[kenbarber]

running windows xp home sp2. was running fine one minute. it froze up as it has occasionally done past few months. tried to reboot it and it gets as far into reboot as a tri-shade blue screen with windows xp home trademark icon and will boot no further. not in safe mode either.

it will boot with puppy linux cd i had made in past, but i do not know how to use linux.

i do have my original windows xp home cd. it does have a recovery partician i think, but i do not know what that will do to everything else we had on the machine

it is a Compaq presarieo sr1536nx

do not know what else to tell you

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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....
when you boot from rc.iso you will get a blue screen and it will say setup is loading files...
then it will say its starting windows...
you will get to a screen that says ...do you want to install windows or 2nd choice it to repair windows..
press r to repair...you will get to a ...C:\>.......this is where you type in chkdsk /r

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
nojoy...boot from the cd again...

Type in bootcfg /scan and press Enter

if it says total identified window installs: 1

Type in bootcfg /rebuild and press Enter...

It will identify your XP installation...type Y once you see this prompt.

You will be prompted to enter the load identifier...type in Microsoft XP Home Edition or Microsoft XP Professional depending on whichever version you have...press enter

You will be prompted to enter the load options...type in /fastdetect and press Enter

Type in exit and press Enter

remove the cd

Reboot

[happyrock]

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....
when you boot from rc.iso you will get a blue screen and it will say setup is loading files...
then it will say its starting windows...
you will get to a screen that says ...do you want to install windows or 2nd choice it to repair windows..
press r to repair...you will get to a ...C:\>.......this is where you type in chkdsk /r

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
nojoy...boot from the cd again...

Type in bootcfg /scan and press Enter

if it says total identified window installs: 1

Type in bootcfg /rebuild and press Enter...

It will identify your XP installation...type Y once you see this prompt.

You will be prompted to enter the load identifier...type in Microsoft XP Home Edition or Microsoft XP Professional depending on whichever version you have...press enter

You will be prompted to enter the load options...type in /fastdetect and press Enter

Type in exit and press Enter

remove the cd

Reboot

[kenbarber]

okay i went to my brother's computer and used burncdcc to burn a cd with rc.iso. i put it into my computer and booted from cd. it did give me the blue screen ask how i wanted to boot. i pressed r and enter for repair.

instead of c:\ i gave me 3 choices:
1 H:\I386
2. H:\MiniNT
3. C:\WINDOWS

I SELECTED NUMBER 3 for windows. it booted up and gave me the prompt "C:\WINDOWS" not the "C:\" that I had expected.
i then put in "chkdsk /r" and pressed "enter." it ran for quite a while. it ended and gave me a message that it had found that the volume had some unrecoverable problems.
it did not reboot itself correctly. it ask if i wantted to reboot normally or "safe mode." this was unexpected so i chose safe mode. it blinked and ask me to press any key to boot from the cd which i did.

it gave me the blue screen again and i chose r for repair. it now gives me 2 choices:
1. I386
2. H:\ Minint

i do not know which to use now.

[happyrock]

neither...remove the rc.iso cd and reboot...

[kenbarber]

okay, i took the cd out. attenpted to reboot. it gives me the compaq logo then a spiel about windows not booting correctly last time and gives me choices.

safe mode
safe mode wih networking
safe mode with command prompt

boot with last good configuration

boot windows normally.

i tried normally and it looped back to the same process: the compaq logo and he spiel again.
i tried safe mode and the same thing happened.

nothing happens as planned.

Edited by kenbarber, 21 July 2009 - 07:39 PM.

[happyrock]

i then put in "chkdsk /r" and pressed "enter." it ran for quite a while. it ended and gave me a message that it had found that the volume had some unrecoverable problems.

that and your inability to boot even to safe mode means the drive has died...

[kenbarber]

so i need to shop for a new computer and there is no recovery for data on that disk? or could a repair shop save any of the data for the new computer?

it has booted on a puppy linux cd and i have by just fooling around with puppy have been able to look at some saved photo thumbnails so maybe data could be saved, but i do not know how.

Edited by kenbarber, 22 July 2009 - 12:13 PM.

[happyrock]

you can remove the drive and slave it to a working system to try and get your data...

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 usb flash drives or 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..

this guide is for using usb flash drives but if you have a external hard drive just subsitute your external drive where it says flash drive

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 ...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 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 contains 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 16GB 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..

[kenbarber]

thx for giving me options.

[happyrock]

your welcome...and let us know how it goes...

[kenbarber]

thx, i will.

u know this has nothing to do wit the problem, but have you heard anything good or bad about the upcoming windows 7 ?

[happyrock]

just good so far...

[kenbarber]

i was able to save the disk and lots of data. did lose some dat though.