Parents PC booting in circles...

[ChristopherP]

Hello everyone...

This morning my parents PC started booting in circles - get to the loading windows screen, stay there for a bit, click and its just rebooted itself. I'm writing this from their PC, but only because i'm on a "Live" version of Linux...

Could this be because they had a virus a couple days ago... or is something inside the case knackered...? I'm clueless, and don't want to re-format because of all the important company information and photos that are on there, stuff we really dont want to lose.

Im on this CD version of linux to see if i can access the hard drive and chuck it onto the network where data is safe... its a crash course in Ubuntu for me!!

Any help is awesome, thanks

Chris

 

[Ian]

If Linux works ok, it doesn't seem to be a problem with hardware. I'd backup data on that machine just to be safe though.

What happens in Windows Safe mode?

 

[ChristopherP]

D'oh

Didnt think of that... will try that in a sec

Thank Ian

 

[ChristopherP]

I can access the network, just need to figure out how to get to the C:

 

[muckshifter]

A virus, maybe ... a worm, no ... a 'click' and it well could be hardware, but more hopefully a software problem in Windows

You wont be able to save anything unless you get Linux to burn to a CD

My advice would be to pop out the hard drive and plonk it in your PC and get the data off first.

Sorry to say, but with your experience I am a bit lost as to why you have 'important' data that has not been backed up.

Every PC WILL fail.

 

[ChristopherP]

I tend to leave my parents computer alone... they dont like me touching it unless it needs fixing

Mum did ask Dad to back up the important stuff a few days ago... but he didn't.

Is there any way to get the the C: from Ubuntu Live...anyone?

This is all i get:

Will windows let me just plonk another (SATA) HDD with windows on into my PC - i thought it got all stressy about user permissions etc - not letting you access someone elses files and all that jazz.

 

[muckshifter]

Sorry, I know nuffin about Ubuntu ... Knoppix will/can do the job.

or

Just plonk the drive in your PC ... make sure it is non booting sata ... permissions are easily obtained if it moans at you ... you don't need to read the files, you need to copy/burn to a CD ... don't you.

 

[ChristopherP]

694mb of Knoppix is downloading!

Safe mode wont work... infact nothing seems to now...

the system just goes to the follwing screen

Where you effectivly have 2 options.

1.) select one of the above and press enter
2.) wait the 25 seconds for it to go to windows

When i try option one... System hangs
When i try option two... System hangs

the only noticable thing that happens are the fans in the case change pitch slightly - or could this be the PSU under stress or anything like that?

___

If i was to put the HDD in my PC, would it try and boot from that instead of my array? I have my RAID on the Intel controller so would put the parents on the Silicon Image.

 

[ChristopherP]

Wahey!

Just remembered a trick that Techy told me...

Boot from the Windows CD, go to the Recovery Console, log on to the windows partition and type "FIXBOOT" and "FIXMBR"

Low and behold safe mode boots perfectly first time...

I'll be backing up everything and wiping it all.

Do you reckon it could have been a virus?

 

[pikakilla]

Wahey!

Just remembered a trick that Techy told me...

Boot from the Windows CD, go to the Recovery Console, log on to the windows partition and type "FIXBOOT" and "FIXMBR"

Low and behold safe mode boots perfectly first time...

I'll be backing up everything and wiping it all.

Do you reckon it could have been a virus?

and chkdsk, i presumed youd already tried that, should have been the first thing to try

 

[muckshifter]

Wahey!

Just remembered a trick that Techy told me...

Boot from the Windows CD, go to the Recovery Console, log on to the windows partition and type "FIXBOOT" and "FIXMBR"

Low and behold safe mode boots perfectly first time...

I'll be backing up everything and wiping it all.

Do you reckon it could have been a virus?

Nope, no virus, just Windows.

 

[ChristopherP]

Screw that, MS suck!

Is it possible to create two partitions, one of say 75% and the other 25% of the HDD, and have XP on the big one, and Ubuntu or some other GUI linux distro with all the apps on the smaller one, with a choice of which one you want to use when you turn the computer on?

This way if it goes wrong again, at least they have Linux - (i'm also thinking for when i go to Uni and i wont be near home!)

 

[PotGuy]

pretty bad virus then :/

 

[ChristopherP]

pretty bad virus then :/

Yeah it was called Windows

 

[muckshifter]

Screw that, MS suck!

Is it possible to create two partitions, one of say 75% and the other 25% of the HDD, and have XP on the big one, and Ubuntu or some other GUI linux distro with all the apps on the smaller one, with a choice of which one you want to use when you turn the computer on?

This way if it goes wrong again, at least they have Linux - (i'm also thinking for when i go to Uni and i wont be near home!)

Yes ... they call it "dual-booting" you may have heard of it.

Dont forget to teach them how to use Linux.

 

[ChristopherP]

Thanks Mucks!!!!

Course i've heard of dual booting... was just wondering if there was any weird way of doing it because its not MS

 

[muckshifter]

Thanks Mucks!!!!

Course I've heard of dual booting... was just wondering if there was any weird way of doing it because its not MS

More people have 'problems' with dual-boot than with just one OS ... best to settle into a decent backup regime.



Knoppix will do it all without an install.

 

[ChristopherP]

What problems can dual booting cause?

 

[floppybootstomp]

It may also be worth creating two partitions anyway - one for OS and one for storage.

At least that way the data will be seperate (and easier to recover) if OS gets corrupted.

But, there again, it may be just as easy to boot from Knoppix.

If you're worried about your parents losing data while you're away, perhaps get them another hard disk to backup onto, or drill it into your Dad to backup regularly to DVD/CD.

Linux Mandriva installs easily and more or less self-configures for dual boot, as does Suse 10, but that's a bit of an extreme solution, imo.

And then there's DSL (Damn Small Linux).

Hmm, I just thinking out loud, lol

 

[ChristopherP]

I quite like linux, if most are like Ubuntu - dead easy to use, and all the apps you could shake a stick at!I quite like the evolution email program - just like Outlook 2003!

I dont know... will look into the possibilities. The parents aren't computer illiterate (both use PCs at work, dad being a programmer) but i think they expect a computer to work flawlessly all the time.... Thats where MS causes problems.

Theres one thing that gets me though... im not sure what could be wrong.

The parents PC will never turn itself off any more - it comes up with the screen saying "it is now safe to turn your computer off" and also when you load programs, the fans slow down a bit, you can hear them change.

Could the PSU be on its way out, and corrupting stuff on the HDD making it not boot etc?