Windows keeps rebooting

[mpaisley88]

Ok I know there's a few threads about this but I don't know if my situation is different or not. I was on my computer went and started DVD santa (had it for 2 years so that's probably not the problem) left the room came back and a window was on the screen that said IE has encountered a problem with a flash player plug in and needs to restart your computer. My computer locked up and I had to manually cut it off. Now my computer gets to the screen that says "sorry windows didn't start properly" and gives you the option to start in safe mode or last known good config. etc. well none of those work I click on one and it goes to the windows screen for about 2 secs. and restarts. Now i've read that it might be the RAM so I took each stick out (4x512) and put them in one at a time and it didn't change anything. Unplugged the HDD and plugged it back in to no avail. Now i've read online where reinstalling WIN XP might help so I load the cd and it gets to the point where it says "the Disk is unformatted, damaged, or is running a program not supported by XP" (something like that) and asks to format. I'm afraid this will erase everything on my HDD. Will it? Anyone know what I can do about this? Oh and i've let my Comp. cool down so I don't think it's over heating.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Yes, if you format the HDD your data will be gone. Run a repair installation instead. After running the repair installation, be sure to redownload and install Service Pack 2 and other MS updates.

 

[mpaisley88]

I don't really know how to do that. I think I mighta screwed up. I chose to run the reformat and the disk started to spin so I cut off my comp while it was still on 0% but now it's saying my HDD isn't formatted when I try to access it using my other hard drive...probably not a good sign right?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Eh, nope not a good sign at all. It only really takes a few seconds to format the drive, the rest of the time is spent running a chkdsk.

Now, essentially, your data is probably gone. If it's worth it to you, it's possible to recover some if not all of the data via third party software. However, I cannot make a solid recommendation as to what applications you should take a look at, as I haven't really used many of them. I am sure someone else here will, just hang tight and don't do anything with that drive if you're going to go the data recovery route.

 

[mpaisley88]

hey thanks for your help man! Yeah the only thing I really care about is my OBLIVION save haha i've been working on that game for months i'll see what I can come up with thanks man

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Perhaps "ZAR" would be of use.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm