Computer advise needed

[Steve H]

Hi all,
My daughter has a problem on her PC, it wont even start in safe mode just keeps switching of and wont load Windows.
I cant remember the sequence to reformat the hard drive. School starts in three days and all her homework was on it.

Steve.

[kayjayd]

How far does it get when it tries to boot? Any error messages etc.?

[mikey]

Originally Posted by Steve H

Hi all,
My daughter has a problem on her PC, it wont even start in safe mode just keeps switching of and wont load Windows.
I cant remember the sequence to reformat the hard drive. School starts in three days and all her homework was on it.

Steve.

Could be the power supply. have you got another one you can borrow to try. Dont remove the other one siply switch the connectors with the new supply out of the box
Mike

[Steve H]

It displays a screen saying that windows wasn't started properly and that a hardware or software problem may exist and we should use a recent setting or start in safe mode. It then gives four options IE safe mode, safe mode with prompt blah blah but whichever option you pick it shows the windows xp loading page for a split second then shuts down.

Steve.

[FatBoy]

Do you have another PC available?
If so, you could try installing the disk drive from the faulty PC into the other PC as a secondary drive. You may need to change the jumper settings on the drive to identify is as a "Secondary "drive. Simply connect it using the same ribbon cable (there should be a spare connector on the cable) as that used for the existing drive and use one of the spare power connectors.
You should then be able to boot up the PC and the "new" drive will be available as an additional hard drive i.e. D: If this works, copy your daughter's files onto the C: of the computer so that they are protected and safe.
If it doesn't work, the fault maybe with the hard drive itself. There are a number of utilities available that may allow you to recover data from the drive.
Alternatively, you could try booting the faulty PC with your Windows CD inserted. It will then give you the option to install Windows, which will give you the option to format the drive. DON'T do this until you have copied any required files to a safe location. It should also give you the option to Repair a Windows installation. Give this a go and see if it works.
Report back.

I hope that helps.
Paul

[JackNco]

Originally Posted by FatBoy

Do you have another PC available?
If so, you could try installing the disk drive from the faulty PC into the other PC as a secondary drive. You may need to change the jumper settings on the drive to identify is as a "Secondary "drive. Simply connect it using the same ribbon cable (there should be a spare connector on the cable) as that used for the existing drive and use one of the spare power connectors.
You should then be able to boot up the PC and the "new" drive will be available as an additional hard drive i.e. D: If this works, copy your daughter's files onto the C: of the computer so that they are protected and safe.
If it doesn't work, the fault maybe with the hard drive itself. There are a number of utilities available that may allow you to recover data from the drive.
Alternatively, you could try booting the faulty PC with your Windows CD inserted. It will then give you the option to install Windows, which will give you the option to format the drive. DON'T do this until you have copied any required files to a safe location. It should also give you the option to Repair a Windows installation. Give this a go and see if it works.
Report back.

I hope that helps.
Paul

I agree with all except the reinstall....
It usualy works but unfortunatly it doesnt look for where the old version of windows is. so if you have done any upgrading like SP2 or .... well anything to do with windows, or even if you install with a slightly diffrnt version of windows (and i knwo theres only a couple stated but there are hundreads of different versions microsoft produce under the same name) it coudl overwright it. This is because how how a hard drive stores data in sectors not files how you see the in windows.

My advise would be if you dont have a second computer but a cheap hard drive, install that as the main drive and the drie you have now as a slave and reinstall windows. its a safer option and not that expensive you can get hard drives from around 30.00 these days

John

[JackNco]

http://www.eclipse-computers.com/pro...code=HD-400U72

See cheap as chips

[Steve H]

I have sorted it now. I tried installing the drive as a slave in my computer, but it wouldn't even turn on, and my knowledge of PC's being what it is i opted for the easy solution and bought a new drive and just accepted the data loss as a lesson learned to always backup.

Thanks for the advise.
Steve

[JackNco]

to get the drive to work yout need to move the jumper on to hte slave position (there will be 8 pins stacked 2 deep and 4 across) it shoudl be stated on the drive how to do it.

the hard drive is prbaly still fine and so will the data on it be. if it dindt turn on at all thats most likely due to the jumer pin on the drive being in the wrong position.

If you need osme one to guide you through the installation give me a ring on
07717174954

Im sure ill be up until at least 2am and im not gonan be pissed off if u call after

John

[FatBoy]

Steve,
As a matter of interest, did you have Computer Associates eTrust Anti-Virus running and did the problem occur on or very shortly after friday 1st September ?
If the answer to both of the above was "yes", I may know what the problem is.
CA released a faulty virus signature file that incorrectly identified a vital Windows file as infected, which it wasn't, and deleted it.
We had a number of customers who experienced problems on the 1st. Worldwide, it was a huge problem and a massive embarrassment for CA.
The fix is relatively straightforward.
Cheers,
Paul