Thanks Everyone

[Craig A.]

To all of you who offered help, Thanks.

I took the hard drive out of my daughter's computer, using the assumption
it was a HD problem, I then brought it to mine and hooked it up in place of
one of mine. I booted, my computer did not recognize it. So I was sure it was
dead. I then did the OLD method of tapping it smartly to disengage the
spindle, just in case. Rebooted, Nothing.

My last hope was to re install it back in my daugher's IDE versus my SATA
with Adapter and try booting from the Revovery Cd and do what I did NOT want
to do. Well for whatever reason it booted and went right into Windows. I have
NO CLUE why, I had tried booting a hundred times and kept getting the error
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll As soon as the critter booted, I ran
CCLEANER, DISK CLEANER and the Uniblue Registry fixer upper. It is now
booting normally and I have Ordered another drive.

Still not sure if it was hardware or not, but am replacing the WD Drive.

Thanks again everyone for al of the help and advice, I printed it all off
and I am saving it. I am relieved I do not have to do the complete format
etc. I am on a slow dial up and it takes FOREVER to just do the Windows
updates.

 

[Malke]

To all of you who offered help, Thanks.

I took the hard drive out of my daughter's computer, using the
assumption
it was a HD problem, I then brought it to mine and hooked it up in place
of one of mine. I booted, my computer did not recognize it. So I was sure
it was dead. I then did the OLD method of tapping it smartly to disengage
the spindle, just in case. Rebooted, Nothing.

My last hope was to re install it back in my daugher's IDE versus my
SATA
with Adapter and try booting from the Revovery Cd and do what I did NOT
want to do. Well for whatever reason it booted and went right into
Windows. I have NO CLUE why, I had tried booting a hundred times and kept
getting the error
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll As soon as the critter booted, I ran
CCLEANER, DISK CLEANER and the Uniblue Registry fixer upper. It is now
booting normally and I have Ordered another drive.

Still not sure if it was hardware or not, but am replacing the WD Drive.

Thanks again everyone for al of the help and advice, I printed it all off
and I am saving it. I am relieved I do not have to do the complete format
etc. I am on a slow dial up and it takes FOREVER to just do the Windows
updates.

You're welcome, even if you did not follow the advice you were given. Had
you done that, you would have been back in business in around 5 minutes.

BTW, using a registry cleaner such as Uniblue is a recipe for disaster.

http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099 - registry cleaner thread

"Smartly tapping" a hard drive has not been supported or necessary for
many, many years. Your daughter really should take her computer to a
professional next time.

EOT for me.

Malke

 

[Craig A.]

To be very polite Malke, I had already googled, searched Microsoft's
websites and tried just about everything suggested. IT DIDN"T WORK. I came
here AFTER i did everything. I tried copying the boot.ini file from my
computer (HP same as my daughter's) and it would not copy. I got the error
no matter what I tried. All I was able to do was do simple dos commands, such
as DIR. I even tried to give it a new path, knowing that the path to the
resident commands on the computer hadn't loaded. When I was able to go to
BIOS and change the BOOT order and I put in my brother's XP CD, it booted,
started a SETUP and then took me to the DOS help files, which I knew and
tried. NO LUCK. IT gave me a Directory of Drive C which told me if I could
see the directory, then it wasn't damaged and i was having other problems.
I was at work and and did not get home till that evening and that is when
I did what I did.
You have YOUR opinions and I have mine and I have been using Unible's
Registry Mechanic for a couple of years on several computers and it seems
that PC Mag and many others HIGHLY recommend it.
You seem to have an attitude and I did sell one of the very first
computers ever sold. a TRS-80 Model ONE, Level ONE. I have a very good idea
of what I am doing and did not want to offend anyone by trying to establish
who was an EXPERT and who wasn't. I have done alot of work with DOS
Commands, long before there was WIndows to do it all for you. Your 5 minute
theory was useless for I had spent a night trying the night before. I wasn't
sure how much had loaded before I got the hal.ddl error and felt just because
Windows hadn't loaded, I was hoping I was in the Command Prompt and that I
would be able to run a Windows Restore from C Prompt to get it going, I felt
the restore process was more of a Windows DOS function that didn't need the
entire Windows platform loaded in order for it to work.

You have a means of judging people that makes you look like a person I
would NEVER consider taking my computer to.
I held the hard drive in my hand and could not feel any vibrations and
yet it was heating up so knew it was getting power and assumed it was jammed.
So I DID rap it smartly and I did hear a disengagement sound and then I felt
a motor spin. SO if it is NOT supported to work for what ever your logic is,
It Did seem to work and the hard drive is still working. Would I suggest
that? NO! not unless the person was ready to write it off as a loss, which I
had done.
I came here to thank people who responded and I did not want to get into a
long eloboration of what I had already tried, I was looking for the stupid
sh-- I hadn't tried or had overlooked, but so many responded I felt it was
best to thank them and move on.
The computer would NOT even accept the EDIT command from the prompt so I
knew that the O.S. was fully missing. I was trying to edit the boot.ini or
any file for that matter and could not.


:
You're welcome, even if you did not follow the advice you were given. Had
you done that, you would have been back in business in around 5 minutes.

BTW, using a registry cleaner such as Uniblue is a recipe for disaster.

http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099 - registry cleaner thread

"Smartly tapping" a hard drive has not been supported or necessary for
many, many years. Your daughter really should take her computer to a
professional next time.

EOT for me.

Malke

 

[pcbutts1]

Most MVP's in this group are like that. She must be on the rag or something
because I've noticed her smart remarks have been coming more frequent
lately.


--

Newsgroup Trolls. Read about mine here http://www.pcbutts1.com/downloads
The list grows. Leythos the stalker http://www.leythosthestalker.com, David
H. Lipman, Max M Wachtell III aka What's in a Name?, Fitz, Beauregard T.
Shagnasty,Rhonda Lea Kirk, Meat Plow, F Kwatu F, George Orwell

 

[sgopus]

PD43 must be rubbing off on her!

Most MVP's in this group are like that. She must be on the rag or something
because I've noticed her smart remarks have been coming more frequent
lately.


--

Newsgroup Trolls. Read about mine here http://www.pcbutts1.com/downloads
The list grows. Leythos the stalker http://www.leythosthestalker.com, David
H. Lipman, Max M Wachtell III aka What's in a Name?, Fitz, Beauregard T.
Shagnasty,Rhonda Lea Kirk, Meat Plow, F Kwatu F, George Orwell