[s.elements]

A few days ago I tried installing some anti-spyware software on my laptop, when the installation just froze. No biggie I thought, as I could just close it out with the process manager and try again. Only process manager wasn't doing jack, and I couldn't close the frozen program, although I could still use my laptop just fine. Finally I got tired of having the frozen program(Ad-Aware) occupying space in my taskbar(and in the middle of my desktop background when everything was minimized), so I decided to restart my computer thinking that would probably solve my problem. It didn't. Upon reboot I got the message "Load Error! Press a key to reboot", and no matter what keys I pressed the error kept on flashing onto the screen(at the top-left of my screen, atop a black background). I went into the BIOS, but to no avail; there was seemingly nothing there that could solve my problem. So, I did what I thought would be a last resort and did a full system restore from the restore discs that came with my computer. Once again, to no avail. The same message popped up on my screen after the restore, and I'm really at odds-ends as to what to do next.

I did some searching online(and here), but haven't really been able to find anything that helped me. Some people suggest programs that would fix my hard drive, but how the heck do I get those onto my computer when I can't even boot it up? If someone could provide me with a link to one such program that can be put onto a disc and then booted from my laptop's BIOS I'd greatly appreciate it.

I even took the hard drive out and examined it for any kind of discrepancies, but there was nothing wrong with it that I could see, and besides, it hadn't even been moved from where it was around the time that the problem occured. I'm truly baffled. None of the 'F' buttons do anything upon start-up, and when the message of death is on screen the computer only repsonds to 'control+alt+delete', and even then it just restarts it, wash-rinse-repeat.

I'm getting dangerously close to trying a drop-check. If anyone can offer any insights I'll greatly appreciate it.

My laptop is an Acer Travelmate 3200 running on Windows XP. Thank you.

[dsenette]

well...since you were ok with doing a full destructive recovery..you seem to be ok with losing anythong on the LT correct?

go to http://dban.sourceforge.net and dl Darik's boot and nuke...follow their instructions for making a bootable disk (floppy if you have a floppy drive in the LT or CD if you don't) run the program at least once (twice couldn't hurt) on the LT...this will completely wipe the HD...then you should be able to use your recovery disks to reinstall

[The Skeptic]

In my signature there are links to some HD repair utilities of some manufacturers. You can download from there and create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot the computer with the disk in place and run a complete test. The test will check all the sectors in the HD, including the boot sector, and will try to repair them.

[s.elements]

Thanks guys. Boot and Nuke worked like a charm.

[The Skeptic]

Thanks for letting us know. The reason I suggested using a manufacturer's diagnostic boot disk was to enable repair of the boot sector without loosing your last windows installation. However, I am pleased that dsenette's advice helped.

[s.elements]

Well, I had already tried a system restore like three different times, so it's not like there was much there to salvage. Thanks though.