[MaDDPsycho]

ok, my girlfriend was on her laptop last night and decided to start playing a game. she plugged her USB wireless laptop mouse into the usb port and started her game. once this happened windows froze a bit. Her wallpaper turned to black and the resolution changed (the icons got bigger). well she decided to hold the power button to restart, but it didnt. it got to the Windows logo screen and stayed there for about 5min until she gave up. she asked me to look at the laptop and it has me stumped. i did a little bit of research into the problem and windows recovery seemed to be the solution. so i threw in the disk and went through the steps. i did a chkdsk /p and it completed. but now once i start it, the computer hangs at the windows logo screen for a few min and eventually gets to the welcome screen. i logged in, but everything about the computer was incredibly slow. from typing the password to actually loading the desktop. "my computer" along with other folders dont seem to want to open, but programs do.. i got here on firefox but it took quite a while to load. i dont know what to do from here. i dont understand why the computer is acting this way or why its so slow. any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.



also i just tried to log on again and it said there was an inpage error in the user and would load a default.

if you need any more info i will try my best to answer. my girlfriend isnt home at the moment to ask specifics of what she was doing but i can try.

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first...right click on my computer...then properties...hardware tab.. then Device Manager.. click + sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers....
You'll see two items... Primary Channel and Secondary Channel
Right click on each of them.... and click Uninstall.... Confirm....
Reboot.... They'll be automatically reinstalled....

no joy

go into the bios and set the first boot device to your cd drive...the hard drive 2nd...

go here..download the following file: rc.iso....then run chkdsk /r
from the rc.iso cd...be sure the bios is set to boot from the cd drive first...

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its rc.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....

boot from the rc.iso cd....
type in chkdsk /r press enter
note the single space before the /

While chkdsk is running, you will see a light blue window with a dark blue band at the top and bottom. Chkdsk will display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage. You cannot do anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your computer.
NOTE this can take a long time to complete..it may even appear to hang or get stuck at a certain % for a couple of hours...then complete
it may even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...let it run...there are 5 stages
DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER WHILE RUNNING CHKDSK or you can have severe problems...
nojoy...
boot from the cd again...
then type fixmbr press enter...reboot
no joy ....boot from the cd again...
type in fixboot press enter...reboot

[happyrock]

first...right click on my computer...then properties...hardware tab.. then Device Manager.. click + sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers....
You'll see two items... Primary Channel and Secondary Channel
Right click on each of them.... and click Uninstall.... Confirm....
Reboot.... They'll be automatically reinstalled....

no joy

go into the bios and set the first boot device to your cd drive...the hard drive 2nd...

go here..download the following file: rc.iso....then run chkdsk /r
from the rc.iso cd...be sure the bios is set to boot from the cd drive first...

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its rc.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....

boot from the rc.iso cd....
type in chkdsk /r press enter
note the single space before the /

While chkdsk is running, you will see a light blue window with a dark blue band at the top and bottom. Chkdsk will display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage. You cannot do anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your computer.
NOTE this can take a long time to complete..it may even appear to hang or get stuck at a certain % for a couple of hours...then complete
it may even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...let it run...there are 5 stages
DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER WHILE RUNNING CHKDSK or you can have severe problems...
nojoy...
boot from the cd again...
then type fixmbr press enter...reboot
no joy ....boot from the cd again...
type in fixboot press enter...reboot

[MaDDPsycho]

ok, sorry for the late reply. but i had to work most of the week. i have done everything you have suggested. the chkdsk /r took way longer then i thought it would, but it showed me the problem. the laptop has a hard drive failure and told me to back up all the files. but i'm no longer able to so. i cant even open my computer once its on and started. it did start faster this time and it seems quicker but all of the data is still out of reach. is there any way to fix a failed hard drive or will i have to buy a new hard drive and reinstall windows on it?

[happyrock]

YOU HAVE 3 OPTIONS...I WILL LIST THEM STARTING WITH THE SAFEST FIRST

the safest way is to get a pro to image your hard drive for you...that way you can alway get your data off safely..
cost is the cost of a new hard drive and the techs fees...should be about $200.00 total...
OR
you can remove the drive and slave it to a working system to get your data...HOPING THE DRIVE SURVIVES LONG ENOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH THIS...

or you can try puppy linux...
get puppy linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yoUr data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb hard Drive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...
==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..