Posted by o44wen
Hi, Please some help me out. I went to switch on my computer tonight and it has frozen on the Windows XP start up screen. I have tried starting from safe mode and from last configuration but both a failure, it just reboots. :-( Its really worrying me because i have many photos and tunes and files that are important and i have not yet backed them up. Please i need URGENT help. It is a 4 month old Mesh computer, i have a Recovery CD but i dont want to use it incase i loose all my files. AHHHHH. Please help
Posted by dude_se
try going into the bios and make sure the first boot device is the cdrom drive. then re install xp by putting in the cd. i am no expert and dont know the exact problem but thats what i would do. something has failed during startup imo
dude_se
Posted by o44wen
Thanks for that. If i boot from the recovery CD it asks to set up Windows on the selected item. Will this delete my personal files on my computer? In my computer manual it says to back up, but i cant back up! Will i loose my information if i reinstall?
Posted by dude_se
if you reinstall xp it should be fine. only if you do a clean install it will erase everything. if its the same os then it should reinstall without deleting everything. im QUITE sure on this (99%)
dude_se
Posted by Gigs
back the boat up.. is it an XP cd or a RECOVERY CD.
You'd best check the documentation with your recovery cd's if its not a straight windows CD, most of them will wipe your files, games, everything and setup your desktop/laptop the same way it was on the day you took it out of the box.
If you have a mate with an XP cd handy, you could borrow it (make sure it is the same version ie home cd for home, pro cd for pro) and then just refresh the system files by doing a repair. (You will need to know your windows key for this)
Doing a repair will keep your files how they are but refresh all the system files incase one has corrupted.
Posted by o44wen
Its a Mesh Recovery CD. Not an original Windows CD. I do not know anyone with an original CD. Will probably take it to the local shop to see if they can help out. Dont really want to send it back to Mesh. Dam this, it worked good last night.
Posted by nickorooster
@dude_se
Not really true, you have to select "repair installation" otherwise it'll ask you to format or quickformat the partition that all his tunes are on...
Nick
Posted by dude_se
if you had a boot disk that would be good. try pressing f8 as soon as you switch it on and keep pressing it and whilst its booting up it may let you go into safe mode before crashing. should work.
dude_se
Posted by dude_se
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yeah true. i knew that but i cant be bothered to explain in detail. i recently re installed my xp. i formatted though because of big problems
dude_se
Posted by blayv
I reinstalled windows on 1 pc last week, but by mistake chose install without format and documents were there. You can also set up another windows on different partition (d: or such) if you have one. You'll also be able to choose whether you want to delete data on that partition or not. After you back up the data, do a clean install.
Posted by amnesia
try this.
If it's a laptop, take the battery out and leave it for a day.
If it's a pc, take out the mains and leave it for a day.
Then try to switch it on.
Posted by blayv
Yes, that can help also. Although I don't know how (i've seen it working). Last solution would be to take hdd out, put it in someone's else pc and back up the data.
[ This Message was edited by: blayv on 2005-06-01 18:02 ]
Posted by Cycovision
AAAAARRRRGHHHH! Don't stick your recovery CD in!!!!! You'll lose everything unless it has a non destructive repair option. Even if it has, I'd still be cautious if you've got stuff on there that you REALLY don't want to lose.
As the previous poster suggested, the first thing you need to do is either remove the Hard Drive and install it as a slave drive in a different PC so that you can access the files or, as you suggested, take it to a local computer repair shop. They'll hook the drive up to an external hard drive caddy and put everything onto CD / DVD for you, and it shouldn't cost lot (we charge £20 - £30 depending on the amount of data).
Then you can use your restore disk to do a full reinstall, which is always best in these cases anyway. Don't send it back to mesh, they'll lose all of your data!
I don't think removing the CMOS battery or leaving the power off for a while will help in this case, it sounds like an OS fault rather than a BIOS fault to me.
Posted by o44wen
thanks very much for the above replies. I think i will go to a local repair shop 2moro. Hopefully they will be able to save everything,
Next on my shopping list is a new seperate hard drive so i can store my documents on it and just my OS on the other.