[Reeses issues]

It was working fine, and then became unresponsive. I forced a shutdown and restarted it. I got the windows failed to launch properly, and a choice to launch startup repair (the default). Doing this, the screen goes blank, and in a while becomes a lighter color, with a line horizontally. I'm not sure what's wrong!

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I was able to run diagnostics, and have gotten 3 error codes.. OFOO-1344, OFOO-0244, and OFOO-1A44.
All on same 3 blocks, and all say can't read, replace disk.

[Reeses issues]

I was able to run diagnostics, and have gotten 3 error codes.. OFOO-1344, OFOO-0244, and OFOO-1A44.
All on same 3 blocks, and all say can't read, replace disk.

[rshaffer61]

I take it you are talking HD diagnostics and according to your description then yes I would agree the HD is bad. You could attempt to put it in a external enclosure and check it on known working system to see if it is recognized and if not then it is a good possibility that the drive has failed.

[Reeses issues]

Okay, I'm not sure how to do that.. Is there a way to get my data off if the hd is messed up?
Thank u!

[rshaffer61]

By purchasing a external hd enclosure you can then hook it to any system with a USB connection.
If the drive is detected you may have to quickly get everything you want just in case the drive fails completely. If the drive is not detected then the data is gone short of a professional data recovery which is very expensive and they will not guarantee the amount of data they can save or even get.

[Reeses issues]

Got it. If a hard drive is detected, will it prompt me on the steps, because I'm not that experienced.

[rshaffer61]

Steps for backing up your data....NO


I suggest going to Microsofts Backup Tutorial and follow the steps to do a Backup to a External Drive or Another way you can do a Backup is by using DVD’s. This method is just as effective and can be done using the same steps as described above but change the location of the saved data to the Optical Drive instead..

Remember all you are backing up is data and not programs.

[Reeses issues]

Thank you so much!!

[rshaffer61]

You are welcome and please let me know how things turn out.
I hope you can save your data but please be aware if the drive mechanically has failed you may not be able to get to anything.

[Reeses issues]

Hey- well I tried to run system restore like a billion times, and then ran the hard drive diagnostics, and any diagnostics I could access! Eventually I was able to get into Windows, and hooked up an external hard drive (passport), and backed up all my files. Now I'm just waiting for my laptop to truly kick it, and I'll replace it then. It still has issues from the bad areas of the drive, I think.

[rshaffer61]

Posted Yesterday, 10:06 PM
Hey- well I tried to run system restore like a billion times, and then ran the hard drive diagnostics, and any diagnostics I could access!

Did the HD diagnostic show anything wrong?

[Reeses issues]

Hi, Yes, actually. Some sort of disk errors? And the regular backup in Windows wouldn't work. The computer would start to back things up, and then freeze. Also, there are just some little things that freeze it up. One instance was trying to type in a search in the Yahoo text box from another website. It is just fragile seeming? Lol, I guess at least it's up and running in a slightly limited capacity.

[rshaffer61]

It sounds like a failing HD to me but without knowing exactly what it found it's going to be hard to say for sure.
It may have found something wrong with the sectors or free space or descriptors.
You can try this and see if it finds anything.
Tutorial for running chkdsk in Vista\Win 7 located HERE.

[CraigBGower]

Hi,

To fix problems with windows vista, you can download Windows Vista repair Tool which will remove all problems from your Windows. You can read the instruction to use this tool on this page: http://www.windowsvistastartup.com/
Also, you can manually restore the Windows to the previous stage but that will not fix your problem permanently. You want to fix your problems manually, follow these steps carefully.

1. Boot to the Windows Recovery Environment and select the Command Prompt
2. At the prompt enter the following commands:
cd windows\system32\config
3. At the prompt cd windows\system32\config> enter the following:
ren default default.old
ren sam sam.old
ren system system.old
ren security security.old
ren software software.old
cd regback

4. At the prompt C:\windows\system32\config\regback> enter the following:
copy default c:\windows\system32\config
copy sam c:\windows\system32\config
copy system c:\windows\system32\config
copy security c:\windows\system32\config
copy software c:\windows\system32\config

5. Close the command prompt window and reboot the computer.