OS system restore problem

[olefarte]

I'm not in front of this computer, but I thought maybe someone could help. It's my son's computer and he did a non destructive system restore. It seemed to complete the operation and when he gets a screen that says "finish", it hangs there with the hourglass symbol, done this three times now, same result. I'm afraid the only option left for him is a full system restore, does anybody know what the problem could be. If he does a full restore, he'll lose a 60 gigs of info. He cannot access safe mode.
Edit; Before the "finish" button it does a sound test, he hears no sound, then the "finish" button.
Edit 2; If all else fails, can he take the hard drive out of this system, put it in another as a slave unit, copy files to the other hard drive, and then replace and reformat?

His system,

HP 7965
P4, 1.7
512 PC 133
Audigy gamer (after market install, replaced on board sound)
GeForce 4, Ti 4600 (after market install, replaced TNT 2)
XP, restore option on seperate partion, no disc.
Bios at default

 

[iss]

What was the problem that prompted the attempt to do a system restore in the first place?

there are two methods that can be used to try and retain the data. one is to try and use the Repair XP console by booting off the XP disk and choosing the Repair XP option. this however requires the recovery console to allready be installed.


the other is to do a reinstall of XP on top of the existing instalation.

here is an article on the second method.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[acidosmosis]

Olefarte, instead of doing a format at all I would just remove all files possible under the Windows directory, then just re-install Windows. You can just drop into dosprompt from Windows, delete all the files that you can get access to for deletion, reboot and then boot to the Windows CD and re-install. I've done it this way many times because I had no way to backup data.

 

[olefarte]

iss, I think he said the reason for the reinstall was he thought Windows was corrupted. He couldn't access control panel, and the recycle bin and I think some other things. I used to have that computer and I had done that type of reinstall a couple of times with no problems.

He doesn't have a Windows cd, because the computer didn't come with one, it's on a seperate partition. The only two options he has are the non destruct recovery, which doesn't work or total system restore. I think the only thing he can access is the recovery options and the bios.

He's going to get a Windows cd and try some of the things you guys mentioned. Thanks.

 

[poertner_1274]

If he wanted to take the HD out and put it in as a slave that shouldn't be a problem. He can get all his data that he needs. Then do a full system restore if possible still.

 

[olefarte]

Poert, that's what he did. I don't know if he got all the files transferred last night, but he was working on it. He's planning on a doing full restore today.

 

[poertner_1274]

Good, I wanna hear how it went. I hope all goes well.

 

[olefarte]

Okay, the new full restore from the partition went okay and everthing is back to normal. All he's got left to do is transfer the data on the other hard drive back to his computer. After a little research, I think I found why the non destruct restore didn't work. He had SP1 installed, but there is a patch from HP that you need to do a non destuct, if you don't have it, big problems. So, I guess maybe thats what the original problem was. Thanks for the help, guys.

 

[enduser]

I don't use System Restore. It's the first thing I turn off. Norton Ghost is a better way to make a backup of the os and/or the hard drive with data.

 

[olefarte]

enduser, I think we are talking about two different things. I guess "reformat" is what I should have used to describe the problem.

 

[poertner_1274]

Do you happen to have a link to that HP patch olefarte? That might help others if you came across it and posted it here.

 

[olefarte]

Here it is, I don't know if this all HP's, but there's a search at the top of the page and the specific computer can be entered. I typed, "non destructive recovery". This is to correct an error for this problem if you have SP 1 installed.

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/softwa...137-1&sw_lang=en&prodId=hppavilion62758&cc=us

 

[poertner_1274]

Awesome, hopefully someone else can find this helpful.