Posted on 04/17/2009 4:01:32 PM PDT by Chickensoup
After a year of dedicated use after a computer mishap described in this thread:
The Computer is Broken. Seems to be Circling the Drain in a Loop. TECH PING LIST SUPERSTARS03.02.08 chickensoup
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1979332/posts#73
Having a similar problem but the boot on the XP Pro disk doesnt seem to help. got to the blue screen once and hit the 'R" key and it loaded but just sat there and hummed. so i started to type in chkdsk/r but it would only let me type in "c"....
It is now back to circling the drain to the white on black screen that tells me to start in safe mode.
A little bit more than you have. Otherwise, if it is the same thing as you described a year ago, those old instructions should fix you again.
Does it make sense?
I hope you made backups of anything that you really cared about.
Your harddrive is dead. You should have realized that a year ago when you posted your first thread.
I hope you backed up your important data.
have new hardrive
Once XP is on, load on your Maxtor software. Once that is on, then restore your last backup. If you last did an incremental, their software should let you identify that and it will find the earlier backups needed to complete it.
You'll be back up to your last backup's status within 4 - 6 hours.
no money, four kids, homeschoolling and supporting them all and the morgages...with two jobs.
It’s possible that you have an overheating problem, you may need to air clean the fans in your computer, or maybe even add another fan. Try using some canned air in the tower, if that doesn’t work, add an extra fan.
did get blue screen again and loading!
A format and reinstall always helps. If you do not have your data backed up, that’s another story
this is where I fell out before.
It is asking me which Windows installation would you like to log onto. it is a one letter field answer.
it also says to press enter to cancel
Ha! I'm posting this on a machine I literally dragged out of a lady's garbage can. It came complete with 19" monitor, printer, scanner, speakers, keyboard&mouse, cabling, and a stack of software disks. It was a windows ME machine, but the OS crapped out, errors so bad it would not boot. No OS disk, however.
I installed PCLinuxOS 2009.1 this afternoon, and am playing around right now. Total cost to me? $15 for a stick of RAM and a cheap LAN card.
If you have a copy of like ‘98 or ME, install that first. Then do the XP install and set it up for dual boot.
I have dual boot on ALL my machines standard.
If you weren’t so far away, I’d give you this machine.
If the hard drive is still running and you have no backups, yes, it is possible to do some things that will bring it back, short of sending it off for “deep recovery services”. Unfortunately, Geek Squad and places like that won’t do that sort of work, using utilities such as Spinrite and such, just because it takes so much time.
Furthermore, although I’ve done all of those things and recovered things few would bother with, going that route can take days. Spinrite alone, if it appears that would be helpful, takes up to a day to do its full scan. Walking someone through this sort of stuff, even if it seems rather easy to me, is almost impossible over a forum. There are too many variables you just need to work around when they appear that might be apparent to me but not to you.
Honestly, if you have a backup as I believe you mentioned you did last year, this won’t be too bad. You’ll need to put the drive in and format it, but as long as your BIOS is set to automatically sense your hard drive, it should be okay. I assume your new drive uses the same cabling as your old one, so as long as that is true, you should be fine formatting it, putting XP on it, then your backup program, then restore from your backup. NOTE: Before formatting, disconnect your backup drive to assure you don’t accidentally format that instead.
I hope the best for you.
Reformat and reload the OS.
That fixes everything OS related.
I format and reload my OSs every 6 months at the max.
Ha! I’m posting this on a machine I literally dragged out of a lady’s garbage can. It came complete with 19” monitor, printer, scanner, speakers, keyboard&mouse, cabling, and a stack of software disks. It was a windows ME machine, but the OS crapped out, errors so bad it would not boot. No OS disk, however.
I installed PCLinuxOS 2009.1 this afternoon, and am playing around right now. Total cost to me? $15 for a stick of RAM and a cheap LAN card.
but this is because you are brilliant. I on the otherhand got lost a few months ago when my numlock was on my laptop.
if you want to see something pathetic read this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2139000/posts
this is the level i am at...
Oh sheesh, now I really feel like crap for my initial snotty comment and I am sorry.
This has happened to me, in my experiences it has either been a bad harddrive or not enough cooling in the computer.
Since your harddrive is fairly new, I'm guessing it's a cooling issue.
Good luck!
If you don't have a backup, then you will need to spend some time determining which is the boot Windows and which is an extra one (you only have one active boot Windows). It sounds like you reinstalled Windows without having it overwrite your prior install, so now you have two. If this is the case, at least you have a working hard drive.
is there a special answer to which windows inatallation would you like to log onto?
Oh sheesh, now I really feel like crap for my initial snotty comment and I am sorry.
dont...
I am just frustrated and piled it on.
Sorry
I don't know if djf is playing with you or legitimately helping, but that suggestion is crazy.
The second one is the newest.
so do i type 2?
i punched in 2 nothing happened unlessi should type enter afterwards
I am at the c prompt
It says c:\window>
And if you feel you have to reformat and reload your OS every 6 mos., something ain't right. There is no reason for anyone to have to do that.
That’s why I said if it’s OS related.
Sorry, had to leave for a bit.
Is it booting from your CD?? That should have taken you to a Windows install if you booted from the hard drive.
I don’t think you’ve told us that you have a backup, Chickensoup. Do you? If so, really, that will be a better option. Repairing your system with two Windows installs of unknown age is going to be a little complicated over a forum.
Please tell us if you do or do not have a backup.
If you don’t have a backup, do a reinstall of Windows without the format. That is basically a Repair option that reinstalls Windows on top of your prior install. That will keep all of your data and email, but likely disable most of your extra installed programs (they are still there but your registry is shot).
I can’t tell you which install to do this to because I don’t know if you accidentally installed the second copy today or if that was an old (but your newest) install.
Your hard drive is working, at least, so your data is still there.
I have a maxtor external drive.
I agree with your take on that.
If you can’t take care of your Windows install, you don’t know what you are doing. Registry cleaners, drive cleaners, uninstalls, disk defragmenters, etc. all help you keep your current install going for years. Couple that with backups, and you are golden.
I do not understand why it wants to know what window installation I want to log on to
Do you know that it was ackup up for you or do you not know? How frequently did it back up? If every night, or even just once a week, you would be better served by using that to restore using the order I’ve already given in this thread.
Their website is Milwaukee PC
You have installed Windows twice, into separate directories on this computer, rather than overwriting a prior install.
This is not bad (I had that setup for awhile by accident), but it makes this sort of troubleshooting more difficult. Basically, you have two Windows subdirectories on the same partition, that is what I think you’ve got there. I can’t imagine you’ve made a partition because that would have required much more knowledge. However, about the two installs, I wonder now if you did them or if the prior owner did tham.
We can’t know without looking at file dates of certain configuration files (because executables could be identical dates coming from the same CD install done twice, using the dates of compilation from Microsoft and not your system date to imprint the dates, while configuration files are done as you install).
I meant to say, “Do you know if it was backing up for you or not?”
My first computer job was in 1975.
When was yours?
Why the heck would you suggest a non-geek person, just trying to get their prior computer's state back, install a cr@p OS she may not even have and setup up the system as a dual-boot with separate partitions?
That was just plain clueless, djf. Why don't you tell her the best thing to do is dual boot Linux to get her back to “normal”? She didn't have Linux, either.
The light came on
the thing also wants my adminstrators password. I have tried a couple without sucess.
That’s called the boot loader.
At the beginning of your C: drive you have something called an MBR, or Master Boot Record. It loads some info from the C: drive, and looks for something called Boot.ini
Boot.ini has a description of all the systems and drives on you machine (I have one machine with 6 drives), at least the bootable images.
When you install ME/2K/XP it searches for previous installations. Unless you tell it to overwrite the previous one, he will config the machine in whats called “dual boot” mode.
That’s what you have now. At this point, you can actually rescue all the data from the previous install.
Depending on which of the options you chose (which version you answer when it asks you at boot time), you can either boot the new, fresh, unchanged copy, or go back to your previous install.
I suspected MBR corruption when you first described the problem.
Be careful. Some viruses and trojans work by tweaking the MBR.
In my experience these do more harm than they help, especially registry cleaners.
I don't want to join any pissing contests, I've only owned computers since '96 but I've had a lot of experience with broken computers. I think I'm jinxed ;-)
I have a compter guy, who isnt answering my calls. I asked him why we had files in different places when he moved me to the new disc drive.
I will call him monday.
Thank you for your time. I have a double shift to work tomorow.
g’night.
So she followed your instructions and got dual boot by accident, instead of by plan.
ME is the last OS where you can actually talk to the hardware.
The various INT’s work as they do in DOS mode.
I have a question, I have heard of boot sector viruses but how in the heck do you get rid of them? A clean install of Windows wouldn't fix that, would it?
If you don’t know your password, and if a virus might be responsible, PLEASE restore using the method described above.
Just stop with this playing around. You are wasting time. We can’t tell you your Administrator password (try blank is what I can offer), and even if that worked, you have so many other issues yet to come.
1. Format your hard drive
2. Install Windows XP
3. Install your Maxtor Backup/Restore program
4. Restore from your latest backup.
thank you
How do you know she has ME? I ran two Windows 2000 installs on the same partition with no problems, allowing me to boot into either directory.
Just restore your system and get rid of these directories. You said you have a backup. Now use it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.