PC doesn't boot

[ericgomes]

One of my friend's laptop doesn't boot to the desktop... It will POST and all that good stuff, but after the screen is black and a blinking cursor and then the screen just turns black. Her laptop has had so many infections that the wallpaper would change every time she got to her desktop. Any ideas on how I could get it to go further than POST? Thanks in advance.

 

[NoQuarter]

Can you boot off a CD or is it dying before it even gets that far?

 

[ericgomes]

Excuse my ignorance, but she doesn't have her HP restore CD. I have Vista and XP CDs here at work, but she doesn't want to lose her information on her HD. If I put a Win XP SP3 CD into the drive, it's not going to erase her data correct? What should I do from there? Her PC boots like I said. Thanks!

 

[DesiPower]

disable the HDD (through BIOS) try a Knoppix or some other live CD and see how it works - make sure all the hardware are in good shape. later backup the HDD through Linux and then do a fresh install - that's the only way to save it. Repair will be waste of time IMO

 

[MisterDonut]

disable the HDD (through BIOS) try a Knoppix or some other live CD and see how it works - make sure all the hardware are in good shape. later backup the HDD through Linux and then do a fresh install - that's the only way to save it. Repair will be waste of time IMO

Do what he said. I don't see any other easy way to fix it, especially if she wants to keep the information on her HDD. Or, to make it easy, just tell her there's no easier way of saving it.

 

[ericgomes]

Thanks for your input guys. I do have a Knoppix CD so I'm trying that now as we speak.

 

[ericgomes]

It reads:
"Looking for CD in: /dev/hdc"

 

[ericgomes]

I just tried Gentoo as well and the screen has a blinking cursor after the Live OS loaded.

 

[JackMDS]

I do Not know what Laptop it is.
However if a huge expensive HD is not needed.

Get a new HD and a 2.5" enclosure.

Take out the current HD, put the new HD and do a Fresh install.

Put the old HD in the enclosure (prey that the Junk on it is Not spreadable) and take whatever clean data files left on it.

Once done reformat the old HD, make some arrangement to use it as an External backup for the week after when the “Genius” would infect his/her laptop again.

Yeah it will cost few bucks. However, consider it as an investment in education.
With luck, the expense would act as a reminder to the way real life is. ()

 

[ericgomes]

Alright thanks very much.

 

[ericgomes]

If I were to use Vista, do I have the option of doing a system repair that way and keeping all of her files that she had on XP?

 

[NoQuarter]

If I were to use Vista, do I have the option of doing a system repair that way and keeping all of her files that she had on XP?

I don't think Vista will let you system repair an XP install. If the hard drive is working and just corrupt, reinstalling the OS doesn't lose any data it just moves it to a backup folder.


But are you saying it's failing to boot off any of your live cd's too? Can it boot off them with the hard drive removed?


Is there a secret coffee spill in it?

 

[JackMDS]

With XP there is a simple way to do a fresh repair installation on top of the current without losing the Data.

However repair is just a word. It depends what is wrong. In case of "Raging Viruses, Spywares, and other Junk, the repair might Not work.

It will restore the core OS files but if there is additional Junkie files that were deposited by the Internet Infestation, it might re-corrupt the refreshed installation.

In a situation like this Reformat and fresh install is the only safe thing to do.

 

[NoQuarter]

Agreed, just trying to figure out if the HD is dead or something else is going on.. if those live cd's aren't booting..

 

[ericgomes]

Yeah I just put in the Vista CD to try and recover an OS and it doesn't recognize one at all. I can install Vista if I want... But I guess her files are gone? I can't system restore or do a startup repair. Thanks.

 

[NoQuarter]

Yea it won't recover off a Vista CD, and even if you could get into the repair console the install may be too broken to recover without some serious work. Honestly I wouldn't want to recover that install anyway.


As long as Vista can recognize there's a partition on the hard drive when it asks you where to install, I'd install Vista without doing a format, backup her files which should get moved to another folder (something like Windows.old or Documents and Settings\Users.old, don't remember what), then preferably reformat the thing and install Vista again.

 

[ericgomes]

Very nice guys. So you're telling me if I install Vista, there's going to be a backup folder with all of her files from XP? I don't think it recognized any previous OS on the HDD so does that matter?

 

[NoQuarter]

Very nice guys. So you're telling me if I install Vista, there's going to be a backup folder with all of her files from XP? I don't think it recognized any previous OS on the HDD so does that matter?

When you run the repair console it's VERY picky about recognizing an OS. Vista's repair console will only recognize Vista and sometimes not even then. The OS's boot loader and registry both have to be mostly intact for it to consider the OS recognized.


It's different during the install process though. If the hard drive itself is working and the Windows XP install is just messed up, Vista will see the C:\Windows folder, and C:\Documents and Settings, and just move all those files to a backup folder (at worst it will leave them where they are and append .001 to the new folders it creates but it does not delete the old).


You should be able to tell when you start the Vista install process if the data is lost. It will ask you what partition to install to.. if the partition doesn't look right (should be like.. Partition 1 80GB.. 36GB free) then don't continue with the install, and don't let it reformat or anything like that either, because you'll need a better approach to save the data on there.


Btw don't forget you can do what desipower suggested and boot off your linux cd or a portable XP iso, see if the drive is accessible, back up the important data across network or to DVD's, run some disk check utils to make sure the drive is ok, then go do a reformat and OS install. If you can't access the drive from here then you'll need some data recovery tools.

 

[ericgomes]

Thanks this is real important. When Vista was searching for previous OS to *repair*, it says it can't repair OS earlier than Vista, hence why it's not showing any partitions or anything. The only thing I can really do with Vista is install it. I can't run any live CDs on it, I've tried Knoppix and Gentoo. I ran chkdsk in the command prompt and there are no bad sectors.

The installation screen says I can't upgrade and keep her files, so all I can do is install a clean copy of Windows.

Disk 0 Partition 1 60.8 GB total, 7.7 GB free
Disk 0 Unallocated Space 7 MB total, 7 MB free
Disk 0 Partition 2 HP_RECOVERY 12.7 GB total, 960 MB free
Disk 0 Partition 3 1 GB total, 415 MB free

Does this mean the data on her HDD is still there? What should I do? Thanks so much guys, Anandtech community is great.

 

[NoQuarter]

Yea it's a bit misleading but when you do a 'clean' install of Windows it leaves all the files on the drive and just makes new, clean Windows folders (\Windows, \Documents and Settings, \Program Files) and renames the old folders. They'll still be on the drive, just not in any folder Windows actually cares about.

The upgrade install would leave all those files in place instead of moving them, and import registry and settings so everything would still be set up the same as before the reinstall.


So all this is great, but 7GB isn't enough to install Vista so it's going to kick you out or ask you to reformat the drive so this is a dead end anyway.


What you can do is try to boot into the HP_RECOVERY partition.. this is usually something like 'F11' or 'F12' during the bootup screen or something. In the recovery bootup there should be all kinds of tools, hopefuly a backup tool is in there that you can make use of?


If you do poke around in there be careful about the 'restore windows install' or whatever their reinstall option is.. this very likely restores an image of the drive as it was shipped, which means just OS and all data gone.

 

[ericgomes]

Well here's the kicker... I can't even get to BIOS because when I boot up there's files that are missing and corrupt from the Window's folder. I put Win XP SP3 disc in, but I don't even have a valid CD key for it because all of my other ones are blacklisted. So all of her data is on the hard drive? So the only way to really recover her data is to do what JackMDS said...

 

[ericgomes]

And when I do try to it says, "Setup cannoy set the required Windows XP configuration information. This indicates an internal setup error. Contact your system administrator."

 

[NoQuarter]

BIOS entry comes before it tries to boot off the hard drive though.. if you're pounding F2 or Del (or F11 for recovery partition) from right when you power on it should get you in there.

I have, someplace, a Windows XP Portablle USB install.. I've never tried it but it would work perfect for this situation. Still not sure why your linux CD's don't boot though. I've only tried Ubuntu ones but it should boot off the ones you have as easily as it does the Vista cd.