Inaccessible boot device

[Savanna]

Hiya guys, clueless female here looking for a bit of much needed advice

My year old HP precasario C700 recently crashed and won't boot back up. Says windows failed to start and it cant repair as the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible. So I got my hands on an XP disk, but it won't boot from CD- I've changed the boot order in the BIOS, but it just wont boot from CD- so I'm totally stumped. Before it crashed I got multiple virus pop ups, so I can only assume it's some sort of malware that has caused all this

I don't know if I'm just missing something (which knowing me I likely am) or of it needs repaired by a pro. Anyone had similar issues? I have windows Vista atm, but I tried to use XP to format it, could that be the problem? it does sound like it's booting up and the CD spins.. I went into f9 too, which is boot manager, it has Optiarc DVD RW AD 7560A then Hitachi.. so either way, the DVD should be the first to boot: right?

Ohh one more thing, when it boots it says "preparing to boot from OS" no idea what that means?

And I'll just run through my boot order

ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM Drive
Notebook hard drive
USB Diskette on key
USB hard drive
Network adapter
USB Floppy

A lot of info I know, just want to be clear since I don't know what heck I'm talking about lol any advice would be soooo appreciated!

 

[Ian]

If you press F9 to get to the boot manager, are you able to select the DVD drive from the list and force it to boot from that first? Your boot order looks fine, so I don't know why it doesnt' begin the XP setup.

Is there a reason why you are using an XP CD rather than using Vista again? You might find there there is a repair partition on your laptop, as many companies use those now. You'll need to have a quick look at the manual to see how to activate it if so.

 

[Ian]

I've just done a quick google and it looks like if you keep pressing F10 as the PC boots you may be able to access the recovery partition. Please bear in mind that this will format your laptop and you will lose all existing data on it - essentially restoring the laptop to how it was when you first bought it.

 

[Savanna]

If you press F9 to get to the boot manager, are you able to select the DVD drive from the list and force it to boot from that first? Your boot order looks fine, so I don't know why it doesnt' begin the XP setup.

Hiya Ian, thanks for replying. Yes, it lets me select it.. but to no avail.

Is there a reason why you are using an XP CD rather than using Vista again? You might find there there is a repair partition on your laptop, as many companies use those now. You'll need to have a quick look at the manual to see how to activate it if so.

I don't have a Vista CD.

I've just done a quick google and it looks like if you keep pressing F10 as the PC boots you may be able to access the recovery partition. Please bear in mind that this will format your laptop and you will lose all existing data on it - essentially restoring the laptop to how it was when you first bought it.

Yeah, tried that, the recovery partition doesn't work, it just takes me to a blank screen for about 30 secs then restarts. I'll try and get a hold of vista and see how I get on with that.. it's so frustrating.. my desktop is playing up too.. it's taking forever to load.. when it rains it pours eh? lol

I called the guys at HP to see if it was still under warrenty, but it ran out in feb- so I asked if I could talk to someone about the error code.. and they said it would cost me 16 quid just to talk to someone.. pfft.. some customer support..

I probably shoulda mentioned this before: In the BIOS hard disk self test it didn't get passed 1% before it said: "Failed- replace hard disk 1. Error code 10008" but when I pressed f2 and went into the startup check mode, it passed the primary hard disk self test

 

[muckshifter]

Replace the hard drive, it's nucking fackard.

 

[Savanna]

Yeah, looks like it is. Thanks again.

 

[Savanna]

Ok, turns out it wasn't. I relentlessly kept at it and tried putting a disk in while it was trying to load and to my surprise, windows booted up, but it was totally done in with viruses, to the point where it wouldnt let me run any anti virus programme. So, stupid me decided to format, simpe enough right? lol

I DL'd a Neo recover disk? it booted up fine and I chose the last option, which was to wipe everything. So after that finished tried to boot the same CD up, this time to reinstall Vista.. but it says Bootmgr missing? so Im totally stumped again. The recovery CD that I formated with doesnt have all the drivers to reinstal Vista and I'm not sure what the heck I should do next?

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

You might find some help in the above.