[sweetascandy]

Hi there please may i ask for help/advice and assistance for a problem i have with my old pc.My pc is a dell dimension xps t450,intel inside pentium III, DESIGNED FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT/WINDOWS 98.I was given it from my friend who works in the IT suite in the university here when they upgraded there pc's.It worked fantastic for a year until this problem showed its ugly face lol.

I have not used the pc in 5yrs due to this problem and due to you fantastic hard working people on here i am able to hopefully get some help .

Originally what happened was the pc started playing up,doing strange things then the next time i tried to use it it went no further than trying to get to the desktop then doing a count down from 10 if i remeber correctly it automatically shuts off and restarts so i can not access anything on my pc,go online or get to anything on the pc to try to sort it,I have alot of family pictures and work etc on there hence me still having it and not parting with it as its private .

Im currently using my other pc since this one stopped working but really want to fix this so i can get my files/work/pics etc off.

I dont know if anyone can help me with this but if u can i would be over the moon and would very much appreciate it.Thankyou so very much in advance to anyone who assists with this problem . SWEETASCANDY xxx

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Your PC may have reached the end of it's life as they all do eventually, but I can help you get your files back. What you need to do is carefully remove the hard drive from inside it. Now buy an "external hard drive enclosure"
which accepts a 3.5 inch hard drive. Fit the drive into it and connect the enclosure to the mains supply and to a spare USB port on your other PC.

The drive should be visible as a new drive letter in 'My Computer' and hopefully you will be able to read what's on it.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 08 July 2010 - 02:27 PM.

[phillipcorcoran]

Your PC may have reached the end of it's life as they all do eventually, but I can help you get your files back. What you need to do is carefully remove the hard drive from inside it. Now buy an "external hard drive enclosure"
which accepts a 3.5 inch hard drive. Fit the drive into it and connect the enclosure to the mains supply and to a spare USB port on your other PC.

The drive should be visible as a new drive letter in 'My Computer' and hopefully you will be able to read what's on it.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 08 July 2010 - 02:27 PM.

[sweetascandy]

Thankyou for the reply i have printed your response as back up but i dont feel its actually the pc dying as it was working fine before hand,i feel its either something ive done or some sort of virus as i recall a virus going round at the time it went wrong that was doing a count down and preventing access to the desktop as it would restart after 10 seconds all the time.This may be the cause,but Do you know any ways i can get to my desktop during start up but before the desktop so to speak,or a way i can scan it or any ways round this?Thankyou for any help.
SWEETASCANDY

[sweetascandy]

FOR THOSE READING MY THREAD THIS IS THE SITUATION SO FAR SO EVERYONES UP TO DATE.

Hi Gammo, its sweetascandy here regarding my old pc not letting me get to the desktop on my dell/windows 98 pc,im hoping u might recall our log.
I have downloaded the OTLPEStd to my desktop then to blank disk then followed the steps u gave and i got as far as the REATOGO desktop and then when i double clicked the OTLPE icon it did not go to plan as every drive or location i clicked on in the window directory that came up said the following;
TARGET IS NOT WINDOWS 2000 OR LATER so i could not do anything with it and in the same windows directory window under computer it states;
NO WINDOWS INSTALLATIONS FOUND if i click on it.

Please advise what all this means and what can be done if anything,thankyou very much for your time,kind regards
emma


RESPONSE FROM GAMMO
Hi,

Apparently OTL doesn't work on Windows 98.

You should continue in this topic: http://www.geekstogo...op-t281521.html.

You don't need to get OTL running. OTL is for malware issues. Your issue is probably not malware related.

Best regards,
Gammo

PLEASE COULD I HAVE SOME HELP AS I WISH TO RECTIFY AND OVERCOME THIS PROBLEM.THANKYOU

[123Runner]

sweetascandy

Lets try and get your data and pictures off the drive 1st. Go back to post 2 and follow the direction for a USB external. The pictures and data are important, so lets try and get them.

Then we can work on solving the problem.

Better yet, Are you trying to get the computer to work so you can get the family pictures and data? or do you also want to be able to still use it?

[sweetascandy]

Hi Runner thankyou for your response,i would love to actually get the pc working to be honest with you,my last resort is to get the pictures etc off if all else fails really as at present i do not possess a usb flash drive.

Im abit worried now coz of it saying no windows operating system found,does this mean its some how been wiped or that it needs windows reinstalling therefore everything is gone anyway or was that due to us trying to run the OTL on windows 98 when its not compatable,sorry if i sound thick im no expert so just try and explain the best i can lol . kind regards
emma

[123Runner]

Our concern is that in attempting to repair the OS, the data could be lost.
We are recommending to get the data 1st.

There are 4 ways to get the data off. That is providing that the hard drive is not mechanically dead.
1. Place the drive in a USB external enclosure. Similar to these here USB Enclosures
2. Remove the drive from the computer and slave it to another desktop computer.
3. Use a Linux live CD such as Puppy Linux to get to the data (requires a flash drive, USB enclosure with drive, or writable CD drive.
4. Get the OS working.

Of all options, # 1 would be the easiest.

OS not found could be from OTL or that the OS got further corrupted. I believe the data is still accessible by the options given.
We won't know till we try.

[sweetascandy]

Good morning runner thankyou for the reply,may i ask is there anything i can run or do to find out if my operating system is still there prior to having to buy a usb enclosure?Also what usb enclosure do u recommend and what price as im looking on ebay now?Kind regards
emma

[SpywareDr]

The most important thing is to get a copy of all of your personal data files off of the old hard drive first.

(Slip the old hard drive into a $20 enclosure, attach it to a USB port on a working computer, then copy your files from the old hard drive onto the working computer's hard drive).

Now that you have a backup copy of your old stuff, you can reinsert the hard drive back into the old computer and continue with the attempt to repair the Operating System.

[sweetascandy]

Hi All would this be suitable as im watching it on ebay at present?
3.5" Metal Crust Mobile Enclosure USB 2.0 External IDE.
Works with 160 GB Seagate IDE ( Not include HDD )

kind regards emma

[wannabe1]

Hello sweetascandy...

I'm assuming that the old machine you're working on has a floppy drive. Does the machine you are on now have a floppy drive or do you have access to a machine that does?

wannabe1

[sweetascandy]

Hi Wannabe1
Thankyou for the reply,the pc im currently using has no floppy disk drive but the pc i wish to repair does have one .My friend may have one in his ive just sent a message to see if they have,may i ask what would i be required to do if he has one?Kind regards
SWEETASCANDY

[wannabe1]

We'll be creating a Win98 Startup Disk that we can use to take a closer look at what's going on with the machine.

I'll be traveling most of the day today, but will be back later this evening...my time.

[sweetascandy]

Hi Wannabe1,how are you?My friends are away at the moment so i will have to see if the library computers have floppy drives,they should have with al the students we have here lol,do i need to buy a floppy disk to copy the win98 startup onto if so where do i go to get the information to download so that i have it here ready for when i get a pack of floppy disks and we can get started .Kind regards
emma

[wannabe1]

Click on the link below and save the file to your desktop.

Double click on the file and insert the floppy disk when prompted to do so. This will create a Windows 98 SE OEM Startup Disk.

Once you have the disk created, let me know and we'll get started.

Windows 98 Startup Disk