BSOD, can't access safe mode

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Alright; do you have Windows CD? if so boot from it; and try to repair your windows installation.

Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. For more information about how to do this, refer to your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.

Then insert your Windows XP Setup CD, and restart your computer.

1. When the Press any key to boot from CD message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

2. Press ENTER when you see the message To setup Windows XP now, and then press ENTER displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen.

3. Do not choose the option to press R to use the Recovery Console.

4. In the Windows XP Licensing Agreement, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.

5. Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.

6. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

I hope this will help alleviate your issue, in case you need further help let us know.
 
Archean said:
Alright; do you have Windows CD? if so boot from it; and try to repair your windows installation.

Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. For more information about how to do this, refer to your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.

Then insert your Windows XP Setup CD, and restart your computer.

1. When the Press any key to boot from CD message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

2. Press ENTER when you see the message To setup Windows XP now, and then press ENTER displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen.

3. Do not choose the option to press R to use the Recovery Console.

4. In the Windows XP Licensing Agreement, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.

5. Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.

6. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

I hope this will help alleviate your issue, in case you need further help let us know.
Click to expand...




steps 1-4 are fine.
then i get a screen that says

use the up and down arrow keys to select an item in the list
* to set up windows xp on the selected item, press enter
*to create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press c
*to delete the selected partition, press d.

then it lists 4 partitions
-: partition1 [fat]
c: partition2 [ntfs]
d: partition4 [unknown]
g: partition3 [fat32]
 
Do you have multiple Operating Systems running on this machine?

Do you have any important files you may need on this hdd? and have you backed them up recently?

-: partition1 [fat] <== ??? no drive letter?
c: partition2 [ntfs] <=== this should be your existing XP installation
d: partition4 [unknown] ???? size of this partition?
g: partition3 [fat32]

When you select C (assuming you have only one OS installed), it should tell you there is an existing installation of XP on that partition, and give you Repair option.
 
Archean said:
Do you have multiple Operating Systems running on this machine?

Do you have any important files you may need on this hdd? and have you backed them up recently?

-: partition1 [fat] <== ??? no drive letter?
c: partition2 [ntfs] <=== this should be your existing XP installation
d: partition4 [unknown] ???? size of this partition?
g: partition3 [fat32]

When you select C (assuming you have only one OS installed), it should tell you there is an existing installation of XP on that partition, and give you Repair option.
Click to expand...

no i just have one os. and yes i have years worth of family photos on my hdd. i haven't backed them up.
and when i select the C: drive it gives me two options
1. format (quick)
2. format
 
Try restoring a good registry copy.

Boot to the Windows installation CD, select the repair installation to get to the recovery console, and type these commands to restore a Registry.




delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

then restart your PC.
 
I believe if you are getting that format message, it only means one thing and that is your hard disk's boot sector/partition has been damaged.

Before proceeding further, a much safer way for you may be to get the hard disk out of your computer, and attach it (as secondary drive) to another fully functioning windows computer. Then download testdisk and analyze/fix your hdd with it. Usually if the hard disk is not physically damaged specially at Sector 0; you should be able to at least recover your data; if nothing more. All the help/documentation of testdisk is available at their site; however, its a very easy to use too and I think you can handle it :) So best of luck.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.
 
Archean said:
I believe if you are getting that format message, it only means one thing and that is your hard disk's boot sector/partition has been damaged.

Before proceeding further, a much safer way for you may be to get the hard disk out of your computer, and attach it (as secondary drive) to another fully functioning windows computer. Then download testdisk and analyze/fix your hdd with it. Usually if the hard disk is not physically damaged specially at Sector 0; you should be able to at least recover your data; if nothing more. All the help/documentation of testdisk is available at their site; however, its a very easy to use too and I think you can handle it :) So best of luck.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.
Click to expand...


i'm not really sure how to remove my drive in the first place, and second my other computer that i'm using now is a laptop and i'm not sure the drives are compatible.
 
LookinAround said:
See [post=766270]How to recover your folders/files when Windows won’t boot[/post]
Click to expand...
You might also still try just downloading and burning the Knoppix CD

@Hi Archaen :wave:
You might try downloading to try out Knoppix v6 also to see the v6 vs v5.1 differences. I know you once posted of how painful it was to mount a drive under Knoppix HOWEVER you were using Knoppix v5.1 at the time. You'll find Knopix 6.0 doesn't require the long list of all those linux mount commands.

If one runs chkdsk to cleanup the filesystem (when needed) most computers running Knoppix v6 will simply mount the drive all on its own :)

@Archaen
Ooops! My apologies! I just looked back at an old thread and realized i confused the author of the Knoppix v5.1 comments. It wasn't you:blush:
 
@LookingAround
No worries, but I have will have a look nonetheless ;) thankyou. Also I am unsure this user can try this; i wonder if there is some bootable ISO available with testdisk or similar software; I know there is UBCD; but Its not that easy to guide someone about its usage. I heard UBCD 5 (beta) is available but haven't had time to look at it so far.

@prrivera
Have a look at this; if you have DVD/CD Writer, you can download iso image boot from it and try to fix your hard disk drive.

I hope this will help in some way.
 
Archean said:
@LookingAround
No worries, but I have will have a look nonetheless ;) thankyou. Also I am unsure this user can try this; i wonder if there is some bootable ISO available with testdisk or similar software; I know there is UBCD; but Its not that easy to guide someone about its usage. I heard UBCD 5 (beta) is available but haven't had time to look at it so far.

@prrivera
Have a look at this; if you have DVD/CD Writer, you can download iso image boot from it and try to fix your hard disk drive.

I hope this will help in some way.
Click to expand...

i'm running the partition recovery tool. is that what i should be running?
 
Before we go further, please do remember that recovering partition/hdd is not that an easy task; so proceed with caution, and hopefully we'll get something out of this.

here are the steps:

1. Selection Partition Recovery as you rightfully understood already.
2. Select the disk you would like to operate.
3. Set the scanning scope of the disk, Partition Wizard can search the lost partition in the defined scope.
4. Set the scanning method : quick scan or full scan (Full scan, Partition Wizard will give a scanning of all sectors in the chosen area).
5. After the scanning, select the partitions you need from the list. Here, you should not only select the lost partition(s) but also the complete present partitions, and then click the button Finish. Partition Wizard will rebuild partition table for the chosen partitions
 
Archean said:
@LookingAround
No worries, but I have will have a look nonetheless ;) thankyou. Also I am unsure this user can try this
Click to expand...
I think Knoppix would be the simplest and safest way to try and recover the user data on their C drive (i.e. partition). I'm guessing
> All their personal file/foders are on C:
> Their G: partition is probably a recovery partition installed by the system vendor
> The first unassigned FAT partition is probably also installed by the system vendor
So is a question of what (if anything) is on the D partition but am of the opinion is best to recover everything from C: first using knoppix as is often and typically pretty straight forward

I'm guessing it's the Windows installation (and boot data) on C: that's bad. So if they
> Run chkdsk /r on the C: drive to fix any filesystem issues
> Then simply burn and boot into Knoppix they can then explore the C drive, see their data and copy it to a USB external drive

See [post=766270]How to recover your folders/files when Windows won’t boot[/post]
 
@LA
Thats an excellent guide about Knopix LA. I guess prrivera07 probably has download the PW ISO from the link I gave him, however, there can be no harm whatsoever, if he choose to go the route you are advising; main objective here is get his HD accessible again so atleast he can recover his data IMHO. Regards
 
LookinAround said:
I'm guessing it's the Windows installation (and boot data) on C: that's bad. So if they
> Run chkdsk /r on the C: drive to fix any filesystem issues
> Then simply burn and boot into Knoppix they can then explore the C drive, see their data and copy it to a USB external drive

See [post=766270]How to recover your folders/files when Windows won’t boot[/post]
Click to expand...

i'm gonna try using knoppix.
so what you're saying is if i burn a bootable knoppix cd i should be able to explore my c: drive and copy its contents to another drive?
because i have a 160gb wd ext hd.

assuming this is true, once i get my files off my hd, i can do a clean install of windows?
 
Follow the steps he has provided in the guide (linked given in the above post #41 by LA). If that works out perfectly, the answer is yes to both of your questions.
 
i've tried running chkdsk /r several times and it fails everytime.
i have 2 windows recovery disks. one that came with a different xp computer and the one i downloaded and burned.

one says it failed and the other says the drive encountered one or more unrecoverable errors.

is chkdsk /r required before running knoppix?
 
I'm not sure if your hard drive will automatically mount in this case but it won't hurt to simply boot from the Knoppix CD to find out
 
Arghh... Might indicate Knoppix is having a problem configuring itself for your hardware. There another two boot CD options you could try that may also allow you to browse your files and copy/paste to USB

> There's a newer Knoppix v6.2 release (i hadn't updated my guide yet) which might help (i've seen at least one case where v6.2 worked better w/the hardware). Go back to the knoppix download site and try downloading/burning KNOPPIX_V6.2CD-2009-11-15-EN.iso (By the way, you do not want the knoppix version with Adriane in the filename)

> You can also try Ubuntu Live CD. Once started, on Ubuntu menu, click Places->Home Folder to browse your folders

In either case, be patient as i've seen the load process take several minutes to sometimes seem to make progress between startup screens while loading from CD.

If these methods still fail, many people have posted good results using TestDisk or with other methods (as also among Archaen's earlier recommendations) for data recovery.

In any case, hope you have some success with the Knoppix/Ubuntu route. Let us know
 
i've run the ubuntu live cd, and a black screen with a white ring in the middle comes up, i figured i'd just give it time to see what happens and 30 minutes later its still on that screen!
 
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