Emergency

hamsterboy

Does anyone have any ideas as to what's going on with my laptop. Over the weekend it decided to go nuts and now it won't boot up. It gives you the Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe mode with Command Prompt, Last known good configuration.... etc but whren you choose one and hit enter, it starts to do what you asked it and then it just restarts and brings you back to the Safe Mode screen. Please help me as my girlfriends masters thesis is on the machine and we're kinda freakin out!

aidan_walsh

Was anything new installed on it lately? What OS?

Steveo1983

Boot up your xp cd and perform a repair installation. It will reinstall windows without delting already existing files.

hamsterboy

Cheers for the replies guys. Haven't installed anything on it recently and I haven't got broadband in the house yet so she's not connected to anything. I didn't get an XP disk so can't do a restore. BTW the os is XP Home edition.

TempestSabre

If it were me I'd take the drive out and put it in a external caddly and get the data off it first. I don't trust that XP repair, I thought it deletes the "my documents" unless you are careful. Has the thesis been sent to any tutors for review etc. They may still have a copy.

Tom Dunne

I think the priority right now should be getting the thesis off the hard drive. So, as I see it you have a few options. The first is what Steveo1983 said - it's completely safe and won't delete any documents/pictures/whatever.

The other option is more techie but should enable you to rescue the files - Linux. Do you know much about Linux? If so, get hold of a Linux bootable CD (from the interweb of from a magazine cover disk). Boot into Linux (without installing, of course) and you can then copy the files onto a memory stick or burn them onto a CD.

Another option I've just thought of is physically removing the hard drive and putting it into a case, with a USB connector and connecting it to another PC. Not the most straight forward, but it can be done.

aidan_walsh

After this, buy the girlfriend a pen drive, and encourage regular backups.

Is the laptop a Dell? They have a hidden partition that you can get at before Windows loads, which should repair\reinstall Windows for you.
Dell Document: How Do I Use the Dell™ PC Restore by Symantec Utility?

You will need to try to back up all the data on the HDD first though, as this process will restore the computer to the factory defaults, destroying everything else.

The other option is more techie but should enable you to rescue the files - Linux. Do you know much about Linux? If so, get hold of a Linux bootable CD (from the interweb of from a magazine cover disk). Boot into Linux (without installing, of course) and you can then copy the files onto a memory stick or burn them onto a CD.

Since you don't have a copy of an XP CD, this is probably the best bet for you to get the files off the HDD.

hamsterboy

Well the good news is that it turns out that I had the xp repair disk all along. I'm running a chkdsk at the mo and will let you guys know what happens. Some of the applications on the disk wouldn't run so I'm not out of the woods yet. Thanks you guys, will keep this thread updated as soon as the chkdsk finishes!
p.s. Its a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo L. Bout 5 years old

hamsterboy

Well if you guys felt a sudden breeze it probably was the enormous sigh of relief I just let out of me. Laptop working and super-duper backup now in progress. Just wanna say thanks to everyone who pitched in with advice. I'm sending you all good vibes for the rest of the day.
Thanks Again