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The other day, Bev's computer stopped booting up. It would get through the bios and then where it should boot up from the hard drive it just stopped. Nothing.
I figured there was probably something wrong with the boot sector, so I booted up from the Windows XP installation CD and told it to repair the Windows installation.
It did a lot of copying onto the hard drive and then rebooted. to finish the installation/repair. No luck. It got stuck at the same place.
posted
I've seen this happen with a low cmos battery. You might want to make sure that you have the right hard drive selected in the bios.
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posted
I can't remember the last time I've done it on a hard drive that wouldn't boot. Had to have done it through a bootable CD/floppy with DOS on it or some such thing and ran it through there.
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I've had a lot of problems with booting recently, and it's been what I think is a virus. Did her computer crash before it refused to restart properly or did it just refuse to start one morning?
If nothing works, do a complete reinstall of Windows (NOT a format reinstall but just a reinstall. When the computer starts up with the CD in the drive, chose to reinstall or install, not to go to the repair module and then pick the one that doesn't format your computer). It's a bit of a pain but it works and you retain your existing files, if you have to reinstall certain applications.
If you think it might be a virus (if your computer went crazy/crashed before it broke), then back up everything on the computer you can't reload (i.e. avoid saving the virus) and do a second reinstallation, this time including a format of the drive.
That's the stage I'm at now .
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quote:Originally posted by quidscribis: I can't remember the last time I've done it on a hard drive that wouldn't boot. Had to have done it through a bootable CD/floppy with DOS on it or some such thing and ran it through there.
No need for a floppy. The windows install CD is bootable. Just run it, let the setup start and, when it gives you the option, hit R to bring up the Repair Console (read: DOS Prompt).
Then run chkdsk /r to repair any bad sectors.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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Oh, also, there are a few commands that can try to fix the boot that you can access through the repair module that are manual. I can't remember what they are though- if your computer is giving you a specific error (and not just stopping randomly), look up that error on the internet.
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I think all of the advice is spot on. If nothing works, and it should, then you could always first check your cables to the hard drives. Does CMOS recognize your Hard Drives? Does your POST see the hard drives during the boot process?
If it is not the cables, then you can always make Bart's Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows. It has all sorts of tools you can run to fix and/or recover hard drives. You can also update it's anti-virus definition files during the configuration of the boot disk, it is uber easy, and then you can run the disk's anti virus programs.
I highly recommend having one of these disks always handy. You only need an internet connection, the program to make the disk, and a Windows XP disk with at least Service Pack 2. If your XP disk (I use pro) only has SP1, you can slipstream it.
Once the program makes the ISO, I use IMGBURN to make the bootable CD.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
The computer is able to see the hard drive just fine, as it was able to copy all those windows installation files onto it, so it's probably not the cables, but I'll check that if nothing else works.
It is set to boot from the (only) hard drive.
I would not be surprised if the cmos battery is low. The computer's about 6 years old. Unfortunately, the bios doesn't tell me whether the battery is low or not.
I am not able to run chkdsk from the windows CD because apparently there's an Administrator password on the system, different from the main account password, which I do not know.
I was able to pull the HD out and hook it up to my computer with an USB external hard drive enclosure. Chkdsk is running right now and taking a long time.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote: I would not be surprised if the cmos battery is low. The computer's about 6 years old. Unfortunately, the bios doesn't tell me whether the battery is low or not.
I thought the the cmos battery was only used for keeping track of time on slightly older to new computers.
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If you create the Ultimate Boot CD that I linked to (it is also the same tool that IanO linked to), you will see a whole slew of tools including password cracking tools. If those don't work or you need to pay to activate a license, you can always make an Ophcrack disk. My ophcrack cd has helped me many a times recover teacher's passwords when they forgot it and the computer stopped connecting to the network. Particularly when I did our conversion.
EDIT:
quote: Though now that i think about it, I don't know if you need your BIOS password for it.
You can reset your BIOS password by taking out the battery for a minute and replacing it. The administrative password needs a cracking tool like Ophcrack. The BartsPE, also known as Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, also has a tool to create a new user with administrative rights or to convert a limited user to an administrative account.
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posted
I've had a lot of trouble fixing hosed MBRs with the XP disk. Anyone else have that problem or is it just me?
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quote: I've had a lot of trouble fixing hosed MBRs with the XP disk. Anyone else have that problem or is it just me?
I have only done it once. I used the recovery console and it worked just fine. I think I installed the recovery console before I had the problem...thank goodness.
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I don't have problems with the BIOS password -- I have problems with the windows Administrator password, which is a surprise, because I didn't know there was even an account named Administrator on the system.
I cannot boot into safe mode -- as soon as it's supposed to start booting from the hard drive, the computer just freezes. Nothing.
I ran chkdsk /r.
I'll plug it back into my comptuter and try all of those other disk tools to see if I can get anything to work.
If that doesn't work, I'll try the book disk you've been talking about.
If that doesn't work, I'll try sticking in a different hard drive and see if I can install windows on it.
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quote: I have only done it once. I used the recovery console and it worked just fine. I think I installed the recovery console before I had the problem...thank goodness
I've had to do it several times because of screwing with Linux and GRUB. Maybe it's something particular to GRUB.
As to MPH's problem, when I had this problem with my hard drive, the BIOS refused to detect the proper hard drive. That is, it would detect a hard drive, just not the right one. So, every couple days, I would have to go into the BIOS and reset the hard drive back to the proper hard drive.
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I don't think that's my problem -- there's only one hard drive on the system, and it seems to be detecting it just fine.
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: I don't have problems with the BIOS password -- I have problems with the windows Administrator password, which is a surprise, because I didn't know there was even an account named Administrator on the system.
I cannot boot into safe mode -- as soon as it's supposed to start booting from the hard drive, the computer just freezes. Nothing.
I ran chkdsk /r.
I'll plug it back into my comptuter and try all of those other disk tools to see if I can get anything to work.
If that doesn't work, I'll try the book disk you've been talking about.
If that doesn't work, I'll try sticking in a different hard drive and see if I can install windows on it.
Hate to tell you this. I've got a computer with the exact same problem sitting right behind me. The only solution we've come up with thus far is to pull all the data off the hard drive and format it. This is after 5 hours + of tech time using knoppix and a live windows boot CD with masses of diagnostic tools in it. The only thing I can think of that causes it is an intense virus or some catastrophic file system bug. Even resetting the administrator password does nothing to get into the recovery console, as it seems the administrator account is completely locked out. All your data is perfectly recoverable, but you'll need to pull the data off of the hard drive in a second computer.
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You can overwrite the administrator account password with a lot of tools available online. I would link to them, but there ain't no way I'm going to do a google search for that at work.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: You can overwrite the administrator account password with a lot of tools available online. I would link to them, but there ain't no way I'm going to do a google search for that at work.
If he has the same problem as this computer here (Which it sounds like) using those tools won't do anything (I tried...5 times).
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posted
The probability of him having the exact same problem does not give significant enough odds for me to agree with you assertion.
Instead of guessing about what the final problem is, I'd much rather him try various troubleshooting techniques to eliminate simple variables.
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: The probability of him having the exact same problem does not give significant enough odds for me to agree with you assertion.
Instead of guessing about what the final problem is, I'd much rather him try various troubleshooting techniques to eliminate simple variables.
I'd rather let him know his problem may well be unfixable than force him to run through hoops for the better part of a day. And since both the primary problem (boot hang) and secondary problem (repair console asking for an administrator password when none has been set) and the normal hanging boot fix (running chkdsk) results are exactly the same, the probability that he does have the same problem is a lot higher.
edit: Just so you know, this is the first time in about 2 years I've recommended a format, so it's not like I'm doing the newbie technician cop out here.
But if you really like hoops, here's pretty much all of em... YAY! HOOPS!
[ January 25, 2007, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: Boris ]
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posted
Acronis TrueImage lets you do a free 30-day trial, which is plenty long enough to clone a hard drive.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Well, I know it wasn't the motherboard or batter, because I was able to install windows just fine on another hard drive.
I downloaded the program to create the windows bootdisk, and I'll create the bootdisk today. Even if it doesn't help, that will be nice to have.
If worse comes to worst, I can just run windows off of the that other hard drive and then use the old hard drive for storage.
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