I got home and i logged into my account and the screne went black, my brother was still logged into the family account. then a screen popss up saying windows didnt start succesessful. and then it says if do start in safe mode, safe mode in network, safe mode with promps or commands(cant remember which it said), recent configuartion or normal start up. I chose normal start up and it goes to widows starting up then it goes right back to this screen say to slected on of these options. At this point im alread mad because im already thinking about have to do a factory reset and losing all my stuff :mad: so i turn it off unplugg it wait awhile and turned it on still i get that screen. SO i get out the recovery disk and put it in the cd drive let it load up it just opens back up and says to remove all disk form drives, it wont let me restart now :rolleyes: . any of you computer experts know what i could do to try an fix, becuase i swear its so close to being thrown on the ground and smashed into very tiny bits. Heres an advanced thanks if you do :claplow:

Its a little too in depth to describe to you over the internet how to recover from something like this - what I suggest is either finding a knowledgeable friend to come help you out or taking it in someplace.

Since your harddrive looks to be in tact - getting your files/data off should be no big deal even if you do have to do a re-install of the OS - so relax. Could be something minor simply rolling back to a restore point could fix - could be worse. (Running Windows XP?)

Recovery Console is your friend - as are the numerous NTFS boot disks available for download (google for one).

I had the EXACT same thing happen to me a while ago with my screen saying the same thing that yours did. Anyway, it turned out that I needed to replace my hard drive, which sucked big time. But what I did before that was take my computer into a shop and have someone retrieve as much of my data as possible (most of it was retrievable thankfully). So basically, your hard drive is screwed and you need to replace it.

Good luck! :tu:

~ Shole

Try to use anything else but Microsoft whenever possible, and spare yourself a lot of frustration later.

Its a little too in depth to describe to you over the internet how to recover from something like this - what I suggest is either finding a knowledgeable friend to come help you out or taking it in someplace.

Since your harddrive looks to be in tact - getting your files/data off should be no big deal even if you do have to do a re-install of the OS - so relax. Could be something minor simply rolling back to a restore point could fix - could be worse. (Running Windows XP?)

Recovery Console is your friend - as are the numerous NTFS boot disks available for download (google for one).


hey vatechguy would it be expensive to take it in and have someone get my files/data off. i have tried to do a restore point becuase it has that opition but it just brings be to the same screen.

as for the the NTFS boot disk, well im the biggest computer dummy around, i mean turn a computer on and i get work with the programs ask me how a computer works and you will get a :d_eek: look from me. is this something i can save on my sister computer put it on a disk and take it to my computer or is this something you have to download on hte omputer that is having problems.

and since this is me we are talking about and i have the worst luck i already know where this headed, im probably going to have to get a new tower(are they still called towers or just pc's now) its about 4 or 5 years old now so its probably time for an update. can any monitior and printer hook up to any tower becuase those are still good and i dont want to go buying a whole new computer system.

thnaks again vatechguy

I had the EXACT same thing happen to me a while ago with my screen saying the same thing that yours did. Anyway, it turned out that I needed to replace my hard drive, which sucked big time. But what I did before that was take my computer into a shop and have someone retrieve as much of my data as possible (most of it was retrievable thankfully). So basically, your hard drive is screwed and you need to replace it.

Good luck! :tu:

~ Shole

thanks for the adviice shole

was the hard drive expensive to replace? im i better off just getting a new tower since the one i have is aobut 4 or 5 years old?

Try to use anything else but Microsoft whenever possible, and spare yourself a lot of frustration later.

microsoft is the only think that i have used since ive been using computer, what else is out there, as i said in one of the above post im not that computer smart :o

thanks for the adviice shole

was the hard drive expensive to replace? im i better off just getting a new tower since the one i have is aobut 4 or 5 years old?

Well, the hard drive was considerably expensive, but I had no other choice, as it was for my laptop and that's all I have. Sometimes it's better to replace it instead of "fixing" it because in the long run, the same thing may happen again (I'm speaking from experience!).

Good luck!

hey vatechguy would it be expensive to take it in and have someone get my files/data off.

Depends really. A decent computer shop should be able to connect your harddrive to any other computer (you might be brave enought to try this yourself - it will usually require setting a jumper on that drive to SLAVE) - and burn your my documents off to CDR or DVDR for less than a hundred bucks (and thats really highway robbery as it is)

as for the the NTFS boot disk

Yes - download this and run it on your sisters machine (it requires a writable floppy disk):

http://download2.lsoft.net/NtfsFloppySetup.exe

Then pop that floppy disk into your PC and boot from it.

At the very least you can copy your files off one at at time. :) If you look around they have disks that have both NTFS readers and USB drivers - if you get one of those little 256MB key drives - I've used one of these to copy off users files before doing a rebuild on their computer a few times.

its about 4 or 5 years old now so its probably time for an update. can any monitior and printer hook up to any tower becuase those are still good and i dont want to go buying a whole new computer system.

Unless your hardware has some wacky custom stuff - you should be able to use the monitor, mouse, keyboard and printer no sweat. Printers my not have drivers for the newer OSes - but if you're running XP now - it will run on the new PC if you decide to get one.

I hate telling you to go out and buy a new PC - this could be something as simple as a virus thats wacked out a system file.

It is a really, really bad idea for you to be telling someone this (admittedly) unknowledgeable to be making boot disks and everything else.

Take the computer to Best Buy and let them fix it.

hey everyone thanks for the advice. I dont know whats wrong with it, i keep trying to do a factory restore but even that isnt working. its just my home computer so basicly their are some pics on there that i want but i can always get them again from my cousin. Im just thinking about having to load everything again, mostly my music. so here comes so new help you can help with, any advice for a new tower i should look at? something not to expensive. im going to look ill post some stuff i find to see what you guys think about them.

I'm not entirely sure what your problem is and to even begin to help you out I'd have to get some more details.

I'd suggest posting on www.cybertechhelp.com with your problem. Give them specifics and try to be concise and coherent. It's easier to troubleshoot someone's problem when you can understand them. Make sure to specify what OS you're using. If you can think of anything that happened prior to the issue that may have triggered this, it's good to post that information as well.

They're good folks at CTH. I've helped many people out there and have had a lot of help from the people there.

Good luck!

It is a really, really bad idea for you to be telling someone this (admittedly) unknowledgeable to be making boot disks and everything else.

Take the computer to Best Buy and let them fix it.

Its not like he can make it any worse. ?!?! I already suggested he take it to the shop - read before you post.

If you you've tried the factory restore and it's still tanking - your HDD is toast man.

Check out Dell's website - they're having some sweet deals right now - you can get a half-way decent rig with monitor for under $400.

Its not like he can make it any worse. ?!?! I already suggested he take it to the shop - read before you post.

If you you've tried the factory restore and it's still tanking - your HDD is toast man.

Check out Dell's website - they're having some sweet deals right now - you can get a half-way decent rig with monitor for under $400.

yeah i couldnt do any more damnge to it. so thanks for the suggestions vatechguy

as for dell, i went ahead and bought one tonight, thanks Mason
I happy with my purchase, so i just i have to learn my leason and learn to back up my hd, ill probably be bugging every here how to do that in a couple of months :p

So thanks again everyone!

Freelancer........need some info........What brand of comp is it?....did Windows XP come pre-installed or was it loaded off disc?......Do you run a firewall and antivirus?....Do you run Spybot?....Do you run virus/ad scans on it frequently?.....2 sites you might want to check out if you have access to another comp is "Bleeping Computers.com"" and "Newbie.org". Both these sites have chat rooms for comp probs....some of the members are near Einsteinian at figuring out how to fix things....One program that's a good one is "Hijack This"" as you can display your log sheet to them and they seem to know instantaneously what's wrong.......Going into Safe mode doesn't mean your hard drives blown.....there are a lot of tweaks and adjustments that can be made in this mode......seeing as how your brother was on the comp before you, maybe he accidentally pressed an icon button he shouldn't have in settings........I did this one day while changing my screen background and accidentally dropped the refresh rate down to 65mhz....thought the monitor was blown till I found the re-set file....I would also like to know how much free space was left on your hard drive....did you ever "de-frag" or clear out your redundant "temp" files?....those things take up lots of space needlessly.....

i have a compaq that came with windows ME, then i bought XP. Yeah i have msn and it came with and antivirus and firewall. yeah i do spybot all the time plus virus checks. im not sure what "de-frag" but once a week i would clean all cookies and temp internetr files. as for safe mode when i was running ME by computer would always go to safe mode for some reason or the other, so i knew safe mode meant it wasnt broken but after explaing it to a couple of people about how all the choice on the "choose safe mode..." window that kept poping up, my recovering cd not working and trying the hard drive in another computer(i was proud that i was able to find and remove the hard drive) so i just went with a new computer, i didnt want to take the chance of fixing it and something else breaking down. but thanks for those websites, im going to book mark them for future refences.

(My haven't we gone off topic here... :) )

In Windows XP:
If you open up My Computer -> Right Click on your C: drive and choose "Properties" -> You'll see a tab named TOOLS -> Click this and you'll see a section that says "Defragmentation"

When you click 'Defragment Now' you kick off a product Microsoft licensed (a scaled down verison of) from Executive Software known as Diskkeeper - which goes in and moves all your files around on the drive so they are written as entire pieces rather than little chunks here and there.

Defragmentation is a highly debated topic and honestly I like to think running Diskkeeper regularly makes my PC run better - but even my mental jury is still out on that one.

(After running my PC for like 3 years without it and after the first time of running it I did notice a big improvement - but haven't since.)

Here's their site that has a good description of what fragmentation is and why you should run this every few months:
http://www.executive.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp

Good luck with your new PC.

I will throw out there that if you were seeing the "Start in Safe Mode" options when you booted - your HDD might be having an issue - but it has to be readable at some level - otherwise you would have never seen those screens. Just a thought about your files - if you have any buddies who tinker with PCs - ask them if they can recover anything off of it for you. :)

I don't know why you would have to load recovery discs to make a Restore point......I've never had to do this as in XP there is a Restore mode available...............There is Disc Clean-up too but it is not the same as Defragmentation........I had good results using defrag......be careful with Disc Cleanup!!....you could lose files you need..