[dodgie]

my computer wont start it keeps shuting its self down, it wont even start in safe mode, i have a system restore disk but there are file on there i need to keep before i do a system restore. really need help!

Thanks

kev

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Kevin,

Shutting down, or restarting? These are two very different things

If it is shutting down, it is most likey power supply or heat.

First effort, open it up, clean it out, check fans

Second, test with known good powersupply

[gerryf]

Kevin,

Shutting down, or restarting? These are two very different things

If it is shutting down, it is most likey power supply or heat.

First effort, open it up, clean it out, check fans

Second, test with known good powersupply

[dodgie]

Hi and thanks,

When i switch the machine on it starts to boot up but restarts itself before it gets to the desk top.
even if i tap f8 then try safe mode it does the same. i just need to get some important files off the machine then i can put my system restore disk in. any advice

[gerryf]

pull the drive, add it as a slave to a second machine or as a master to a second ide controller (will be faster copying large files), copy the files over to the other machine

[dodgie]

Sorry gerryf but im unsure of how to do that is there any other way to get on the machine and save the files. im gettin worried now.

thank you

[gerryf]

believe it or not, my suggestion is likely the easiest way if you have another windows xp or 2000 machine, do you?

Your harddrive is held in place by a maximum of 4 screws, a power plug and an ide ribbon.

[dodgie]

yeah i have a laptop which im working off now, so disconnect the hard draive from the other machine then how do i connect it to this machine?

[gerryf]

whoa, laptop is a no go---at least for free. Although if you are willing to part with $20, it would be very easy

You can buy a $20, 3.5-inch ide enclosure with a usb interface from newegg or a local computer store.

Then all you need to do is open the case of the bad computer, remove the four screws, unplug the ribbon cable and power supply, then drop the 3.5 inch drive into the enclosure (you do not even need to close it back up, just connected the power and ide connect)

Hook that to your laptop and it will detect it just as if it were a giant thumbdrive.

I do this all the time when rescuing data for people. It's a $20 investment that pays for itself over and over

[dodgie]

is there any other way to sort it now cause i aint really got the m oney

[gerryf]

then you really need to find a second desktop, a friend perhaps.

If you cannot enter into safe mode, and do not have a windows disk, you need to get the files off in a way that is non-destructive.

The only real gotcha involved in moving a drive to a second machine is to make certain that the harddrive you are adding does not conflcit with existing hardware in the machine you are adding it to

Ideally, you add your drive to the second machine on its own ribbon. All motherboards have two controllers, each supporting 2 drives each.

If the host computer has its harddrive on one ribbon and cd-rom on the other, remove the ribbon from the cd-rom drive temporarily and just hook your drive to it.

Start the computer, the working pc will detect the drive. Copy the files over. Burn them to a cd, and remove your drive

You may need to take possession of the files/folders to do this

To do so depends on the windows version on the working machine...do you know of such a machine?

This will be easier to explain if you can give me particulars about the good machine--if you can, I can give you explicit instructions

[dodgie]

i have a windows disk, the os is windows xp and the machine is an e machines 570

[gerryf]

you have an ACTUAL windows disk, or a system recovery disk? You said system recovery disk earlier

[dodgie]

i have a copy of windows xp pro, the computer has xp on, can we use this?

[gerryf]

does the computer have xp pro on it or xp home....is it the XP DISC that came with the machine?

[dodgie]

the machine is windows home the disc is windows pro and it didnt come with the machine. looks like im stuck.