Computer won't start up

[CNBCLIES]

Disregard my last post, I didn't backup the drive I thought I did. It defaulted to my C drive and that's what I backed up. WHen I made sure the F: drive was selected it tells me it acnnot access the drive because of the USUAL!!!

Don't forget, I'm using a Nexxtech box with the bad drive hooked into my computer and that's why it shows up as the F: drive.

 

[captaincranky]

We've covered this. It's time to try the Linux.

 

[CNBCLIES]

OK. you have me stumped, because my Emachine (T-5026 P4 WinXP) has "PC Angel" and it offers a non-destructive restore option. Starting @ "Press F-11 to begin recovery". Both methods load a fresh copy of Windows,, but coming from (my D:/ your "G:/), When the discs themselves are used, they rebuild the recovery partition and reformat. I have no doubt things could be different with your box.

The cycling problem you describe is a "My Computer" properties issue, where you have checked "reboot after error". Not your fault though. I'm pretty sure it's default is checked.

Sometimes a "Live CD" of Linux can be run off of the CD drive. The latest "flavors" of Linux are able to read "NTFS" Windows files. The OS doesn't install, it runs off the CD drive and RAM. You can try downloading a copy of "Ubuntu" Linux, then burn it as an "image" <very important! http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

In this case, you would insert the Linux CD, power down, then restart, following the options to "begin live session". I suppose you could pop the CD tray open cold with a paper clip, power off, but that seems a bit brutal.

I think you could try this with either computer, no harm or change comes to the host computer, if you don't install Linux.

If I've read your statement correctly, I download the linux file to a disc and then use that disc to boot up the computer with the corrupted hard drive.

So, to get things back to square one, I need to install the hard drive back into the machine it came out of, make sure that I have a good disc drive and then boot up using the linux disc.

If I can get the computer to boot up with the linux disc I assume there will be soem prompts to help me out or I come back here for guidance.

Thanks, I'll let you know when I get the machine booted up with the linux cd.

 

[CNBCLIES]

Captaincranky, I have the ubuntu file burned as an image on a cd, when I load it in my computer which is working, it gives me 3 options, demo and full installation, install inside windows, and learn more. I guess the first option is what I nedde to do with my daughters computer, out her computer back together and have it boot from the cd drive using the ubuntu disc, is that correct?

 

[captaincranky]

Yes. Run it in demo, I think that's the current euphemism for a "live" run. As long as it says, "nothing will be changed", that's a a live run. Here's hoping that it boots on your daughter's machine also. This assuming you've attended to the CD/DVD drive issue.

For academia's sake, the "Install inside Windows" option is accomplished with the "WUBI" installer package. This installs the OS as a Windows program, and then you can uninstall it as such. Never tried it, but that's the theory. Windows obviously has to work to have this happen this way.

Linux and Firefox 3 are quite resistant to malware on the internet. When a HDD is only say 25 to 40% full, you can install it on it's own partition with reasonable certainty it won't hurt what is already there. But, you MUST defragment the drive first. Then when the "GRUB" boot loader is installed, at startup it will give you the choice of which OS you want to use. Word here, it defaults to running Linux, so some babysitting or command line changes are required to get Windows loaded first.

This is why I uninstalled Ubuntu. It's not the OSes fault, nor did I need the space. I would simply forget to sit there and select "Windows XP.

 

[CNBCLIES]

Captaincranky, your the man, I did have to change the cd drive again and use theone out of the computer that I'm using now but I can correct that at a later date.

Okay, now what, I found her pictures, I'm sure I with a litlle effort I can get all her "stuff" copied to another medium, probaly the reserve hard drive that I have enclosed in the Nexxtech box for now.

Of course, what I really want to do is fix her computer so it'll start in windows XP like it used to. I

I see the boot files, config.sys files and so on. I also see there is a back up file that I must''ve made when this all started or shortly before, I believe it's dated 5/13/09. That file in fact is where I located her pictures although I'm sure they're probably residing in another location.

Thank you so much, you also jobeard, ya'll have been a lot of help and I've learned a lot for novice.

I'll be waiting for your comments.....

 

[CNBCLIES]

Cataincranky, While waiting, I copied all of her files and scanned the afterwards so I'm go to go there.

If I cannot get her sysem up by fixing config.sys file, I know that I can do a format and restore now because I've copied her "stuff".
I would like to get her computer going without doing that if possible but aw shucks, you know how it goes, you do what you have to!

Thanks again...

 

[CNBCLIES]

For what it's worth I found the boot log and it showed drivers loaded up to loadeddrivergagp30k.sys and then it starts with did not load driver acpi uniprocessor and did not load several drivers afterwards.

When I tried to boot into safe mode,( days ago ) I could see the drivers scrolling down and loading up to the gagp30k.sys driver, then safe mode would stop.

Any suggestions!

 

[captaincranky]

There are Possibly 1,000,000 Lines of Code in an OS.....

None of which I'm vaguely familiar with.

"ACPI" stands for; "Advanced Configuration Power Interface", and it enables standby. So, I have a hunch that may not have anything to do with what's going on. JUst a hunch, mind you.

You can explore the recovery discs on your machine, copy the "sys config" folder to a flash drive, then use Linux to replace the damaged folder with that one.

Will it work, IDK! The file folders may be images, and won't work without the install process being used.

You might also search your computer's Windows folders, and do the same thing. Will that work, IDK.

If this were mine, I'd take my successes, (the recovered files), and shove the recovery discs in the machine and be done with it. Windows usually winds up being reinstalled from time to time anyway.

There is a point where you can wind up chasing your tail, with one issue leading to another. This computer had infections, and there is no guaranty that it is clean.

There are people here that know far more about Windows than I do, will, or want to.

If you decide to continue attempting to repair the OS, I suggest you open a thread in "Windows OS".

I've helped you as much as I am able, and as I said earlier, this machine is at the point where I would just reformat.

As a matter of approach, I would not, and do not own a computer with only one physical HDD. Downloaded files are scanned for infection and then transferred to the "volume" drive. This is even more critical in a computer that has only recovery discs, since you can't set up HDD partitions the way you would be able with actual Windows install discs.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[LookinAround]

For what it's worth I found the boot log and it showed drivers loaded up to loadeddrivergagp30k.sys and then it starts with did not load driver acpi uniprocessor and did not load several drivers afterwards.

When I tried to boot into safe mode,( days ago ) I could see the drivers scrolling down and loading up to the gagp30k.sys driver, then safe mode would stop.

Any suggestions!

As i recall, is OK (and normal to see the did not load messages as not everything SHOULD load). Problems are denoted by FAILED to load messages

also..just noticed the thread and glad to see you're well on the way to recovery. But if i could suggest, IMHO some of the best recovery (save-your-*****) boot CD's to have on hand for these emergencies
- UBCD4Win
- Gparted Live (you'll find build instructions within the post)
- Hiren's Boot CD (see tools list here. Download link here)

 

[CNBCLIES]

Thank You Mr. Captaincranky, appreciate all the advise that you've shared which is quite admirable, some people in this world would rather not share any advice or knowledge for what ever reasons unkown to myself!

I believe I'll take one shot at restoring her hard drive in it's original condition and if I fail, I'll reformat and relaod the programs which is what I would really like to avoid. I have her computer hooked up to the web wireless using a lynksys product and like I sadi earlier, I'm not real up to speed with computers so I would rather fix it with a push of the button, lololololol..

I will offer my advice and help to anyone which is of course what you do on this forum, take care.

 

[captaincranky]

FYI..The symptoms you describe, "but it didn't stop working until after a few restarts", are sometimes attributable to malware, specifically "Active X" based programs. These reinstall themselves, if thery're not fully removed to the system registry level. Point being, just because you found a folder and deleted, doesn't necessarily mean the problem was solved.

So, be aware of this in your endeavors.

As lookingAround has indicated, you can download the latest version of "Gparted". I believe this would enable you to partition the drive before you install Windows. (or the recovery discs). this would enable you to create a "system drive" of perhaps 50GB, leaving the rest as a "logical partition". You would then use "disk management" in Windows to format the rest of the drive and use that for file storage. If a reinstall should become necessary later, hopefully you wouldn't have to tamper with that section of the drive.

As a matter of interest, your recovery discs will rebuild the entire OS on a different HDD, should you want to install a larger one, or suffer a hardware failure

As always, best of luck. and you're welcome.