[Broni]

So, you press some key, and you should end up at the command prompt.
Does it indicate your CD drive letter?
If so, you should type:
FJTD
press Enter and the test should start.

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Not exactly.... if I press F10 during start up I get the option to boot from CD if I press enter I get to the welcome to set up page (blue screen) and get three option;
1, To set up windows XP now, press enter
2, To repair windows XP installation usinf recovery console, press R
3, To quit set up without installing windows XP, press F3

If i take option 1 I get the cannot find end user licensing agreement error message
If I take option 2 I get a black screen giving the question which windows installation would you like to log onto, I only get the option to type one character?????
If I take option 3 I end up at at a safe mode screen which just sits there doing nothing.

Barry

[czfckd]

Not exactly.... if I press F10 during start up I get the option to boot from CD if I press enter I get to the welcome to set up page (blue screen) and get three option;
1, To set up windows XP now, press enter
2, To repair windows XP installation usinf recovery console, press R
3, To quit set up without installing windows XP, press F3

If i take option 1 I get the cannot find end user licensing agreement error message
If I take option 2 I get a black screen giving the question which windows installation would you like to log onto, I only get the option to type one character?????
If I take option 3 I end up at at a safe mode screen which just sits there doing nothing.

Barry

[Broni]

if I press enter I get to the welcome to set up page (blue screen) and get three option;
1, To set up windows XP now, press enter
2, To repair windows XP installation usinf recovery console, press R
3, To quit set up without installing windows XP, press F3

You'd be getting the above, if you're booting from some Windows CD, not from Fujitsu diagnostic CD.
How did you make that CD?

[czfckd]

Like this

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

Only thing was I didnt get the option to make disc bootable, is there anyway of checking if it is?

[Broni]

If you used ImgBurn to create the CD, it should be bootable.
Put the CD in, restart computer and at some point, you should see this message:
Press any key to boot from CD

[n3ko]

czfckd, that's the Recovery Console CD I asked you to make. I didn't realize it was working, it sounded like it didn't work for you when you tried to boot from it.

When you went to burn the drive diagnostic image to a CD, did you point the Imageburn software to the correct file, or just let it burn the first thing is selected? Thing is, it sounds like it's still picking the Recovery Console image and burning that - so you're not making a hard drive diagnostic disk at all, but another recovery console disk again.

Check where each file is (the recovery console file you downloaded, and the drive diagnostic file) and what they're named, then get a look at which file Imageburn is pointing at to burn to CD. It may not be the correct one. If it's not, point it at the Diagnostic. If it is, let us know.

Good to know the Recovery Console Disk is working, though.

[czfckd]

If you used ImgBurn to create the CD, it should be bootable.
Put the CD in, restart computer and at some point, you should see this message:
Press any key to boot from CD

I do get that message.

[czfckd]

Right, I tried to download the Fujistsu diagnostic tool again to the same location and got the message to say the file already exists, so I guess I at least downloaded the correct file.

Next I checked the disc drive and it shows that I have a recovery cd, when I explore the disc i have a folder named 1386 which contains about 100 files (all of which are either SY or DLL files) and a folder named system32 with 2 files inside that.

Does this sound like a diagnostic tool, I can list some of the files if that helps

As soon as I get the message press any key to boot from cd and press a key I end up directly at the Windows XP Home edition set up screen (blue) does that mean the cd is not correct?

Edited by czfckd, 23 September 2009 - 02:27 PM.

[czfckd]

Im not sure how, but I managed to get to a screen which was requesting me to insert the windows cd into the drive, which I dont have. I inserted the recovery console disc instead and got the black screen message SPCMDCON.SYS file needed for recovery console is missing, recovery console cannot proceed. To exit press F3

does this help?

[n3ko]

Next I checked the disc drive and it shows that I have a recovery cd, when I explore the disc i have a folder named 1386 which contains about 100 files (all of which are either SY or DLL files) and a folder named system32 with 2 files inside that.

That's the recovery console disk.

As soon as I get the message press any key to boot from cd and press a key I end up directly at the Windows XP Home edition set up screen (blue) does that mean the cd is not correct?

This is correct for recovery console.

But, not for the drive diagnostic.
I suspect what you're doing is trying to burn the drive diagnostic to the same disk you burned the recovery console to. You won't be able to do that - the recovery console disk was closed out and finalized as a bootable disk once burning was complete - the same will happen with the drive diagnostic utility.

Put a new, blank CD into the disk drive and burn the diagnostic utility to that using the steps you used for the recovery console disk. Make sure that you point ImgBurn to the correct file to burn, check that it's going to burn the diagnostic file. If it's trying to burn the recovery console again, click on "Browse" and direct it to the diagnostic file.

Im not sure how, but I managed to get to a screen which was requesting me to insert the windows cd into the drive, which I dont have. I inserted the recovery console disc instead and got the black screen message SPCMDCON.SYS file needed for recovery console is missing, recovery console cannot proceed. To exit press F3

does this help?

I'd be very interested in what you did to get to the screen requesting the disk.

Anyway, this is expected, no worries. Recovery Console is an NT DOS emulation program. It allows a user to get into the system files of an operating system without having to run the system - this is useful because some of these files are hidden or unchangeable while the operating system (OS) is running, and also very useful for when you cannot get the OS to boot at all and need to see what's wrong and try and restore or fix it.

Most times Recovery Console is run from a Windows Install Disk - this is not the same as a Recovery Disk, by the way. You buy an Install Disk from a retail store, a Recovery Disk comes with (or is created from) a new computer system you just bought from a manufacturer (HP, Dell...) or from a retail store.

You don't have an Install Disk or a Recovery Disk, so I directed you to a file which is the Recovery Console alone, separate from the Install disk. So, you cannot use it to Install or Repair Windows outside of the console itself - that's why you got the error you got before. There is no End User License Agreement on the disk, since there is no Operating System. I was confused because I didn't know you selected one of the options on the blue screen - it sounded like that error message came up as soon as it tried to boot the disk.

What happened in the post you just made before my post here, is your system tried to find a command that allows the console to manage partitions and copy registry hives etc... But, you have no Operating System on the disk with Recovery Console, so your system couldn't find it. This shouldn't be a problem for what we would use it for.

See if you can burn and run that diagnostic, though. I think that's more important at the moment. When the new disk has been made, just put it in the drive, reboot and it will give you that "Press any key to boot from CD" message again. Let it boot from the CD and you should be in another blue screen with text. This time it should identify your hard drive and prompt you to run diagnostic tests on it.

[czfckd]

I have used a fresh cd each time, I havnt tried to put more than one program on any of the cd's???

[n3ko]

And each one you've made, when you boot from it, leads you to XP Home Setup and then the choices to Setup, Repair or Exit that you stated in post #17?

Really sounds like ImageBurn is pointing to the Recovery Console file and burning that each time. Have you checked to make sure it's burning the correct file?

For instance, my software will default to the last file I burned unless I either select the file I want to burn before opening the burning software, or manually point it to the correct file to burn. That's really the only answer I can think of for that, there isn't any other reason it wouldn't burn the dignostic utility but makes the Recovery Console disk instead...

Edited by n3ko, 24 September 2009 - 05:21 PM.

[czfckd]

I am browsing and selecting the file each time. Can you just confirm the file name I should be copying?

Do you think I would be better just formatting the drive and buying a new copy of the OS, or am I still likely to have the same problems?

Edited by czfckd, 25 September 2009 - 02:41 AM.

[n3ko]

I am browsing and selecting the file each time. Can you just confirm the file name I should be copying?

fjdt_v6.90.zip, I think... oh, it's a zip file... Well gee, I fail.

That could be the problem. You'll need to extract the file before you can burn the file, unless you're one step ahead of me and thought of that.
Right click on the zipped folder, select "Extract to here" and the .iso file should then appear wherever you saved the zipped file to.

My apologies, I should have checked that. My own diagnostic was not zipped so I didn't think of it.

Do you think I would be better just formatting the drive and buying a new copy of the OS, or am I still likely to have the same problems?

Well, that would certainly simplify things, yes. But, it's not always easier. And my caution here would be if the hard drive were part of the problem - and it could be. If that hardware is starting to fail reinstalling the operating system will not help for long, if it helps at all.

That said, we are kind of handicapped here working without any disks at all. We may be able to get the system up and running again with some time, but it may never be completely stable and trustworthy.

What I think would be best is to check the hard drive first. Then, if it's failing you only need to make one trip to the store. If the diagnostic shows it's fine, then certainly an install disk would be more than helpful! In fact, if you got an XP Home install disk (I think that's the same version that's on your computer?) you could run a repair or just do a clean install. The repair would be easier, though.

Really depends on how much more time you want to spend on this. And if you want to risk the drive failing on you after getting the new system disk and repairing it - so having to do it all over again, and losing all your data to boot.

If you do go buy an install disk, make sure it's not an OEM disk! They're not meant to be install disks and won't work very well for what you need to do - plus they're illegal regardless of what the seller claims. Get a Windows Install Disk, preferably XP, and if you can do it match the type of XP to what's already on the computer (Home, Business, Professional, etc...).

Edited by n3ko, 25 September 2009 - 10:50 AM.

[czfckd]

I do have a windows disc that came with my dell laptop will the do?