Power Outage

[Guest]

Last week we lost power in the house. Now when I turn my computer on I get
this message: We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start
successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.

If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was
automatically shut down to protuct your files and folders, choose Last Known
Good Confguration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.

If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or
because the Poer or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what
caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)

Start Windows Normally

I tried each one of these options listed above. I tried to reboot through
the F8 command. Nothing has worked.

I have a Sony Viao VGC-RA840G with total of 2GB RAM and 550GB hard drive
space with Windows XP Media Center Eddition.

Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[Ayush]

Replied to [D13]s message :

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)

Start Windows Normally

I tried each one of these options listed above. I tried to reboot through
the F8 command. Nothing has worked.

Your best option will be a Repair install from the XP CD...

Backup the data first ... just in case....


→ Ayush [ Good Luck ]

 

[Malke]

Last week we lost power in the house. Now when I turn my computer on I
get this message: We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not
start
successfully.
(snippage)

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)

Start Windows Normally

I tried each one of these options listed above. I tried to reboot through
the F8 command. Nothing has worked.

I have a Sony Viao VGC-RA840G with total of 2GB RAM and 550GB hard drive
space with Windows XP Media Center Eddition.

Apparently the sudden loss of power damaged your operating system too much
for the Last Known Good Config to help. You will now need to do:

1. A Repair Install
2. A Clean Install (restore disk) if the Repair Install doesn't work.

Since you have a Vaio, I doubt that you have a real operating system cd.
Refer to your Vaio manual (or contact Sony tech support) to see if the
restore-to-factory condition process allows the equivalent of a Repair
Install. If it does not, unless you take the machine to a local computer
repair shop or have a friend with a generic OEM XP cd that matches your
version, you will need to do the full Sony restore-to-factory condition.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install
How-To
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

If you have data that wasn't backed up before the power outage, you can
probably still access it even though Windows won't boot. Let me know if you
want that information.

After you get this sorted, buy an Uninterruptible Power Supply. You can get
a decent one for around $60USD.

Malke

 

[Alias]

I have the same problem except with my HP. I don't have a problem with a
clean install, but I didn't have all my data backed up at the time of the
power outage. You mentioned getting the files off the hard drive even though
it won't boot. Is there a way to do this and how do I?

By putting it in a working computer as a slave drive. This means you
need to change the jumpers on the drive. Look at the top of the drive to
see what a slave configuration is for that drive and then change it by
moving the plastic thing on the edge of the drive.

Alias

 

[Malke]

I have the same problem except with my HP. I don't have a problem with a
clean install, but I didn't have all my data backed up at the time of the
power outage. You mentioned getting the files off the hard drive even
though
it won't boot. Is there a way to do this and how do I?

You may be able to boot directly with a rescue system as in #2 below if no
hardware was damaged. It's your choice and really depends on that and which
method is easiest for you.

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install of
XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a drive
adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A usb/firewire
external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the working Windows
Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and then burn
the data to cd or dvd.

2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a
Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is
general information on using Knoppix for this:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR
a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external
usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get Knoppix, you
need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party burning
software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable cd. Then boot
with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the
usb thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the
Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only".
Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the
window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of
the traditional MS Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning
program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's.

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder

Let me know if you have any questions about doing any of this.

Malke

 

[Allen]

This may sound like locking the barn after the horses are stolen, but I
second Malke's suggestion of a UPS. Mine (the second one I've owned--the
first went to battery heaven after a few years) has saved me more than
once and I would't think of not having one. Anyone who lives or works in
a neighborhood with lots of trees or construction, or lives in an area
where there are lots of storms, is really begging for problems without
one. To paraphrase a well-known credit card--Don't stay home without one.
Allen