I got an error message on my xp desktop and the blue screen came on
and began dumping memory and told me to start in safe mode. I tried to
reboot but then my bios screen came up and then it goes the message
screen that tells you to start in safe mode and then it goes back to
the bios screen . I will try to send the screen shots any advise?
I'd start by checking the RAM.
You can test memory with memtest86+ from memtest.org . There is a version
which will prepare a blank floppy. And an ISO9660 file you can burn to a CD.
I had some RAM fail recently, and at first the computer would not even POST.
If the bad stick was in the "low memory" position, from 0 to 512MB, then
the computer would not POST. I tried the sticks one at a time, and one of
the sticks would POST and also allowed the computer to boot.
In terms of tests you can run, to verify hardware:
1) Test memory with memtest86+
2) Once you have good memory, download the hard drive diagnostic from the
manufacturer's web site. If the boot hard drive is seagate or maxtor brand,
then seagate.com will have a diagnostic for the hard drive.
3) For overall testing that the computer is functional (i.e. you suspect the
Windows OS on the hard drive is corrupted, bad registry, bad boot files
or whatever). I use a Linux LiveCD for that. A LiveCD is a CD that you can
use to boot the computer, and a hard drive does not even need to be
connected to the computer. I have a copy of Knoppix (knopper.net) and a
Ubuntu (ubuntu.com) CD, and either one will boot from the CD. Once in the
desktop, you have some proof the computer hardware is working. Either of
those options is a 700MB download, so you really need a broadband connection
to make the download practical. At the time I prepared my first one, I even
had to buy a new burner, because my old burner would not burn a 700MB ISO9660
image. So it did cost me a few bucks.
Once in Linux, you can even run a Linux version of Prime95 from mersenne.org .
The "torture test" option of that program, makes a good way to load the CPU
and check that it can handle a 100% computing load.
4) I understand that there is some package for Linux, that allows mounting
an NTFS volume read/write in Linux. You may find, while in Linux, that the
disk is visible. It could be mounted read-only, so you could at least see
if files were visible and structures intact. There is at least one Linux
package that will mount NTFS disks in read/write mode, and if there was something
that needed fixing, you might attempt it that way. This is a little more
advanced than I'd be comfortable with myself (it would probably take me the
whole day to install Linux on a spare hard drive, and set up the additional
package - some of the time would be spent trying to find documentation).
5) If you need another tool to do some basic work on the disk, then try Testdisk.
This example, walks through some of the things TestDisk can fix. I would
want a backup image (sector by sector backup), before using a tool like this
to repair something, as this amounts to an "in place" repair procedure. If
something went wrong, you'd want a backup...
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
HTH,
Paul
