PC Wont Boot (XP)

[Cloverleaf]

Hi, Sorry if i dont give enough info but i'm a bit of a newbie to the world of taking pc's to bits etc etc, anyway, the problem i have is that all of a sudden my pc wont boot, it comes up with the message of-



we apologize for the inconvenience blah blah blah and then gives me the options of restarting in

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with networking
Safe mode with command prompt
Last known good configuration
Start windows normally

well none of these work and it just keeps re-booting someone told me it was the hard drive, i have a spare unused external drive i can try but would like some advice if possible please as to what you all think might be my problem before i start dabbling and no doubt making things worse, one thing i really could do with being able to do it retrieve my word documents and photographs, please can someone point me in the right direction, many thanks

 

[Anon_F]

What does the 'blah blah blah' message say!
More info can help us to help you quicker.

 

[Cloverleaf]

sorry i should have said all that it says, it says

windows did not close successfully a recent hardware change or software change might have caused this.

If your computer stopped responding , restarted unexpectedly or was automatically shut down toprotect your files and folders, chose last known good configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked

If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the power or reset button was pressed, or if you arnt sure what caused the problem, chose start up windows normally

i have not installed any new software or hardware and my brother assures me he shut it down properly last time it was used.

Thanks for your help

 

[muckshifter]

Pop down to your local Newsagent, or decent Supermarket, and pick up a copy of Linux ... as you obviously have Internet access via a PC, try downloading a copy of Knoppix Live DVD/CD.


If the "live" DVD/CD works then that should rule out any hardware problems.

At this point in time, it could be anything from HD gone bad to Windows gone south for the duration.

Do you have a "real" copy of XP ?


oh, welcome to the forums.

 

[Anon_F]

I thought i could hear footsteps behind me.
Muckshifter & Linux comes to the rescue, 3 cheers for Sir Mucks.

I was going to say sounds like the hard drive has gone, but may i will not now!

 

[floppybootstomp]

As Mucks said, it's either a hardware problem or Windows has gone belly up, most likely a corrupted mbr.

The live Linux CD boot is a good idea, would eliminate the faulty hardware side of things.

This would be a good download as it's small: Damn Small Linux. The dowload link is towards the bottom of that page.

 

[muckshifter]

process of elimination

I thought i could hear footsteps behind me.
Muckshifter & Linux comes to the rescue, 3 cheers for Sir Mucks.

I was going to say sounds like the hard drive has gone, but may i will not now!

Could be HD, but a corrupted XP can produce the same result ... One can use a "real" XP CD to "diagnose" and at least ascertain if it is hardware or software issue.

As we know, most "big box" PCs don't come with an OS CD ...

 

[Cloverleaf]

thanks everyone, i have an xp disk and will try that 1st, i also have a new external HD, if the xp disk does not work ill try the linux, if all fails how do i get the new HD to work, sorry to sound thick but hey, yeah i probably am !!! lol

great forum by the way ......

 

[Cloverleaf]

oh, and by the way, wil i loose all my files etc if i do the xp disk and linux options, cheers

 

[muckshifter]

oh, and by the way, wil i loose all my files etc if i do the xp disk and Linux options, cheers

If you go the "Linux Live" route, no, it will be non-destructive as you will NOT be installing Linux.

You simply tell the BIOS to boot to CDROM drive as the first boot device ... pop in the Linux CD and it will/should load up into RAM. From there you can "see" if the rest of your PC works ... and even retrieve your data by saving it to a USB stick.

You can do the same with the XP CD ... however, you do need to know what your doing with the likes of the "recovery console" if used. Simply boot and see if you can "see" your HD.

If we find your HD is OK, and the "problem" is indeed a Windows mess, then I would recommend a Dirty Install of XP ...

Dirty Install ...
Boot from the XP CD. Go through the beginning process of a standard installation.

You will see at the bottum of your screen where it says type "R" to repair, do not type the "R" at this point in time, just type "C" for continue.

The next time you see the "R" for repair, I cant remember how many screens on this is, not many ... go ahead and type the "R" this time and it will start a repair of all your system files.

You will have to have your CD key to hand. It will seem like it is doing a fresh install but, it ain't.

oh ... YOU WILL NOT LOOSE ANY OF YOUR DATA

The only thing that really happened was Windows replaced the system files.


If you have any questions ... I will try to answer the best I can.

 

[Cloverleaf]

god i love you guys.....

i must start by saying this is the only forum where ive actually had some help with this so many many thanks ....

right

i now have a problemo.... no disks... hmmmm.... well there are some somewhere but i'll be damned if i can find them, so... ive found the Acer Aspire Recovery disk which says:

welcome to the acer aspire software recovery procedure this procedure allows you to restore your computer software according to its original content
warning, this procedure restores all you acer computer software all data on your hard disk drive will be permanently lost NOOOOO cant be doing that do i

so im stuffed then till i find the long lost disks, got dvd and cdr disks....??? am tres confused..... might just go make a coffee with something stronger added to it, afterall, it IS friday night .....HELP

 

[Techy]

or take the easier option without the unnecessary penguin interuption. Boot from the XP CD, launch the recovery console and run "fixmbr", "fixboot" and "chkdsk /R /F C:"

 

[Cloverleaf]

ok so i found the disks, they are 700mb 4 x grade a+ cd-rw multispeed and now i cantget the linux program onto the damn things, i have tried the disk drive and it is working fine so goodness knows whats happening now....grrrr any help appreciated guys

 

[muckshifter]

oops

Sorry, familiarity ... forgot that the Linux download is in ISO format.


Try this ...

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Direct download here


Do you not have a Real XP CD ??

 

[Cloverleaf]

thanks for that Muckshifter, works a treat now, the only thing i now need to know is how i download the Linus program, its too complicated for my tiny brain, do i just copy the folder over to a cd or what, i tried that and it said it ws going to take 16 days... ermm think i did something wrong

 

[Cloverleaf]

oh and actually it hasnt worked a treat as i 1st thought its saying it was unable to complete writing to the disk, shall try again but really getting a bit peed off now.... im sure it was easier with a pen and paper in the old days lol

 

[Cloverleaf]

and yes i do have an xp cd but its in scotland with my parents and really wanted to get this sorted by the weekend, looks like i'll have to wait till it get to me in the post if i cant get the cd to write.... thanks everyone though for your help so far....

 

[muckshifter]

Hmmm, not sure what you have, or haven't done ?


There are two ways to get a Linux Live CD ...
1. Download from the Internet & burn the ISO to a CD
2. Go get a Linux Mag that has a CD on it

Well, you can also buy on-line too ...

Depending on where you are downloading from depends on how long it will take ... these are full CDs we are talking about ... if you have "broadband" it can still take several hours to download.

Don't bother trying to download a DVD, you only need a "live cd" of Linux ... and they all have them ... Click to Download here ... if this is going to take "days" then you have a very slow connection and I would cancel the download ... and go to the newsagent in the morning.

 

[Cloverleaf]

thanks for the link, its downloading now and says 2 hrs so i'll see what happens, if not i'll deff get a disk tomorrow from the newsagents, thanks for the help

 

[theresaflores]

I am having the same problem...

or take the easier option without the unnecessary penguin interuption. Boot from the XP CD, launch the recovery console and run "fixmbr", "fixboot" and "chkdsk /R /F C:"

I am having the same problem...

I did what this post said to do and now my computer is stuck on a blank black screen.