
Reinstall windows.
Reinstate the data.

That is what I'd do. Have done it several times before too.

 

[mighty mick]

for saving all video off of the pc a terabyte western digital for $299 at orifice works until the end of today.

anyone who doesnt have a external drive to back up is behind the times especially at the prices of drives these days.

 

[OzBomber]

We're getting a tech chick to come out today to have a look at the comp. More than likely they'll wipe the whole thing and just reinstall windows.

Lose about 30GB of cricket videos.

I don't have an external hard drive either.

 

[Jafa]

Backups are the key to happy computing.

 

[VanBerlo=God]

We're getting a tech chick to come out today to have a look at the comp. More than likely they'll wipe the whole thing and just reinstall windows.

Lose about 30GB of cricket videos.

I don't have an external hard drive either.

well then this is what you say to the tech chick.

I have data for school and personal use that I cannot lose, so don't format the hard drive. If you can recover the operating system, then thanks, otherwise if you can back up the data then install windows again, I will be happy. Thanks.

and if she says 'i'll need to format' you say 'not without my data thanks' and promise mummy no more porning

 

[OzBomber]

Nah, she's taken it to her house and is going to copy an image of it onto a new harddrive or something. The computer was overheated or something, and something on the harddrive was crumbling. And the fan wasn't working.

 

[TurboHead]

how old is your computer??

 

[OzBomber]

how old is your computer??

Yeah that's the thing, less than 2 years.

 

[Jafa]

how old is your computer??

How old is she - and is she cute is the question.

 

[OzBomber]

How old is she - and is she cute is the question.

Umm? Sorry?

Anyway... the computer is all fixed. New fan, new harddrive, all the same old stuff, and it only cost 60 bucks!

 

[Jafa]

The Tech chick - who did you think I meant.

$60 for a Sunday - Bargain.

 

[OzBomber]

The Tech chick - who did you think I meant.

$60 for a Sunday - Bargain.

I dunno how old she was. Probably late 20s-early 30s? She was alright for a tech chick! I was expecting a really fat chick to come and fix the computer.

 

[Gman]

Basically you have a corrupted registry hive

You will need to do some registry admin work, be careful if you attempt fix, dont rush it and since you can get into windows backup data first

In short you have to replace registry hive with an uncorrupted one
Need to boot PC using windows cd
Select repair
rename corrupted hive
copy uncorrupted hive from system32

reboot

But it isnt that easy, took me a while the first time but it does work

Here is the fix, its long and daunting.
HINT, Instead of typing the path for each hive you can copy and paste the text into Notepad and save it as a batchfile. Then execute batch file when stated in steps.

Best thing is to read document a few times over and try to understand it. If you arent too savvy ask a techie friend, if you havnet got one, find that friend, they can be useful

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Good luck


Oh Ok just read that it was fixed...definitely isnt/wasnt your hard drive. but happy ending nonetherless

Anyway...someone else may want this fix

 

[spitlizard]

Basically you have a corrupted registry hive

You will need to do some registry admin work, be careful if you attempt fix, dont rush it and since you can get into windows backup data first

In short you have to replace registry hive with an uncorrupted one
Need to boot PC using windows cd
Select repair
rename corrupted hive
copy uncorrupted hive from system32

reboot

But it isnt that easy, took me a while the first time but it does work

Here is the fix, its long and daunting.
HINT, Instead of typing the path for each hive you can copy and paste the text into Notepad and save it as a batchfile. Then execute batch file when stated in steps.

Best thing is to read document a few times over and try to understand it. If you arent too savvy ask a techie friend, if you havnet got one, find that friend, they can be useful

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Good luck


Oh Ok just read that it was fixed...definitely isnt/wasnt your hard drive. but happy ending nonetherless

Anyway...someone else may want this fix

Good lord why don't you just give him instructions for open heart surgery while your at it???

He has already made it clear he is a standard user.

You guys are the reason I left IT!!!!!!! No ****ing idea, your as bad as VanBerlo

 

[Gman]

Good lord why don't you just give him instructions for open heart surgery while your at it???

He has already made it clear he is a standard user.

You guys are the reason I left IT!!!!!!! No ****ing idea, your as bad as VanBerlo

If you read my post again, that is why I stated it'd be good if he can find a techie as the lingo is somewhat difficult to get a grasp of initially

PS

Someone else may find this info useful and I'm not in IT or a techie, just understand technology

 

[VanBerlo=God]

Good lord why don't you just give him instructions for open heart surgery while your at it???

He has already made it clear he is a standard user.

You guys are the reason I left IT!!!!!!! No ****ing idea, your as bad as VanBerlo

blow off.

if the kid was interested enough to learn, i'm sure he would either google what i said, or ask for instructions.

as it turned out, we were all wrong, but i was right at least about putting the hard drive in another computer because it would need to be formatted.

a fugged fan aint such a bad thing

 

[Borgsta]

I don't get it. A guy comes onto a computer forum and asks if peopl have any idea what the problem could be.

2 - 3 people offer suggestions and go out of their way to suggest ways it could be fixed.

Those 2-3 people get bagged for doing basically what the op asked.

 

[OzBomber]

Yeah, thanks to everyone for giving their time to help me (even though I didn't use it ).

 

[Sheezel2Wardlaw]

The best thimg to do is, listen to some one who has some knowledge and not just guessing.

Boot from win xp cd, select enter at first prompt, the f8 to agree, the repair the previous windows installed. This will re-write the windows files.


Easy!!