[jojobo36]

Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me..

I believe I have all the files needed off the sick computer to continue on..

Thanks for all your help.

[Advertisements]

Are all your personal files now located to an external hard drive Jo?

[Wolfeymole]

Are all your personal files now located to an external hard drive Jo?

[jojobo36]

Yes, I believe I got them all.. Yes, they are all saved on a flash drive.

Thanks

[Wolfeymole]

Well my good friend Phil is away until tomorrow and I don't know how he would now approach this but what I would do next is to do a new installation of Vista by using the DELL OEM disk that you have and you can install the drivers disk afterwards.

To do this change the bios boot sequence to cdrom as first boot.

Put the Vista disk in the drive and press F10 to save the changes and exit.

The screen should go dark and the message "Press any key to boot from cd" will appear.

You will see this message again on subsequent reboots but press NOTHING and let it continue installing.

Once done you will need to install the Drivers and Utilities disk and then reinstall all Windows Updates that are Important and Recommended.

[jojobo36]

One question.. The files I needed to save were excel and quicken. We no longer have the cd's for these programs. (not sure why,someone must of borrowed them) Will I be able to use these files again? I believe I copied the program on the flash drive. But will that actually work?

And thank you so much for helping while Phil is gone. Much appreciated!

Edited by jojobo36, 10 May 2013 - 11:25 AM.

[iammykyl]

Hi.
What ver of windows is installed on the good computer?

[jojobo36]

Windows Vista Home Basic

[phillpower2]

My thanks to both Wolfeymole & iammykyl respectively for coming in to assist

Hello jojobo36

See if you can access and use the Excel, Quicken and other programs on the USB stick - using the good computer.

I may be being optimistic here but can I ask you to try a couple of things for us in the following order;

1: See if "system restore points" are enabled on the computer, if they are and there is one select a restore point that is before the date that the issue started http://windows.micro...-command-prompt

2: Try running SFC in Safe Mode with Command Prompt http://www.vistax64....fc-command.html Have your Vista disk ready in case there are errors that cannot be fixed automatically and you are prompted to install the Vista disk.

3: See if the Recovery Partition option is available to you http://www.dell.com/...ocid=DSN_336966

[Wolfeymole]

Copying the Quicken executable file to the flash drive should be ok as long as you transfer that back to the machine in question.

Alternatively have a look at this link.

http://quicken.intui...d/GEN82028.html

For aspects Excel or MS Office in other words look here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246

[jojobo36]

Hi Phil

When using the USB stick on the good computer to see if my quicken and excel works. These programs do not work. I do not have the actual program on the good computer to run them. I have microsoft works and do not have quicken installed.

The sick computer will not boot up in safe mode. I picked all the options to try and still get same message. (start up repair is checking your system for problems, Then it says start up repair cannot repair this computer automatically, then you click finish and it shuts system down)

Recovery Partition, this will not be helpful to me since I can't get into the control panel to choose the system and maint. to back up or restore files. unless this is done after we re-install windows?

Hi Wolf, Thanks for the links provided for Excel and Quicken. Good information. However I don't have the CD for these programs any longer to re-install.

I guess I was wondering, once I use the re-installation CD for windows Vista, will this wipe out all programs on pc and will start from scratch? Or does the "programs" to run files stay on. Also, by re-installing windows, that will fix the start up issue?

Thanks so much for everyone's time! It really is appreciated!

Edited by jojobo36, 11 May 2013 - 09:38 AM.

[Wolfeymole]

Jo

Does your Vista installation disk look like this?

[jojobo36]

YES!! exactly!

[phillpower2]

Hi jojobo36

Have you changed the Boot sequence as suggested by Wolfeymole in his reply #19 "how to" below;

To change the Boot Sequence in the BIOS;

Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the appropriate button that allows you to access the BIOS (Esc - Del – F2 etc)
This will enter you into the BIOS/CMOS
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to DVD/ CD drive
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit.
Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

RE The Recovery Partition: Sorry I should have said refer to step 3 @ http://www.dell.com/...ocid=DSN_336966

[jojobo36]

yes, the boot sequence was changed when we put the puppy program on to save files.. However I did NOT use the re-install windows CD as of yet!

I guess i was concerned about "once I use the re-installation CD for windows Vista, will this wipe out all programs on pc and will start from scratch? Or does the "programs" to run files stay on. Also, by re-installing windows, that will fix the start up issue?"

The Recovery Partition: option 3. I can try this if you want me too.. But this means I will lose everything.. And now I'm scared. lol

Edited by jojobo36, 11 May 2013 - 10:05 AM.

[Wolfeymole]

You have already backed up everything you need to the flash Jo, this is correct yes?

Your Vista machine does not have a recovery partition because you have the full re-installation disk to do such a thing when issues like this happen.

Once you boot and install from that DVD everything will be gone which doesn't matter because you have what you want on the flash.

Just make sure that you delete all partitions found before installing and make sure the flash drive is removed from the machine.

Here's a handy link for you to look at.

http://www.buildeasy...ndows_vista.htm