[o2mcgovem]

Hi... I've got a major problem with my computer; it won't actually boot-up. I've searched the forum, but there are loads of posts on problems booting Windows XP. Also, it seems like in all of them someone has to ask for more information, the exact problem... so I'm gonna try and be as thorugh as I can here.

Okay, I don't know how or why it happened, but the computer won't boot. When you press the button on the front, it all seems to work fine... the screen with Fujitsu-Siemans and Intel comes up okay. But, then it asks how I want to start Windows; in Safe Mode, Safe Mode With Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Last Known Good Configuration or Start Windows Normally. I've been on all of them and all encounter the problem. In safe mode, it tells you what's going on (I think that's what it's showing anyway), and it stops dead at C:\WINDOWS\system32\Drivers\agp440.sys and then shuts off. I googled this and found that it had something to do with video... I don't really know. When loading it on any of the other ones, it just shows the XP boot screen and then it shuts off unexpectedly.

I wasn't the last one who used the computer, it was my sister and apparently she didn't do anything. I wouldn't normally mind about something like this... but the Windows XP Recovery CD isn't working [due to a scratch on the disc I believe. Fujitsu want us to pay £44 to replace it! Something about Microsoft Licensing makes the price so high.] and the computer's got all of my essays and assignments from the last academic year on it! I saved them there because that computer is rarely used anymore and I thought it'd be a safe place.

Please could somebody help... If I can't get to those essays I'm gonna have to collect the ones I submitted and have to re-type them up!

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Hmm.. possibly you could try and buy a disk resurfacer as a last resort. if you have another computer you could take the nonworking hard drive, put it into the other computer, boot the working one, and extract the documents you need. i don't know how you could fix the error though.

[ktownkatman]

Hmm.. possibly you could try and buy a disk resurfacer as a last resort. if you have another computer you could take the nonworking hard drive, put it into the other computer, boot the working one, and extract the documents you need. i don't know how you could fix the error though.

[dsenette]

when it's booting keep pressing f8 (you're ending up at this menu anyway..but do it anyway) do you see a selection for "enable vga mode" ?

[o2mcgovem]

Nope, no VGA mode option. Should there be one there?

I called support (I'm still under warrenty, I thought it'd expired but there's another month, phew) and they said my hard disk had failed... possibly due to the heat we've been having. They're coming out soon, they're supposed to have called... but they never do- they just turn up (I hope someone's in), and they're going to replace my hard disk.

They wouldn't really tell me what I could do to get any of the files off the old disk, I think they want to take it away with them. Are they allowed to do this? It's got all my old files on, surely they shouldn't be allowed to take it away.

Ktownkatman, I don't think I can do what you said... The only other computer I've got is a laptop, can I put the hard disk from the computer into a laptop?

Edited by o2mcgovem, 27 July 2006 - 11:18 AM.

[dsenette]

you could get an external usb hard drive enclosure to pull the files off the drive to the laptop...you'd want to do that before they came...most service departments will just take your drive with them when they go...you could try convincing the service tech to let you hook the old drive up as a slave to try to get your files off before they take it with them

[o2mcgovem]

External USB Hard Drive Enclosure? Is that like a thing that lets you plug in a computer hard drive into a laptop? Where could I get one of these, oh... and for how much (roughly)?

I think I'll try and do that last idea... I'm gonna try and stop them from taking it with them anyway, I'll quote some data protection law. Well, it probably is covered under data protection... Um, well I'll quite something and hope for the best.

[dsenette]

External USB Hard Drive Enclosure? Is that like a thing that lets you plug in a computer hard drive into a laptop? Where could I get one of these, oh... and for how much (roughly)?

pretty much...it's basically a box that allows you to hook up a normal HD and use it via usb thereby making it an external HD...you can get them from any computer store...just make sure that you get a 3.5 inch one for dekstop HD's or a 2.5 one for laptop HDs

[o2mcgovem]

Right, okay... I'll go to PC World tomorrow. And I think I might be able to stop them from taking away the hard disk under the data protection act afterall- http://direct.gov.uk...i...&chk=SJPKSk

I'm not too sure though, the article isn't all that detailed.

Thanks for your help... I'll post back with what actually happens (whether they let me keep the disk, whether the USB thing works, whether I can convince them to do the slave thingy).