Computer DEAD - any advice appreciated - HEEEEELLLLPPP!!!

[Timber Loftis]

Windows XP operating system.

I was working at home this morning (WordPerfect) and my computer froze. Well, I started copying the text on-screen onto a piece of paper in preparation to reboot. Before I could finish, after about 3 min., the computer un-froze, so I began my work again (beginning with a save).

Then, a few minutes later I get a blue screen with white text. It says the computer has found an error in a program and will shut down. It tells me if I have not had this problem before, re-start my machine. I took note of the fact that the main word in the program's title was "KERNEL."

I robooted and all I get is a screen which says "operating system not found."

Help please? Any advice. I'm really concerned. I have absolutely EVERYTHING on my computer.

[andrewas]

Sounds like your HDD is dead or dying. Trying to repair it is risky, if its on the way out it could die completely, taking your documents with it. You could try to re-install windows on it, but if it is dying, you could end up losing everything. If you havent already.

Safest thing to do would be to transfer it to another NTFS capable machine and copy your documents over. Under windows XP, the folders you want are probably under c:\documents and settings, unless you saved them somewhere else.

Then you can put the HDD back into your own machine and try and re-install windows. I dont think it will work though, this looks very like a dead HDD to me.

In that case you'll have to RMA the drive and get a replacement.

[Timber Loftis]

Tricky - I have a laptop.

How can I get it to see itself long enough to copy onto an external drive? Right now it can't find the OS. My external drive is USB so I need a USB port to be working to salvage my documents.

I have my frikkin' taxes tied up on this thing.

[ 04-07-2003, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[harleyquinn]

TL,
Do you have the XP cd? You may be able to do a boot from the CD instead of the hard drive.
It's worked for me in the past.

[andrewas]

Laptop. Bugger. Short of some impressive soldering, or hunting down a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE converter, you wont be able to run it in a desktop and a laptop with a second HDD bay is a rare thing indeed.

Go into your BIOS. See if the drives detected in it. If it is, you can boot from the winXP CD and pray. If it isnt, try removing and replacing the drive and try again.

If all that fails, your looking at taking it back to the manufacturer. Tell them you /need/ those documents, but your not likely to get them.

[Timber Loftis]

I have "system recovery" CD's from Sony. Their primary function is to wipe and re-install everything, but they also can boot up. I'm hoping... My wife is at home and going to call Sony and work with a tech person to (a) get critical documents transferred and (b) address the problem.

Of course, if the problem is a busted hard drive, there's little hope.

Hard Drives seem to crap out within 2 years, no matter what I do. Anyone else have this problem?

[andrewas]

Hard drives are susceptibly to vibration while there running, so a laptop hard drive can have a substantialy shorter lifetime than normal. One of the reasons you should never keep anything critical on a laptop. The other reasons being the increased chance of theft, and also laptops are more likely to be dropped or otherwise knackered.

Backups are the key word here.

[Attalus]

*Thinks more kindly of his desk model with the dead CD-ROM*

[Timber Loftis]

Frikkin' Sony bundles the installation software. I have no XP disk which will allow me to boot up for diagnostics purposes. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] Sony's version of tech support is "run the application software." Translation: erase everything and begin again with the computer we gave you. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] My view is that they owe me at least one CD with XP files that can act as a BOOT CD.

Did you hear that: SONY DOES NOT GIVE BOOT CDs!

Be forewarned. Sony tech support sucks. EVERYONE TAKE HEED. I hope I can take some of their business away. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]

This is an attempt to hurt Sony by making statements about its business. Were it not so very true, it would be libel. Luckily TRUTH is an absolute defense to libel.

I see this as an insurmountable hurdle. Any ideas anyone? If anyone would be willing to make me a boot CD would you email me? This would not be illegal or a breach of the License, as I own my own copy of XP. Sony just won't let me have it. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]

[ 04-07-2003, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Arvon]

I have a couple of questions. One did you make a startup disk 3.5 or zip? This MAY help you recover a bit. Second do you have Norton? If you made a rescue disk you can get a start and maybe save your stuff. Sounds like neither is true through.