I'm new to this entire message thing, so please humor me. And I apologize ahead of time if this isn't the place for this type of posting:
I have a Gateway desktop, running Windows XP Home Edition, with Panda Antivirus Software (Staples' version of MacAfee). Two days ago, the Panda alert popped up saying my computer was at a low level of security. Upon exiting out of the pop-up window, the computer locked up and had to be rebooted. The Gateway symbol appeared for a brief moment, and then displayed the black screen stating that Windows did not start properly. There were several choices I had to start in--Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/Networking, etc--but regarless of what I selected, the computer would always restart and re-display this same black screen and error message.
I rebooted with the XP disk, and selected the first option--to Setup Windows. This results in an error message that says my C: drive is not partitioned, and needs to be formatted. Furthermore, when I open up the recovery console, and run the DIR command from the C: prompt, I get an error message that states something about not recognizing C: drive on enumeration.
I took some advice and used a Windows 98 boot disk, selecting to start up with CD-ROM support, and get an error message that says the C: drive does not have a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. It, too, offers to format the drive and create the partition.
Now that you have some background into my problems, here are the two questions I have:
1. Can I partition my hard drive without losing any of my files that were saved prior to the computer failing? If so, how do I do that?
2. How do I get my computer to boot up in safe mode so that I can at least save my files to my network drive?
I have been reading over some of the other posts, and feel very confident that there is someone out there that could help me resolve this issue with minimal loss of files.
Thank-you ahead of time to anyone that can help out!
Sincerely,
Loren
I have a Gateway desktop, running Windows XP Home Edition, with Panda Antivirus Software (Staples' version of MacAfee). Two days ago, the Panda alert popped up saying my computer was at a low level of security. Upon exiting out of the pop-up window, the computer locked up and had to be rebooted. The Gateway symbol appeared for a brief moment, and then displayed the black screen stating that Windows did not start properly. There were several choices I had to start in--Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/Networking, etc--but regarless of what I selected, the computer would always restart and re-display this same black screen and error message.
I rebooted with the XP disk, and selected the first option--to Setup Windows. This results in an error message that says my C: drive is not partitioned, and needs to be formatted. Furthermore, when I open up the recovery console, and run the DIR command from the C: prompt, I get an error message that states something about not recognizing C: drive on enumeration.
I took some advice and used a Windows 98 boot disk, selecting to start up with CD-ROM support, and get an error message that says the C: drive does not have a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. It, too, offers to format the drive and create the partition.
Now that you have some background into my problems, here are the two questions I have:
1. Can I partition my hard drive without losing any of my files that were saved prior to the computer failing? If so, how do I do that?
2. How do I get my computer to boot up in safe mode so that I can at least save my files to my network drive?
I have been reading over some of the other posts, and feel very confident that there is someone out there that could help me resolve this issue with minimal loss of files.
Thank-you ahead of time to anyone that can help out!
Sincerely,
Loren
