[jlove912003]

I'm new to this forum, so I hope I don't look like a moron.

I just got a new macbook air. My old laptop was a Dell Latitude D600. I have some files on my old computer that I need access to. However, when I try to start my Dell, I get a message that says "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have cuased this etc.

Then I have the option of starting in Safe mode, Safe mode with Networking, Safe mode with command prompt, last known good configuration, start windows normally.

No matter which option I choose, it always restarts the computer and repeats the same thing.

Is there any way I can start the computer and access my old files?

Thanks for your help!

-Jeff

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Howszit?

Try to boot the notebook from the CD and go to the Command prompt, (this is Win98?). Reboots are normally a hard drive fault but you maybe able to run scandisk to repair it. Assuming that you have a WIN98 SE CD which will boot the notebook, at the dos prompt type CD win98 and then enter. Your prompt should change to (drive):\win98, then type scandisk C: /autofix /nosave /surface and press enter. This may take some time but see if it can make it through. You may get a message that scandisk is about to make changes to the drive. Do not let it try to make a restore disk, (just cancel the request for a disk). With the Autofix toggled on, it will only ask you this once, (if you do not use autofix, it would ask you for every bad cluster that it may find). Even if it looks like its doing nothing, be patient, (allow it to run overnight if need be).

Even if scandisk can not repair the drive, you could also mount the drive from the Dell in an external enclosure and see if you can access it by that method. Not sure if you Mac will be able to talk to it, but maybe a friend with another windows system(?)

Good luck...

[Mark D]

Howszit?

Try to boot the notebook from the CD and go to the Command prompt, (this is Win98?). Reboots are normally a hard drive fault but you maybe able to run scandisk to repair it. Assuming that you have a WIN98 SE CD which will boot the notebook, at the dos prompt type CD win98 and then enter. Your prompt should change to (drive):\win98, then type scandisk C: /autofix /nosave /surface and press enter. This may take some time but see if it can make it through. You may get a message that scandisk is about to make changes to the drive. Do not let it try to make a restore disk, (just cancel the request for a disk). With the Autofix toggled on, it will only ask you this once, (if you do not use autofix, it would ask you for every bad cluster that it may find). Even if it looks like its doing nothing, be patient, (allow it to run overnight if need be).

Even if scandisk can not repair the drive, you could also mount the drive from the Dell in an external enclosure and see if you can access it by that method. Not sure if you Mac will be able to talk to it, but maybe a friend with another windows system(?)

Good luck...