[Xeiconfinsha]

Hey guys, kinda new here, hopefully I'm posting this in the right forum section.

I'm not that super oriented with computers, I'll give it my best shot to explain what's going on here.

In short my PC just won't start. The light turns on, it boots up, and then I get a black screen with text referring to either "Start Up Repair (recommended)"

or

"Start windows normally"

If I choose start windows normally, it brings me to the black booting screen with the windows flag, then it proceeds to go back and restart the system, going back to the black screen. OR More likely it just stays stuck on the glowing windows flag.

This also occurs if I press F8 and go into safe mode. After listing all the components before going into safe mode, it simply restarts itself and goes right back to the black screen of the two choices.

If I select Start up repair, a grey loading bar appears below that on occasion freezes. If I manually reset the computer try it again, I get to a blue windows default background screen and the message

"Startup Repair
Your computer was unable to start
Startup repair is checking your system for problems...

If problems are found, Startup Repair will fix them automatically. Your computer might restart several times during this process.
No changes will be made to your personal files or information. This might take several minutes.

Searching for problems.. (this is beneath a blue bar that has been going on for at least an hour)

There's also a Dos window that reads

X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

Anyone have any idea of what I have to do? A friend of mine thinks I may have to reinstall the operating system, or get a new hard drive entirely.




**NOTE**

My friend did in fact advise me of burning UBUNTU onto a disc, booting my PC on that, and then try to copy all of my data onto a portable hard drive. This worked briefly and it would take forever. It said it would require 2 hours just to transfer four jpg images to my External hard drive.



After getting as much as I could, UBUNTU froze, I restarted it, and now while in UBUNTU it won't detect my hard drive at all.


I have also attempted to make my defunct hard drive a slave, to no avail, which mostly just fails to boot the master hard drive.



My issue though is how would I take all of my things out of the hard drive, before installing a new OS/adding a new Hard drive.

thanks for the help


I have a custom built PC, with windows 7 Operating system. I believe it has a one terabyte hard drive, 6-8 gigs of ram. I can't get the specs on it because I can't get it working to find that information out

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     Xeiconfinsha,

 

You are unsure of the storage capacity of the HDD and so may not know the answer to this question but can I ask how much free storage space was available on the drive, if it was almost full it may explain the type of behaviour that you describe.

 

First check that I would suggest you do is to see if the HDD is detected in the BIOS, if it is we can suggest an alternative means of attempting to back up your data;

 

You have a custom build so we cannot say for sure which key you need to access the BIOS, if you are unsure try tapping the Del key when you restart the computer, once in the BIOS look to see if the HDD is actually identified by the BIOS, Seagate drives will be shown as something like ST1000DM003 and Western Digital WD1002FAEX as two examples, if the HDD is not identified there it suggests one of two things, 1: the drive has failed. 2: a connection to the drive is loose or has a damaged data or power cable.

 

Post back once you have checked the BIOS.

 

NB: So that I can confirm that you have received notification of my reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

[phillpower2]

     Xeiconfinsha,

 

You are unsure of the storage capacity of the HDD and so may not know the answer to this question but can I ask how much free storage space was available on the drive, if it was almost full it may explain the type of behaviour that you describe.

 

First check that I would suggest you do is to see if the HDD is detected in the BIOS, if it is we can suggest an alternative means of attempting to back up your data;

 

You have a custom build so we cannot say for sure which key you need to access the BIOS, if you are unsure try tapping the Del key when you restart the computer, once in the BIOS look to see if the HDD is actually identified by the BIOS, Seagate drives will be shown as something like ST1000DM003 and Western Digital WD1002FAEX as two examples, if the HDD is not identified there it suggests one of two things, 1: the drive has failed. 2: a connection to the drive is loose or has a damaged data or power cable.

 

Post back once you have checked the BIOS.

 

NB: So that I can confirm that you have received notification of my reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

[Xeiconfinsha]

Hey phillpower2 (love the Arnold Avatar)

As for the space, I last recall I had at least 50% of free storage left.

 

I have 1TB on the Hard drive acting up

 

I have a 1TB external hard drive I've been trying to put this data back on

 

And I just got an extra internal desktop hard drive to put an OS and then my data on it.

 

Luckily most of my data (on the faulty hard drive) is photos/video, saved games

 

The Hard drive is in fact detected in the bios, when I check the boot options. To get to the BIOS it's the delete key. It's an MSI board(?)

However if I do boot it up via UBUNTU, Ubuntu doesn't seem to show the drive when I view check the available drives in desktop.

Well SOME Good news and a minor update, I FINALLY Got the drive to work as a secondary drive to an older hard drive of mine.

However transferring data out of this hard drive takes forever.  It can take hours to transfer 3 gigs of items onto my external hard drive.

A Windows message has been popping up roughly saying "Detected a malfunctioning Hard drive, please back up your data/files"

With the possible choices of

"Remind me later

Do not remind me later (not recommended)

More info"

I'm trying my best to get all of this data out safely onto my external drive

 

My friend (Who's a bit more skilled at computers than I am) suggests once I get all the info out, to try re-install Windows 7 on it, try to wipe it all out and start from scratch.. Though if the hard drive is breaking, I don't know if it's capable of this or not.

Edited by Xeiconfinsha, 26 November 2014 - 05:11 AM.

[phillpower2]

Hello

 

Good news that the HDD is detected by the BIOS 

 

As for the space, I last recall I had at least 50% of free storage left.

 

I have 1TB on the Hard drive acting up

 

 

So you had 500GB available on a 1TB HDD, if yes that is also good news as it makes data corruption less likely.

 

For now concentrate on recovering your data, once done we can help you with testing the HDD to see if it can be trusted or not.

 

Polite reminder;

NB: So that I can confirm that you have received notification of my reply to your topic please click on the Follow this topic tab at the upper right corner of the page. 

 

 

Puppy Linux is what I would suggest using to recover your data as it is normally fast and has a high success rate, details below;

 

=================== 

***Required Hardware*** 

CD Burner (CDRW) Drive, 

Blank CD, 

Extra Storage Device (USB Flash Drive, External Hard Drive)

=================== 

 

1. Save these files to your Desktop/Burn Your Live CD:

• Download Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-528.iso) 

   

  Download BurnCDCC ISO Burning Software 

   

  There are instructions on how to boot from flash drive with puppy here; http://www.pendrivel...e-from-windows/ 

   

   

   

• Open BurnCDCC with Windows Explorer 

   

   

• Extract All files to a location you can remember 

   

   

• Double Click BurnCDCC 

   

   

• Click Browse and navigate to the Puppy Linux ISO file you just downloaded 

   

   

• Open/Double Click that file 

   

  IMPORTANT: Adjust the speed bar to CD: 4x DVD: 1x 

   

• Click Start  

   

   

• Your CD Burner Tray will open automatically 

   

   

• Insert a blank CD and close the tray 

   

   

• Click OK 

   

   

Puppy Linux Live CD will now be created

 

 

2. Set your boot priority in the BIOS to CD-ROM first, Hard Drive Second 

 

•  

   

   

• Start the computer/press the power button 

   

   

• Immediately start tapping the appropriate key to enter the BIOS, aka "Setup" 

   

  (Usually shown during the "Dell" screen, or "Gateway" Screen) 

   

• Once in the BIOS, under Advanced BIOS Options change boot priority to: 

   

  CD-ROM 1st, Hard Drive 2nd 

   

• Open your ROM drive and insert the disk 

   

   

• Press F10 to save and exit 

   

   

• Agree with "Y" to continue 

   

   

• Your computer will restart and boot from the Puppy Linux Live CD 

   

   

   

   

 

 

 

 

3.  Recover Your Data 

 

• Once Puppy Linux has loaded, it is actually running in your computer's Memory (RAM).  You will see a fully functioning Graphical User Interface similar to what you normally call "your computer".  Internet access may or may not be available depending on your machine, so it is recommended you print these instructions before beginning.  Also, double clicking is not needed in Puppy.  To expand, or open folders/icons, just click once.  Puppy is very light on resources, so you will quickly notice it is much speedier than you are used to.  This is normal.  Ready?  Let's get started. 

   

   

  3a. Mount Drives 

   

• Click the Mount Icon located at the top left of your desktop.  

   

   

• A Window will open.  By default, the "drive" tab will be forward/highlighted.  Click on Mount for your hard drive. 

   

   

• Assuming you only have one hard drive and/or partition, there may be only one selection to mount. 

   

   

• USB Flash Drives usually automatically mount upon boot, but click the "usbdrv" tab and make sure it is mounted. 

   

   

• If using an external hard drive for the data recovery, do this under the "drive" tab.  Mount it now. 

   

   

 

 

3b. Transfer Files.

•  

   

   

• At the bottom left of your desktop a list of all hard drives/partitions, USB Drives, and Optical Drives are listed with a familiar looking hard drive icon. 

   

   

• Open your old hard drive i.e. sda1 

   

   

• Next, open your USB Flash Drive or External Drive. i.e. sdc or sdb1 

   

   

• If you open the wrong drive, simply X out at the top right corner of the window that opens. (Just like in Windows) 

   

   

• From your old hard drive, drag and drop whatever files/folders you wish to transfer to your USB Drive's Window. 

   

   

 

 

For The Novice:  The common path to your pictures, music, video, and documents folders is: Documents and Settings >> All Users (or each idividual name of each user. CHECK All Names!) >> Documents >> You will now see My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos. 

 

Remember to only click once!  No double clicking!  Once you drag and drop your first folder, you will notice a small menu will appear giving you the option to move or copy.  Choose COPY each time you drag and drop. 

 

YOU ARE DONE!!!  Simply click Menu >> Mouse Over Shutdown >> Reboot/Turn Off Computer.  Be sure to plug your USB Drive into another working windows machine to verify all data is there and transferred without corruption. Congratulations! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xeiconfinsha]

Lot of stuff! I'll get to it soon as I get off work!

[phillpower2]

No problem, when you are ready 

[Xeiconfinsha]

Okay I just got to it, some files are normal speed to transfer onto my external hard drive, others aren't

 

One set of files (3 gigs) took nearly 6 hours!

 

Others take 10-30 minutes. Even something as small as a few JPGs

[phillpower2]

As painful as it may be you will need to persevere until all of your data is backed up I`m afraid, slower is possibly better btw as it is less stressful on the drive and you have a better chance of full data recovery if the drive itself is flaky.

[Xeiconfinsha]

Well I'm almost half way there, at least I got my photos out of the way.

 

Is it moving slow because the hard drive i'm taking data off of, is broken/dying?

[phillpower2]

It is entirely possible but so is it being something else such as a bad power or data cable, a diagnostic test will help but it can only be done once all data is backed up.

[Xeiconfinsha]

Alright, ran into a brand new problem. During file transferring the PC will not boot AS LONG as the busted hard drive is in.

 

 

it will boot up and start a disk check, which freezes, whether I choose to skip it or not

 

So using puppy Linux I also am unable to boot to it

 

The last thing I recall seeing is text saying "Checking drives"

Followed by a green text at the top right corner saying "done"

after that the screen goes black.. My monitor is still active , but the screen is pitch black.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, can you disconnect the internal drive, ( Power off altogether then just pull both plugs off the drive)

Will it boot to the puppy Linux then?

Or is that exactly what you mean when you say it won't boot with the drive in?

 

Edit to add, please double check that the CD/DVD drive is still selected as first boot device and hasn't defaulted back to looking for the hard drive first.

 

Nev.

Edited by Plastic Nev, 28 November 2014 - 03:31 PM.

[Xeiconfinsha]

Yes, as LONG as the malfunctioning drive is either disconnected, or choosing DISABLED in BIOS, My spare hard drive, or puppy linux will boot. Of course, without the defunct hard drive in, I can't really get the remaining data on it

[phillpower2]

The problem that you are having is caused by Windows being on the drive, this because by default when Windows is detected (bootable or not) it is automatically assigned the drive letter C: and set as the boot device, there is sometimes a way around this but only if a certain SATA port on the MB cannot be used to connect a boot device to, from memory I once used this method on a Gigabyte board and it was SATA port 3 that could not be booted from, other than this an external USB HDD enclosure or adapter could be used or fitting a replacement HDD with a fully up to date Windows 7 on it should allow access to the problem drive if recognised as a storage only device by the BIOS.

[Xeiconfinsha]

wait, what should I do now?