[Jody Dobberteen]

I have a Sony Vaio Desktop Sony VGC-RA710G / P4 3.2 Ghz / 512 MB RAM (upgraded to 2 gigs) / 200 GB HD / DVD+R/RW, Running windows xp media center edition w/ service pack 3. When I power up the pc It beeps once and loads bios. I never used to see bios loading I would just see logo screens for sony, and intel. Where I live our power goes out regularly, and the comp get's hard dropped frequently. I'm assuming there is a hard Disk error, or damage. I can access bios menu by pressing F8 but this is not much help. I do not have access to the original XP media center edition disk (none came with pc, can't find anyone that has a copy) and my original recovery disks are all beat up from kicking around in a drawer. However I would not want to go that route anyway as I have lots of photo files I don't want to lose. So my question is what options do I have to either A)Boot my OS, B) recover files from the HDD and maybe install new OS, C)Maybe install an OS on my external and set bios to boot that, or D) A better plan that you suggest I'm relying on your advice, and thanks you in advance for your help.

Edited by Jody Dobberteen, 26 September 2011 - 08:23 AM.

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The easyist method to recover any files you want is to pull the hard drive out of the computer and stick it in another desktop computer or a USB drive enclosure. That way you can set the other computer for permissions to access the files on the original HD and transfer then to the drive of the other computer, and then copy them to flash drives to put back on your computer.

You can then try to do a checkdisk on your original drive to see if you can even access the drive, it may be dead and you will need to replace the drive. Do this check disk on the other computer, other wise you will need a Win XP Disk to do this on your computer.

checkdisk
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

Checkdisk with a XP disk
http://kb.wisc.edu/h...age.php?id=5097


set permissions

Setting File and Folder Permissions

To set permissions for files and folders, follow these steps:

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click the file or folder you want to work with.
2. From the pop-up menu, select Properties, and then in the Properties dialog box click the Security tab, shown in Figure 13-12.
3. Users or groups that already have access to the file or folder are listed in the Name list box. You can change permissions for these users and groups by doing the following:
* Select the user or group you want to change.
* Use the Permissions list box to grant or deny access permissions.

Tip Inherited permissions are shaded. If you want to override an inherited permission, select the opposite permission.
4. To set access permissions for additional users, contacts, computers, or groups, click Add. This displays the Select Users, Computers, Or Groups dialog box.
5. Use the Select Users, Computers, Or Groups dialog box to select the users, computers, or groups for which you want to set access permissions. You can use the fields of this dialog box as follows:
* Look In This drop-down list box allows you to access account names from other domains. Click Look In to see a list of the current domain, trusted domains, and other resources that you can access. Select Entire Directory to view all the account names in the folder.
* Name This column shows the available accounts of the currently selected domain or resource.
* Add This button adds selected names to the selection list.
* Check Names This button validates the user, contact, and group names entered into the selection list. This is useful if you type names in manually and want to make sure they're available.
6. In the Name list box, select the user, computer, or group you want to configure, and then use the fields in the Permissions area to allow or deny permissions. Repeat for other users, computers, or groups.
7. Click OK when you're finished.

SRX660

[SRX660]

The easyist method to recover any files you want is to pull the hard drive out of the computer and stick it in another desktop computer or a USB drive enclosure. That way you can set the other computer for permissions to access the files on the original HD and transfer then to the drive of the other computer, and then copy them to flash drives to put back on your computer.

You can then try to do a checkdisk on your original drive to see if you can even access the drive, it may be dead and you will need to replace the drive. Do this check disk on the other computer, other wise you will need a Win XP Disk to do this on your computer.

checkdisk
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

Checkdisk with a XP disk
http://kb.wisc.edu/h...age.php?id=5097


set permissions

Setting File and Folder Permissions

To set permissions for files and folders, follow these steps:

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click the file or folder you want to work with.
2. From the pop-up menu, select Properties, and then in the Properties dialog box click the Security tab, shown in Figure 13-12.
3. Users or groups that already have access to the file or folder are listed in the Name list box. You can change permissions for these users and groups by doing the following:
* Select the user or group you want to change.
* Use the Permissions list box to grant or deny access permissions.

Tip Inherited permissions are shaded. If you want to override an inherited permission, select the opposite permission.
4. To set access permissions for additional users, contacts, computers, or groups, click Add. This displays the Select Users, Computers, Or Groups dialog box.
5. Use the Select Users, Computers, Or Groups dialog box to select the users, computers, or groups for which you want to set access permissions. You can use the fields of this dialog box as follows:
* Look In This drop-down list box allows you to access account names from other domains. Click Look In to see a list of the current domain, trusted domains, and other resources that you can access. Select Entire Directory to view all the account names in the folder.
* Name This column shows the available accounts of the currently selected domain or resource.
* Add This button adds selected names to the selection list.
* Check Names This button validates the user, contact, and group names entered into the selection list. This is useful if you type names in manually and want to make sure they're available.
6. In the Name list box, select the user, computer, or group you want to configure, and then use the fields in the Permissions area to allow or deny permissions. Repeat for other users, computers, or groups.
7. Click OK when you're finished.

SRX660

[Jody Dobberteen]

Thanks for the advice. I was able to access the hard drive using an application from Ultimate boot cd. I also downloaded a Western digital check disk app, and used another check disk app to check the physical state of the HDD, all seems to be ok. I removed all of my files I wanted to save(mostly Media), and tried to run the recovery disks. An error occurred somewhere in the process, and now i am left with an empty hard drive, no data, and no partitions left. I am going to contact Sony for copies of the recovery disks and hopefully that will work. If not at least I was able to get the files I needed from the machine and can now move on. Thanks again for the advice.

[happyrock]

for the future...run chkdsk /r from a recovery cd before anything else...