power outage during boot

[Kate]

Last night, the power went off. The computer (running Windows XP
home), of course, turned off too. When the power came back on, I
rebooted the computer. When it was part way through it's reboot, the
power went off again. This seemed to confuse the computer. When it
came back on, I rebooted again, and a black screen came up and gave me
the option of restarting normally or with the last good configuration
or in a safe mode, or safe mode with networking. I chose "normal" and
it got "stuck" on the blue HP Invent screen. I shut it off manually
and when I turned it back on I got that same black screen, only this
time I chose the last good configuaration option (which is what it
says to choose if the power died in the middle of a boot) and it again
got stuck on the blue HP Invent page. I hit F10 for system recovery
and after about 3 minutes, the HP Recovery screen came up. Then it
gave me the option of using the Windows Recovery, with no results. So
then I tried saying the HP recovery. Now it tells : "All files,
including data files on the user partitition will be lost and the
original factory-shipped files will be recovered to the user
partitiuion. Do you want to continue?" Now, there was only an "OK"
button, no "not a freakin' chance, I'll try something else" button.
So I left it.

I don't really want to lose the software (not to mention other data)
on the hard drive....does this mean I'd lose it all? I do have the
startup disks I made when I first got the computer....but didn't have
time to try that this morning. Would it have the same "paving"
results?

I live in a remote location and getting the data recovered would be a
long process -- if this process DOES wipe out the hard drive data --
what about me dropping in a new hard drive to run parallel? and then
grabbing the relevant data once the puter is booted up using this new
drive?

Thanks for your help...

Kate

 

[Andre Da Costa]

If the option is available boot into Safe Mode, go to Start > Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

Choose earliest point that you can restore to before the error happended.

I understand that you have are using OEM Recovery disk, with the Windows
integrated, thats the blooper here.

Even if it is possible to at boot into Safe Mode and back up the data, it
would be much more a relief than just losing applications installed.

Check link to see if it offers any assistance:
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

I hope everything works out.

Andre

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Last night, the power went off. The computer (running Windows XP
home), of course, turned off too. When the power came back on, I
rebooted the computer. When it was part way through it's reboot, the
power went off again. This seemed to confuse the computer. When it
came back on, I rebooted again, and a black screen came up and gave me
the option of restarting normally or with the last good configuration
or in a safe mode, or safe mode with networking. I chose "normal" and
it got "stuck" on the blue HP Invent screen. I shut it off manually
and when I turned it back on I got that same black screen, only this
time I chose the last good configuaration option (which is what it
says to choose if the power died in the middle of a boot) and it again
got stuck on the blue HP Invent page. I hit F10 for system recovery
and after about 3 minutes, the HP Recovery screen came up. Then it
gave me the option of using the Windows Recovery, with no results. So
then I tried saying the HP recovery. Now it tells : "All files,
including data files on the user partitition will be lost and the
original factory-shipped files will be recovered to the user
partitiuion. Do you want to continue?" Now, there was only an "OK"
button, no "not a freakin' chance, I'll try something else" button.
So I left it.

I don't really want to lose the software (not to mention other data)
on the hard drive....does this mean I'd lose it all? I do have the
startup disks I made when I first got the computer....but didn't have
time to try that this morning. Would it have the same "paving"
results?

Unfortunately, yes, the recovery CD set will wipe out everything and
make it just like it came from the factory.

I live in a remote location and getting the data recovered would be a
long process -- if this process DOES wipe out the hard drive data --
what about me dropping in a new hard drive to run parallel? and then
grabbing the relevant data once the puter is booted up using this new
drive?

I would first try booting into Safe Mode if you can (try a few times,
don't just give up after one failure), login with administrator rights,
then do a Start, Run, type in
CHKDSK /R
Press enter and answer Y, then reboot and keep your fingers crossed that
CHKDSK /R can repair any damage done to the file system and/or hard drive.

Thanks for your help...

Kate

You have just learned the hard way a valuable lesson about backing up
your data on a regular basis and also about the usefullness of an
uninterruptable power supply (UPS), a device costing $100 or less that
would have prevented this from happening by keeping your system powered
up long enough to properly shut it down during a power outage, and most
even come with software to automatically power the system down safely
during a power failure.

Additionally, you have learned that in the future not to buy an HP or
any other brand of computer that does not supply a real Windows XP
installation CD that can among other things perform a repair install. In
my opinion these companies that only supply a means of restoring the
system to the factory state have cheated their customers out of several
options for repairing the operating system that are normally part of the
operating system itself. Is it legal? Yes. Is it ethical? Not as far as
I'm concerned.

Steve

 

[Rock]

Last night, the power went off. The computer (running Windows XP
home), of course, turned off too. When the power came back on, I
rebooted the computer. When it was part way through it's reboot, the
power went off again. This seemed to confuse the computer. When it
came back on, I rebooted again, and a black screen came up and gave me
the option of restarting normally or with the last good configuration
or in a safe mode, or safe mode with networking. I chose "normal" and
it got "stuck" on the blue HP Invent screen. I shut it off manually
and when I turned it back on I got that same black screen, only this
time I chose the last good configuaration option (which is what it
says to choose if the power died in the middle of a boot) and it again
got stuck on the blue HP Invent page. I hit F10 for system recovery
and after about 3 minutes, the HP Recovery screen came up. Then it
gave me the option of using the Windows Recovery, with no results. So
then I tried saying the HP recovery. Now it tells : "All files,
including data files on the user partitition will be lost and the
original factory-shipped files will be recovered to the user
partitiuion. Do you want to continue?" Now, there was only an "OK"
button, no "not a freakin' chance, I'll try something else" button.
So I left it.

I don't really want to lose the software (not to mention other data)
on the hard drive....does this mean I'd lose it all? I do have the
startup disks I made when I first got the computer....but didn't have
time to try that this morning. Would it have the same "paving"
results?

I live in a remote location and getting the data recovered would be a
long process -- if this process DOES wipe out the hard drive data --
what about me dropping in a new hard drive to run parallel? and then
grabbing the relevant data once the puter is booted up using this new
drive?

Thanks for your help...

Kate

Kate before you try anything such as chkdsk, attempt to backup the data
from the drive. Your idea of getting another hard drive, installing
windows on it, then putting the original drive in as a slave drive and
copying the data from it is a good choice. You're data is more than
like still ok, you just need to get it off without messing it up.

The other option, one which I have not used but which I've seen in here,
has been posted by Malke. That involves downloading a linux
distibutable which you put on CD and boot with. This will read the
drive and allow you to copy the data to CD.

Search this group for messages by Malke for the specifics. She might
even see this message thread and post to it.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Kate before you try anything such as chkdsk, attempt to backup the data
from the drive. Your idea of getting another hard drive, installing
windows on it, then putting the original drive in as a slave drive and
copying the data from it is a good choice. You're data is more than
like still ok, you just need to get it off without messing it up.

The other option, one which I have not used but which I've seen in here,
has been posted by Malke. That involves downloading a linux
distibutable which you put on CD and boot with. This will read the
drive and allow you to copy the data to CD.

Search this group for messages by Malke for the specifics. She might
even see this message thread and post to it.

I ammend my suggestions and agree, do what you can to backup your files
first.

Steve