[Clandestine Showman]

Hi all,

This is my forst post on this forum. I have a problem with my Advent laptop that I hope someone can help me with. I have looked through the forum and notice that there are some people that are having similar problems but not quite the same.

When I turn on my laptop it does all the BIOS stuff and starts to load Windows XP (Home Edition). Pretty early it stops and gives me a message saying that "Windows didn't start propelry. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this" and gives me the usual options: Safe Mode, SM with networking, SM with command prompt, Last known working or normal. No matter which one I choose, after a few seconds, the laptop reboots.

I have managed to borrow an XP Professional disk from a friend that I thought I could boot from to get to explorer or somethings so that I can retreive files such as photos of my kids, Ipod libraries etc. However, it goes into XP setup (blue screen and all).

It may be a dumb question but if I continued the setup of this XP Professional, would this only affect those folders containing Windows and keep the folders with my photos etc intact so that I can back them up or will the setup program effectively wipe the hard drive and just install Windows Professional?

If there is another way of getting into my system to retreive my files then I'm happy to try something.

Cheers for any help,

The Showman.

[Advertisements]

Hello Clandestine Showman...

Is the XP Professional you have currently installed on another machine? If it is, trying to install it on the affected machine could lead to problems after the install.

Let's try Recovery Console, first. We'll use the Pro cd for this, but will not use the setup...rather, we'll try to get the machine to boot normally.

Boot to the cd as you did to get to the Setup screen. At this screen, press R to load the Recovery Console. This should take you to a screen (now a black one) that shows your Windows installation as 1: C:\WINDOWS or something very similar...press the number key that corresponds to the current installation. You'll then be prompted for the Admin password...this is blank by default, so just press "Enter".

You should end up at a command prompt (C:\WINDOWS>). At the prompt, type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". You will likely be told that the drive is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot. If you receive this prompt, type Y and press "Enter".

At this point, the machine may or may not reboot on it's own. If it does not, type exit and press "Enter"...then reboot manually if necessary.

When the machine starts, it will run a very long check on the file system...be patient and let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes would not be unusual for this to run and it may appear to start over or back up depending on what it finds. Once it completes, it should boot to Windows.

Let me know if you are able to complete this.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hello Clandestine Showman...

Is the XP Professional you have currently installed on another machine? If it is, trying to install it on the affected machine could lead to problems after the install.

Let's try Recovery Console, first. We'll use the Pro cd for this, but will not use the setup...rather, we'll try to get the machine to boot normally.

Boot to the cd as you did to get to the Setup screen. At this screen, press R to load the Recovery Console. This should take you to a screen (now a black one) that shows your Windows installation as 1: C:\WINDOWS or something very similar...press the number key that corresponds to the current installation. You'll then be prompted for the Admin password...this is blank by default, so just press "Enter".

You should end up at a command prompt (C:\WINDOWS>). At the prompt, type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". You will likely be told that the drive is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot. If you receive this prompt, type Y and press "Enter".

At this point, the machine may or may not reboot on it's own. If it does not, type exit and press "Enter"...then reboot manually if necessary.

When the machine starts, it will run a very long check on the file system...be patient and let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes would not be unusual for this to run and it may appear to start over or back up depending on what it finds. Once it completes, it should boot to Windows.

Let me know if you are able to complete this.

wannabe1

[Clandestine Showman]

Thanks Wannabe,

Just a note to say that this has started. There are a few things that didn't go quite as you expected:

No Windows installation option from the recovery console. The prompt went to C:\. Tried to change to C:\Windows but it wouldn't let me "The path or file specified is not valid". I typed chkdsk /r at the c:\ prompt anyway and it is running now. No "Drive in use message" or anything.

I hope that this is OK. It seems to be doing something sensible with my limited knowledge. I will let you know what happens

Cheers again for getting in touch.

The Showman

[wannabe1]

That should work...

Let me know how you make out.

[Clandestine Showman]

Wannabe1, what can I say. You are an absolute STAR

All working fine. Both mine and my wifes profiles log on and all looks as if we hadn't left.

Thanks very much for your help and I hope it will be a fab day in Montana.

[wannabe1]

My pleasure!