I rebuke the "computer" demons in Jesus name!
 

Folks, my XP Home desktop computer is stuck at the startup screen. I don't do hardware so I dont know if my system operating system is corrupted, my processer board or hard-drive failed, etc.

I cannot lose the contents of this hard-drive. I have all my Sunday morning series, Bible study notes and worksheets, sermons and extended studies (both personal and other resources), over 100+ sermon mp3's (old and new alike).

I have backed up many of my personal files onto CD previously but it would still result in years worth of resources lost....

I've never prayed over a computer before, but I need God to grant one of three people the knowledge of how to fix this computer: my BIL, my uncle, or a good friend from WI (all of which are computer techs).

I dont care about the remaining hardware, as long as the harddrive can be salvaged. I am willing to turn around and buy a new computer tomorrow, if need be.

I rebuke the "computer" demons in Jesus name!!!!

That's it! You tell em Brother! I know how you feel, I reformat my computer every once in awhile, but I have everything backed up to CD, DVD or an 80 gig USB external hard drive I got at Wal Mart for 90 bucks.

Can you take it to a computer place that fixes computers? They can usually salvage what is on your hard drive...though sometimes things are lost!

I always stress to people HOW IMPORTANT backing up really is! This is exactly why! If you can, get you a usb external hard drive later on so that if something like this happens again, you will be ready.And then back up your important info every day! It will save you a lot of headaches in the future, trust me.

What's a backup?

Hold the start button (where you turn the computer on) down until it shuts off...

then wait a couple of seconds and turn back on..

ummmm.....NO...that is called a REBOOT!

A backup.... is where you put all of your files like pictures, music and other important documents onto a CD,DVD or an external usb hard drive....so that the information you need is "saved"if your main hard drive quits on you like in this case.

There are also programs you can get that will make a backup of your info with just a click of the mouse and then you can burn it to a CD or DVD or put it on an external hard drive you have.

For the original poster....you can use one of these FREE utilities to see if you can recover the stuff from your hard drive
http://www.sofotex.com/download/PC_U...Data_Recovery/

They also have a section of free backup software to backup your stuff.
http://www.sofotex.com/download/PC_Utilities/Back_Up/

I recently had pop ups and went to micro-soft updates and downloaded security updates for spy and adware.

its just stuck at the black startup screen, and in safe mode or normal mode.... loads up to XP welcome screen with blue loading bar... beeps then goes back to the black startup screen.... loading in safe mode shows a screen full of files from the Windows/win32/driver directory.... dont know what that means, but.... its still broken....

Call the Dr...

You may want to take it somewhere and see if you can get your files extracted...

He cannot get to the BIOS check screens.

Maybe he has a new paperweight....:sad

I can get to the BIOS screen by pressing F8 while blue bar is loading; I just chose not to fool around with things I don't know alot about.

Before you spend too much money, unhook any extra peripherials (printers, scanners, mice, joysticks)... I have seen the same problem when someone gets a new wireless mouse or keyboard and it works fine until they reboot... unplug everything but your keyboard (and go back to your old keyboard if you recently got a new one)... just to see if it will boot. At this point it can't really hurt anything and it wouldn't hurt to rule those things out.

I only have a laser printer, and wireless keyboard and mouse.... all of which have been used without problems for over 6+ months.... regardless, I will try it....

From Yahoo Answers:

Wouldn't a re-install of the operating system wipe my harddrive???

Several other articles that may, or may not, apply:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-6031733.html
http://kadaitcha.cx/cannot_start_xp.html
http://www.5starsupport.com/info/xpinfo.htm

When you reinstall, you can do a repair (I don't like but it works in a pinch), a dual install (install Windows into a separate directory so that you can repair the original install) or a complete install which would go all the way back to deleting the existing partitions, creating a new partition and formatting it.

Also, some manufacturers have "Restore" CD's... the restore CD WILL wipe out everything on your hard drive so be careful with that.

I doubt that your data is lost given the symptoms although I could not guarantee this. You could even take your hard drive out and put it in another computer and get the data off that way but if you don't know how to do this yourself, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have help.

I think based on my experiences last night, the backup copy is corrupt....

I have reason to believe these are the safest options:

a) Remove the hard-drive, add it to another functional unit and transfer all the data to external portable hard-drive. Once data is secured, then do a complete re-install of operating system on problem computer.

b) Create Windows startup disk, use disk at startup effectively bypassing the "broken" startup files. Once into computer, manually move important data to external portable hard-drive. http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-6031733.html... (Option #1)

Does this second option risk any further problems or loss of data??? I can't risk the loss of any data.

What is my safest option? I am under no time-contraints to do either option. Either action would be performed by knowledgable computer techie. Any additional comments or things to be aware of?

Mal, if you can get a Linux Live Disk to load, you may be able to view what is on the drive and then even move them. This would be very difficult, but COULD be done.

It takes about 4 Gig to load up a Linux Distro-bution. Knoppix has great disk utilities. Also some Tech Boards may help.

Like MajorGeeks.com

While in BIOS, I used "Disable automatic restart on system failure" to confirm the below error as the cause....

Any ideas what this means???

A similiar user had same error:
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question...3214105AAWbpNj

Some of their replies:

Here are more details to my on-going adventure....

Another resource I found: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

I'm still waiting on more information from my techie....

Good luck. I hate computer problems. I have meant for ages to get one of those external hard drives with that "one button backup" feature so every night I could just hit that button and know that a backup copy of everything was being made.

My new laptop computer reminds me every week or so to make a backup and since it has a DVD burner right now everything will backup on one DVD so it is not hard to do.

Well mabye this will help him make backups AFTER he gets his computer fixed. Can't hurt!

I aske again- what is a backup?

Was that when I had to reinstall in partition #4 or partition #6 ? (they are both still on the drive!)

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A Macbook
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Believe it or not, I have a DLT drive in my house... I stopped using it though once I got a DVD burner.

I think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now....

I'm trying to find a local store that has this USB to SATA cable, otherwise I should be able to wrap this whole mess up by early next week sometime....

I would "repair" it with a Linux install!

:boomm

are you wearing a red hat by chance??? :lol

No, I do not have Fedora Core. I did many years ago. I need to find if my son in law still has that laptop. Debian moved on another track from RH and now even has other forks.

Something to suit everyone!

The French version of FC is called Mandriva

Help!! We need a translator in this thread!


:D

If you can boot up to the DOS command prompt, type fixboot and press enter. This should scan the disk and repair the directory tree for the MBR.

this week is the "rubber meets the road" week when I find out if any of my files are salavagable and whether I need to buy a new computer....

Good Luck!

Thanks... although I almost went into an arrhythmia when I saw the bright red 90000 point font!

all my data has been tranferred to safety and secured.... and my original Windows environment restored....

Congrats! At least for the next 6 months when Windows crashes on you again...

I crashed the 'nix box once. It CAN be done IF you WORK hard at it.

Never had one go down completely. Apps have froze, but the OS stayed full up and functional.