If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
XP / Restore question
Two parts :
1 - anyone know what is happening in XP Home when you see "Windows is starting ... " [ JUST before the user logon icons appear ( 2 users - no pwds)], and 2. Restore CD - " Last saved" profile? or just Factory restore ? to fix a windows system file . 1. Neighbor has pc in boot loop - tries - reboots-tries.... I have same model (Presario 5420 ~2001 era) so put his drive in my PC to save his pictures/music etc in case needed to reinstall XP. When I put the drive in my Pc, ( cable select - his was second connection on primary IDE cable) I booted my drive and it announced - "need to scan secondary drive - was shutdown improperly" , so I first said no to see 'how bad is it" and XP saw nothing on the drive ( so serious issue). I rebooted , then chose " YES" to scan his drive and let it scan/fix his drive and I could then see his files when I booted my drive - copied his files to CD in case his disk was dying - all set. Now with his info saved, I rebooted and ON MY PC I have had 2 boot options on MY primary drive, ( I often have several drives in there) so I elected to now boot his ( as secondary drive). His drive booted up - looked good. I bought back to his house ( thinking I was done) and it hangs (his only disk drive). So I brought it home again, and, if I make it the ONLY drive in my PC ( as with his) using primary IDE cable - master connector , it hangs on my PC too - same spot. Not a hardware issue on his PC. So , as second drive : It boots, I see XP Home startup screens, 1 minute later dev mgr scan happens ( little boxes scanning left to right) , hear the beep, then video goes blank ( normal so far), and then an XP logo window appears: and HERE's where it's different - as second drive THAT XP logo screen shortly therafter ( 1 second?) shows "Windows is starting ... " ( in 800x600 font) and a few seconds later I see their 2 profiles ( logon icons). When it's the ONLY drive, I get to ' THAT XP logo screen ' ( in smaller font (1024x768?) ) and that's it. I do NOT get the "Windows is starting .... " info. It doesn't do that last bit. The 2 profiles are on HIS drive so - when it DOES work - it's fetching that logon info from his drive. At startup if I press F8 and choose SAFE MODE I see the SAFE MODE window but then same XP logo window and hangs then too. I tried SAFE MODE with command prompt - same thing. Can someone tell me - that far into boot - what is happening ? What files is it using ? Keep in mind it DID run scandisk and perhaps changed/deleted SOME file. I can't get a log file ( bootlog.txt) to work. It's ALMOST there and I don't know " what's NOT working?". Since I have same PC as he does, I can copy any system file needed - but what ?? I'm debating renaming his system32 folder and copying mine into there to see if that works, but would like to learn hw to troubleshoot it. Since no Safe Mode, I'm assuming some system file damaged. I did boot my drive and rename his pagefile.sys in case it was corrupt. It created another when I booted as only drive - same symptoms. AND when his drive is hanging, I do a hard power-off and XP never notices that I powered it off. I EXPECTED it to announce- shutdown improperly - need to scan disk - it doesn't. Back in as second drive ( with another XP drive as primary) and still works fine. 2. restore ?? With his pictures/music now saved, if I boot his Restore CD and go back to his last save, is there a chance that it will fix this issue ? I'm guessing that since it's a Windows glitch that I'd have to choose " restore to factory". Having seen the menus but never done a restore I'd just like to know what to tell him - other than " to be safe - buy a new disk" and after restore I'll copy XP to the new drive- and we'll put the original away. Thanks |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
XP / Restore question
On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:43:00 -0500, - Bobb - wrote:
Two parts : 1 - anyone know what is happening in XP Home when you see "Windows is starting ... " [ JUST before the user logon icons appear ( 2 users - no pwds)], and 2. Restore CD - " Last saved" profile? or just Factory restore ? to fix a windows system file . 1. Neighbor has pc in boot loop - tries - reboots-tries.... I have same model (Presario 5420 ~2001 era) so put his drive in my PC to save his pictures/music etc in case needed to reinstall XP. When I put the drive in my Pc, ( cable select - his was second connection on primary IDE cable) I booted my drive and it announced - "need to scan secondary drive - was shutdown improperly" , so I first said no to see 'how bad is it" and XP saw nothing on the drive ( so serious issue). I rebooted , then chose " YES" to scan his drive and let it scan/fix his drive and I could then see his files when I booted my drive - copied his files to CD in case his disk was dying - all set. Now with his info saved, I rebooted and ON MY PC I have had 2 boot options on MY primary drive, ( I often have several drives in there) so I elected to now boot his ( as secondary drive). His drive booted up - looked good. I bought back to his house ( thinking I was done) and it hangs (his only disk drive). So I brought it home again, and, if I make it the ONLY drive in my PC ( as with his) using primary IDE cable - master connector , it hangs on my PC too - same spot. Not a hardware issue on his PC. So , as second drive : It boots, I see XP Home startup screens, 1 minute later dev mgr scan happens ( little boxes scanning left to right) , hear the beep, then video goes blank ( normal so far), and then an XP logo window appears: and HERE's where it's different - as second drive THAT XP logo screen shortly therafter ( 1 second?) shows "Windows is starting ... " ( in 800x600 font) and a few seconds later I see their 2 profiles ( logon icons). When it's the ONLY drive, I get to ' THAT XP logo screen ' ( in smaller font (1024x768?) ) and that's it. I do NOT get the "Windows is starting ... " info. It doesn't do that last bit. The 2 profiles are on HIS drive so - when it DOES work - it's fetching that logon info from his drive. At startup if I press F8 and choose SAFE MODE I see the SAFE MODE window but then same XP logo window and hangs then too. I tried SAFE MODE with command prompt - same thing. Can someone tell me - that far into boot - what is happening ? What files is it using ? Keep in mind it DID run scandisk and perhaps changed/deleted SOME file. I can't get a log file ( bootlog.txt) to work. It's ALMOST there and I don't know " what's NOT working?". Since I have same PC as he does, I can copy any system file needed - but what ?? I'm debating renaming his system32 folder and copying mine into there to see if that works, but would like to learn hw to troubleshoot it. Since no Safe Mode, I'm assuming some system file damaged. I did boot my drive and rename his pagefile.sys in case it was corrupt. It created another when I booted as only drive - same symptoms. AND when his drive is hanging, I do a hard power-off and XP never notices that I powered it off. I EXPECTED it to announce- shutdown improperly - need to scan disk - it doesn't. Back in as second drive ( with another XP drive as primary) and still works fine. 2. restore ?? With his pictures/music now saved, if I boot his Restore CD and go back to his last save, is there a chance that it will fix this issue ? I'm guessing that since it's a Windows glitch that I'd have to choose " restore to factory". Having seen the menus but never done a restore I'd just like to know what to tell him - other than " to be safe - buy a new disk" and after restore I'll copy XP to the new drive- and we'll put the original away. Thanks * * * Bobb, I would do a hard drive test, I like the one in speedfan, it provides raw information locally, and then does a comparison test on-line - Use the S.M.A.R.T. tab... ignore the fans speed hot rodding... I also like the idea of participation of adding more Hard Drives performance figures to to his growing database... Bobb, if anything looks a bit odd then I would go get the Hard drive manufactures diagnostic software... Ben, also had a different Hard Drive testing application that read the S.M.A.R.T. info... But that would be my next check, remember drives are reasonablly priced today... JR the postman |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
XP / Restore question
Download HDAT2 and run it. You will find out a lot about the health of your
hard drive. http://www.hdat2.com/ .... Ben Myers On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:12:15 GMT, Postman Delivers wrote: SNIP * * * Bobb, I would do a hard drive test, I like the one in speedfan, it provides raw information locally, and then does a comparison test on-line - Use the S.M.A.R.T. tab... ignore the fans speed hot rodding... I also like the idea of participation of adding more Hard Drives performance figures to to his growing database... Bobb, if anything looks a bit odd then I would go get the Hard drive manufactures diagnostic software... Ben, also had a different Hard Drive testing application that read the S.M.A.R.T. info... But that would be my next check, remember drives are reasonablly priced today... JR the postman |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
XP / Restore question
Thanks guys, but my question isn't hardware/ disk-test related. The price of a new hard drive is immaterial. I'm just trying to see if I can "fix his drive" without wiping/reinstalling XP. And then about Quickrestore CD - if I boot it on his PC ( his restore partition is fine), will I see menu showing his backup points/dates or just "return his pc to factory software " ? Thanks Two parts : 1 - anyone know what is happening in XP Home when you see "Windows is starting ... " [ JUST before the user logon icons appear ( 2 users - no pwds)], and 2. Restore CD - " Last saved" profile? or just Factory restore ? to fix a windows system file . snipped "Ben Myers" wrote in message ... Download HDAT2 and run it. You will find out a lot about the health of your hard drive. http://www.hdat2.com/ ... Ben Myers On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:12:15 GMT, Postman Delivers wrote: SNIP * * * Bobb, I would do a hard drive test, I like the one in speedfan, it provides raw information locally, and then does a comparison test on-line - Use the S.M.A.R.T. tab... ignore the fans speed hot rodding... I also like the idea of participation of adding more Hard Drives performance figures to to his growing database... Bobb, if anything looks a bit odd then I would go get the Hard drive manufactures diagnostic software... Ben, also had a different Hard Drive testing application that read the S.M.A.R.T. info... But that would be my next check, remember drives are reasonablly priced today... JR the postman |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
XP / Restore question
The point of our recommendations to run diagnostics is that if the hard drive is
failing, doing most anything else in software (factory restore, etc) is likely to muck up the drive contents even more. Or, at minimum, you will spin your wheels and waste time trying to fix a hardware problem with software. To state it differently, and to paraphrase Davy Crockett, make sure the hardware is right, then go ahead. Whenever a computer is flaky, if you do not have the assurance that the hardware is in 100% operational condition, then anything else may be futile. I could think up other ways of stating this important point about hardware reliability, but you should get my drift by now. Now run hard drive diagnostics, please, and let us know the results... Ben Myers On Tue, 8 Jan 2008 08:36:26 -0500, "- Bobb -" wrote: Thanks guys, but my question isn't hardware/ disk-test related. The price of a new hard drive is immaterial. I'm just trying to see if I can "fix his drive" without wiping/reinstalling XP. And then about Quickrestore CD - if I boot it on his PC ( his restore partition is fine), will I see menu showing his backup points/dates or just "return his pc to factory software " ? Thanks Two parts : 1 - anyone know what is happening in XP Home when you see "Windows is starting ... " [ JUST before the user logon icons appear ( 2 users - no pwds)], and 2. Restore CD - " Last saved" profile? or just Factory restore ? to fix a windows system file . snipped "Ben Myers" wrote in message .. . Download HDAT2 and run it. You will find out a lot about the health of your hard drive. http://www.hdat2.com/ ... Ben Myers On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:12:15 GMT, Postman Delivers wrote: SNIP * * * Bobb, I would do a hard drive test, I like the one in speedfan, it provides raw information locally, and then does a comparison test on-line - Use the S.M.A.R.T. tab... ignore the fans speed hot rodding... I also like the idea of participation of adding more Hard Drives performance figures to to his growing database... Bobb, if anything looks a bit odd then I would go get the Hard drive manufactures diagnostic software... Ben, also had a different Hard Drive testing application that read the S.M.A.R.T. info... But that would be my next check, remember drives are reasonablly priced today... JR the postman |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Question regarding Restore on notebook | stevem131718 | Gateway Computers | 1 | July 19th 06 04:07 AM |
XPS600 Restore CD question.. | Dusty | Dell Computers | 9 | February 15th 06 12:12 AM |
Acronis Restore Question | maria | Storage (alternative) | 1 | October 19th 05 09:21 PM |
Restore Disk question | JJO | Compaq Computers | 2 | February 24th 05 09:17 PM |
Bios \ Restore CD Question | Chris | Packard Bell Computers | 1 | April 18th 04 05:21 PM |