[jf3489]

My computer is doing a really wierd thing. It was operating fine and just turned off as if someone had pulled the plug on it. When I attempted to restart, it powered up normal until after the XP screen showed up. The XP screen sat there for about 10 seconds and then it reverted right back to the manufactures logo on the screen. If I let it go it continues in this loop. I tried to start it in safe mode and basically got the same thing. There was a short scan, something about deleting bad sectors and then it freezes. Any ideas???

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You have a bad spot on the harddrive, possible irrepairable.

You need to boot with your windows disk into the recovery console. When you get to the prompt, type

chkdsk /r
<enter>

take a walk, this will take some time

You can try running it two times. If windows can recover the operating system, that will do it. If not, your data may still be there and can be recovered in a couple of ways, the easiest being is placing the drive in a second computer

[gerryf]

You have a bad spot on the harddrive, possible irrepairable.

You need to boot with your windows disk into the recovery console. When you get to the prompt, type

chkdsk /r
<enter>

take a walk, this will take some time

You can try running it two times. If windows can recover the operating system, that will do it. If not, your data may still be there and can be recovered in a couple of ways, the easiest being is placing the drive in a second computer

[jf3489]

Thanks, so I assume that if after runing this twice and the result is not different, the hard drive is junk? By doing this I am not going to lose any data that I have stored right? Also is it possible to run the recovery disc without erasing data added after I purchased the computer. I am mostly concerned with a bunch of family pictures on the hard drive.

[gerryf]

Thanks, so I assume that if after runing this twice and the result is not different, the hard drive is junk? By doing this I am not going to lose any data that I have stored right? Also is it possible to run the recovery disc without erasing data added after I purchased the computer. I am mostly concerned with a bunch of family pictures on the hard drive.

To clarify, not necessarily junk--it means that your OS installation is junk, but not your drive. Some part of your drive may be corrupt, or your file system was trashed, but a reinstallation could totally revive the drive

Running a chkdsk /r will not damage any data that is not already damaged

Running a recovery disk from your pc maker MAY wipe out your os....using the recovery console is safe...these are very different things


As noted, the best way to recovery that data is to drop the drive in a second system, or barring that, in a drive encosure that hooks up to the other PC via a usb or firewire port

[jf3489]

When I try the chkdsk /r thing, it says invalid switch - /r

what does this mean

[jmoney3457]

hi jf. not sure if this'll help you any or not but this site helps on explaining some of the symbols n letters in the chkdsk cmd... http://www.microsoft...k.mspx?mfr=true

[jf3489]

Unfortunately I am a novice looking for help. WHat command should I type if the chkdsk /r does not work

[gerryf]

chkdsk{space}/r

did you include the space?

You are booting with an xp disk and choosing recovery console?

[jf3489]

yes I did include the space and the recovery disc is in the drive. It starts and I select the command prompt and type in what you told me to type.

[gerryf]

when you say the recovery disk, what do you mean? Is this a WINDOWS XP disk, or a RECOVERY DISK supplied by the PC maker?

[jf3489]

It is called restore cd, ther are 3 total, and it came with the computer, it is basically all the backup software that came on the computer when it was purchased. I assumed that this is what you were talking about when you said recovery.

[gerryf]

no, the recovery console is part of the windows xp cd

Do you know how to burn an iso? Do you have a second PC running XP?

[jf3489]

nope, sorry i'm a rookie, can you talk me through it

[gerryf]

no, what part? I need to know what kind of CD burning software you use, or barring that, what kind of OS you have access to