Help! My pc crashed

POSTED BY: hughff
UPDATED: Thursday, February 19, 2009 15:57
VIEWED: 5261
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CITIZEN

Monday, February 16, 2009 9:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by hughff:
Yeah. Are you suggesting I re-install xp?

Not at first. Try running recovery console, if that doesn't work then reinstalling is going to be the best thing you can do. If it's that shagged that you can't even get into safe mode, then its just going to be quicker and easier to reinstall.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

RALLEM

Monday, February 16, 2009 10:23 PM

You should maybe load your windows xp cd into your cd drive then boot your computer. Your computer while in the boot window will ask you if you want to boot your computer from the disk, press enter to say yes and then you’ll be asked if you want to repair windows. I believe here you will press enter to go by this step and then you’ll be asked if you want to load a new copy of windows. Follow the computer’s instructions to say yes to this option and then press F8 to agree to their EULA. From there you’ll be afforded an opportunity to repair windows without losing any of your data, and it should take about a half an hour to finish. This won’t remove a worm if you have one loaded on your computer and from here you will have to hunt it down. I cannot help you here, but the worm will be loaded in a few places so it will be difficult to remove. You won’t want to repair your windows too much because each time it will compromise your kernel a little.

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

HUGHFF

Monday, February 16, 2009 10:27 PM

cheers

looks like I've got a project tonight

www.cpfc.org - my life

TRAVELER

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:22 AM

You may lose any personal files. You may want to discuss this with an expert first.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

NCBROWNCOAT

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 3:35 AM

I'd go ahead and do a complete reinstall of your system. It's the only way to make sure that you have gotten rid of what ever has gotten into your system.

Also, always backup your personal stuff to a USB drive, CD's, DVD's, external hard drive etc.

Try to do it at least once a month. And if you can, put a copy in a safe place, safe deposit box, mail to Mom, take to work etc. Any place away from your house.

Personally I use an online backup service (pretty cheap when you think about it). I've lost too many pictures, music and other things to viruses, hard drive crashes etc.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

HUGHFF

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 4:26 AM

recovery didn't work and when I tried to re-install it basically said there were no partitions, the disk was "not recognised." Am I correct in assuming that my hard drive has carked it, gone to a better place, shuffled off this mortal coil and sucked the kumara?

www.cpfc.org - my life

TRAVELER

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 5:17 AM

I would get an expert opinion about your hard drive. It may need to be rebuilt from the ground up and that may mean something needs to be done before you install Windows. Just a guess on my part, but no sense buying a new one till your absolutely sure this one is not ruined. If it was a virus or a worm, then that should not have physically damaged your hard drive. It may only need an overhaul.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

PHOENIXROSE

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 5:24 AM

Definitely get a Mac. Rebuilding the whole computer seems like an expensive solution to a problem that could recur. If your drive has run down the curtain and you'll lose everything on the computer anyway... Well.

[/sig]

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 5:30 AM

I don't have solution to your boot problem, but noticed 2 things you can do.

You said you cannot read the script on the blue screen before it goes away. You can record it and playback later. There are many kinds of adapters to convert VGA video to RCA video signal. These days, even the cheapest LCD screen monitor/TV has VGA input, and also RCA output (for recording). Connect your computer tot he VGA, and a recording device (VHS is fine), and start recording, then boot up. after recording the message scripts, play back the recording. Some software can freeze frame and print out the image from your recording device.
A recording will also show how many seconds each message was displayed, showing where the script went and for how long - can pinpoint what the problem is in some cases.

The other thing is to recover your data before messing with the o/s platform, which most "computer gurus" will not tell you to do.
connect your crashed hard drive to another computer, as a secondary drive. If you do not have another computer around, and wish to us a firends, then you can take out your hard drive, and take along the ribbon cable from the HDD to the motherboard. I'm lazy so I usualy just park the 2 computers next to each other and run the ribbon cable from one computer to the other. If you unplugged the power plug (smaller, like 4 or 5 pin plug), then plug in any of those power connectors to your hard drive so it has power. And plug in the ribbon cable, best to plug into the second slot of the mohterboard - usually right next to the ribbon cable of the hard drive of that computer. The boot up that other computer.
Now you should be able to fully access your hard drive from that comouter, because it is not using your boot sector - it should be the D: or E: of F: drive for that computer now.
First you can copy the entire contents of the HDD - either straight to the C: drive of the other computer (make a folder such as "copy of IFruit 16Feb09"), or to a dvd or CD-rom, or to a USB device like jump drive - or all of the above.
You can also use the scanware, antiviral ware from the net or from the other computer to check and work on whatever is on your affected hard drive.

Your copied files will retain any and all data that you have saved on your computer, so you'll have it afterwardsw, even if somebody decides to reformat your C; Drive. Maybe your problems will be resolved after this activity. You can then proceed on your own to repair or restore your drive, or have an "expert" work on it. But once you delete the data, recovery is much harder and tricky.

Good luck.
Stay away from IE. I use Opera, saves many headaches.
Use a real operating system, like that linuxmint posted above, or ubuntu.
Cannot recommend Apple, unless you know nothing about computers and have gobs of cash.

JRNYFAN

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 5:43 AM

I am assuming by everything you have said that this is not a pre-built rig, i.e. Dell, HP etc. which leads me to believe that since you can not install as the disk is not recognized, you might be working off of a disk that only has SP1 on it and not SP2 and you are working with SATA hard drives.

If, when your machines POSTS, you see that your drives are recognized just fine by the BIOS but not Windows then you will need the SATA drivers. If this is the case, you need to find your SATA drivers that should have come on a floppy disk with your motherboard. When you boot up Windows the first time, it says "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver...." this is where you will press F6 and follow the directions to install such drivers off the floppy. You can also solve this problem by getting a WinXP disc with SP2 on it which eliminates the need to have the drivers in the first place.

A new hard drive will run you ~$50 for 250GB but first try installing off of a SP2 disc or installing your SATA Drivers. If the harddrive isn't recognized in your BIOS then its probably gone and you might want to borrow a harddrive from someone to make sure because for all you know, your northbridge went out from overheating or a billion other problems. Solve the HDD in the BIOS issue first, then move onto SP2 then onto other problems if you need.

Good luck.

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