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PC won't boot! Have I lost everything?

there are i'm sure intresting topics of debate worth while having about which is the best live distro when they should be used how to use them to recover files etc etc etc.

as well as the device priority or boot order and sequence.

these aren't relevant to this thread and would warrent discussion which doesn't detract from the OP's thread asking for help from the user.

surely that's apperent.

induging your own ego based discussions on other topics when someone is asking for help isn't really on if you think about it... thats all... :)
 
Jonti said:
Really Garff, what are you trying to achieve by these repeated personal attacks?
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why are you attempting to divert the thread into a flame war when you have in the very same post just concurred with my comments?

what are you gaining here other than proving your willingness to damn the OP and their request for help and insigate a flame war and attempt a pissing contest with other posters over some minor pedantry which you now conceed was correct in the first place...

jesus man get a grip and mature a touch...

the OP want's help in the vien which matches their skill set if you can provide this then do so if not STFU and allow others who can do this to do so...

this isn't a thread for your ego there's more than enough scope for that in the assorted forums go off and find some kind of thread where you can do that eh??

stop runing someone's thread with your own ego based warrbllings and 'nix evangalism...
 
What is the point of your strutting and shouting down other contributors, Garff?

There's numerous ways of sorting the problem (of saving the data). One way does not involve opening the box and messing with the hardware. That is the way stowpirate and myself are discussing.

There is nothing wrong with discussing a variety of methods, and asking questions about the pros and cons of each method.

The use of a liveCD to rescue data from a borked system is relevant to the OP's question. Your repeated insults and accusations are not.
 
If he is correct in that the HD spins up on power up and resets the head position - which sounds right to me. Then this is still going to happen regardless of if it is set to cable, slave or master? So pointless to remove the drive until you have exhausted other options. It still could be thermal migration of components and connectors or some other fault.
 
Jonti said:
What is the point of your strutting and shouting down other contributors, Garff?
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i'm not shouting anyone down if you recall i asked why you were gettign pissy with other posters and you still are being pissy... so why exactly??


Jonti said:
There's numerous ways of sorting the problem (of saving the data). One way does not involve opening the box and messing with the hardware. That is the way stowpirate and myself are discussing.
Click to expand...

except the OP has indicated they don't have sufficent knowledge to do this and therefore it's personal indulgence and not at all helpful to the OP to continue the discussion regardless of your own intrest in or on the subject.

Jonti said:
There is nothing wrong with discussing a variety of methods, and asking questions about the pros and cons of each method.
Click to expand...

nope there isn't however nothing is gained from continuing discussion which is out of reach for the user if it exceeds their key skills... other than attempting to satisfy your own ego...

Jonti said:
The use of a liveCD to rescue data from a borked system is relevant to the OP's question. Your repeated insults and accusations are not.
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not if it's outside the core skill set of the user it isn't...

why don't you understand that your impricial answer is too generic to apply to the user in this instance?

can you not let your near relegious conviction on this fade a touch to talior your advice to the user in question?

surely you aren't trying to cause the user more issues or problems but are attempting to provide them with a workable soulition which allows them to resolve their issues?

in which case why not address their core skills rather than what it might be nice they had in an ideal world?

surely this isn't a hard concept to understand?

why bother attempt to jusify your continued use of advanced skill sets which do not apply in this instance?

surely this is only about your ego and has no intrinsic benefit to the OP?

in which case isn't the adult thing to do to just stop it now?

If the user had the skill set then your solution becomes viable as they do not it's as useful as telling them to eat cake to fix the problem...

no amount of attacking other posters with pissy comments rolleyes sneers or mindless pedantry will alter that... so how about you stop it eh? :)
 
Yeah, my own preference would be first to save the data, and only then to open the machine and start messing with the hardware.

I'm struck by the message given by the machine as it fails to start. It sounds like registry corruption to me, rather than a hardware failure.

The message indicates the BIOS has found the hard-drive's boot record and has set about booting windows; that windows has started booting OK; but that one of the windows files is messed up. That's about all we know for sure at this stage.
 
Jonti said:
Your comment reveals a serious lack of self-awareness, and an awesome degree of hypocrisy.
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yes ok then you win the internets ...

well done...

try readign the thread again...

jusali if you need further help pm me i'm not going further down this stoopid route with with jonti's dick waving... can't be arsed...
 
Jonti, I think you started the personal attack on Garf in #65 with your "He's having a larf, must be. No-one is that stupid" and ending the post with rolleyes.
 
cesare said:
Jonti, I think you started the personal attack on Garf in #65 with your "He's having a larf, must be. No-one is that stupid" and ending the post with rolleyes.
Click to expand...

That might have done it :hmm: This was an interesting little debate on what to do and how. Nobody has really given a windows only solution. There must be a bootable third party MS CD option available somewhere with a simple Linux style GUI and drag drop or is it Voodoo DOS time - sorry I could not help myself with the fireworks on this thread :D
 
stowpirate said:
That might have done it :hmm: This was an interesting little debate on what to do and how. Nobody has really given a windows only solution. There must be a bootable third party MS CD option available somewhere with a simple Linux style GUI and drag drop or is it Voodoo DOS time - sorry I could not help myself with the fireworks on this thread :D
Click to expand...

Well it's been interesting for me, cos it's given me the idea of using Linux to create a sandpit with a PC I'm not currently using when I've got some time to do it.

But as far as Jusali's immediate problem is concerned, as an 'average user' myself I'd go down the Swarfega route that I've used in a similar situation fairly recently.
 
I don't think there is a bootable third party MS CD.

And I don't think they can do it either. MS wants to be paid. How could it ensure every bootable CD had been properly purchased? By definition CDs are a read-only medium, so they cannot be distinguished from each other. There's no way for MS to flag one as "Genuine" while another, identical copy of the CD is flagged as "Not Genuine".

If the user is obliged to install windows from a CD, then they can be required to give some kind of serial number. Not so if they can run things straight from the CD.
 
cesare said:
Well it's been interesting for me, cos it's given me the idea of using Linux to create a sandpit with a PC I'm not currently using when I've got some time to do it.

But as far as Jusali's immediate problem is concerned, as an 'average user' myself I'd go down the Swarfega route that I've used in a similar situation fairly recently.
Click to expand...


Without actually seeing what is happening oneself it is difficult to make a judgement. One thing that I think was never suggested was safe mode to a command prompt or GUI. Then attempt to run scandisk on a reboot or at the command prompt? I think it either F5 or F8 that you need to press during the boot process.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm#02

If you can get to a safemode GUI it is possible I believe to do a system restore. Also repair the registry or load an old version, CCleaner the registry, defrag and maybe scandisk without reboot

Linux is king in a situation like this.

Also just remembered fdisk /mbr maybe to fix mbr file?
 
Jonti said:
I don't think there is a bootable third party MS CD.

And I don't think they can do it either. MS wants to be paid. How could it ensure every bootable CD had been properly purchased? By definition CDs are a read-only medium, so they cannot be distinguished from each other. There's no way for MS to flag one as "Genuine" while another, identical copy of the CD is flagged as "Not Genuine".

If the user is obliged to install windows from a CD, then they can be required to give some kind of serial number. Not so if they can run things straight from the CD.
Click to expand...

I am sure there is one floating about on the internet somewhere. I have read in one of those rare recovery magazines for geeks about it but cannot remember what it was called - might have been a long time ago and based on WIN98. If it is a recovery tool I think MS would turn a blind eye unless it competed against their core products. I do not think they are completely inflexible albeit I would like to think that being a hardcore Linux user.
 
Looks as if you are right ...
Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600) and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on.
This will replace any Dos bootdisk in no time!
Click to expand...
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

But I notice you have to "roll your own" from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD :(
 
stowpirate said:
Without actually seeing what is happening oneself it is difficult to make a judgement. One thing that I think was never suggested was safe mode to a command prompt or GUI. Then attempt to run scandisk on a reboot or at the command prompt? I think it either F5 or F8 that you need to press during the boot process.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm#02

If you can get to a safemode GUI it is possible I believe to do a system restore. Also repair the registry or load an old version, CCleaner the registry, defrag and maybe scandisk without reboot

Linux is king in a situation like this.

Also just remembered fdisk /mbr maybe to fix mbr file?
Click to expand...

I suggested it in #3 :D This link: http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Windows/C:\windows\system32\config\system_missing_or_corrupt.html

fdisk? In Win 2000 or later? :hmm:

The reinstallation/back-up CD that comes with (for example) Dell computers is bootable.

It's quite straight forward, just takes ages.
 
stowpirate said:
Must have exhausted the possibilities then - we appear to be chasing our tails :D
Click to expand...

It's certainly not worth getting into the more complicated stuff with recovery console/roll back/chkdsk etc unless there's some files you want immediately (as I did). If the XP disk won't repair system32 there's an extremely good chance that the hard disk is on its way out - why waste time and effort on it & increase the chance of damaging the disk further in the process (and therefore increase further chance of losing/corrupting data), when all Jusali has to do is what a number of us suggested.

Jusali, you'll probably be able to boot the new hard disk from the manufacturers reinstallation/back-up CD that came with the pooter. The serial number (when prompted) is probably on the top or side of the PC case itself. Windows takes you through reinstallation on to a new hard drive prompt by prompt but there's a tutorial here if you need it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316941

The reinstallation/back-up CD should tell you exactly which version it is e.g. it might say "Reinstallation CD XP Home Including Service Pack 1a" or words to that effect. This means that once you've installed that on the new hard drive, you've then got to download and install all updates and security features from that point - but Windows updater takes you through that process as well. It just takes time - but if I can do it, anyone can :D
 
Oh! I just thought, Jusali, if you do decide to stick with Windows (for now) and get a new hard drive ... once you've reinstalled Windows and before you do anything else on the Internet (including Windows updater), install your anti-virus software

AVG free here: http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-trial
 
Thanks, EVERYONE for your help.
Here is the situation.
Last night I got the old 14" tv from the loft and have got that going so at tleast Bob the effing Builder can now make an appearance in our lives again.
I took all the peripherals off the computer and the monitor and then cleaned all the dust and tidied up in general. I took the side of the computer (having earthed myself first :D) and cleaned all the dust from inside it there was shedloads. I've found I've got 2 hard drives not a partitioned one so a lot of the data should be safe. A friend has all the facilities (usb sata cable and running computer) so he's taking my broken hard drive and my external jobby and will be transferring all the recoverable data to that! Which is ace!
So I believe I have 2 SATA drives, would that be right for a 2005 computer?
The cables are red and have text but can only make out ATA :hmm:
Can anyone reccommend me a drive please?
 
Fingers crossed your friend can sort it out jusali, sounds like good news.

Yes, they sound like SATA.
 
Update!
Well all data was saved to an external drive initially but now the hard drive has been ghosted over to new one and all appears to be OK. I collected it last night and all appeared to be working just like before the crash.
So I am an extremely lucky geezer! :cool:
 
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