TSGL: Compaq wont boot

[Ron Grant]

----- Original Message ----- 

Subject: Re: TSGL: Compaq wont boot


>I never received the original message from this post.....!!!!!!

Here is the original post for you, Computer Whisperer:
Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



I could sure use some help!

Working on my wife's Compaq S4100NX desktop.
Running (Actually not running) Win XP sp2.

The machine was shut down after running fine. when trying to reboot it will
show the Compaq flash screen with options of going to the setup bios, or to
do system restore. After that screen the monitor goes blank and nothing else
happens. No activity at all. It does not go to the screen where a last known
configuration is a choice, etc.
I can get to the bios settings.  The system restore that is available will
wipe all files before restoring the system.

Here's what I have tried so far:

I have repeatedly tried to get to Safe mode by using the F8 key at start up.
Never happens.

I opened the case and cleaned inside, and unplugged and re-plugged all
ribbons and power connections and removed and replaced the two memory
sticks.

No change, so I used a Win 98 start up disk to see if I could boot with
that.
I ran Scandisk and after a very extensive scanning process, reporting a
multitude of bad files, etc. Reports of garbled system files and allowing
scandisk to fix them, I rebooted in hopes of some sort of boot. . . .
Nothing more than the splash screen mentioned above.

At this point I do not know what to do.  I have one 'Vegas' movie file that
I would like to save if at all possible.  The rest of the files, I have a
back up on most of them.

Through the start up disk I can get to a command prompt.  Does anyone know
what I can do to either get Windows to boot, or to extract that large movie
file from this computer?

TIA for any advice!

Ron Grant


_______________________________________________

>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "pcparamedic"
>>
>>
>> > Ron,
>> >
>> > I am surprised that you managed to get the Win98 startup disk to read
>> your
>> > XP SP2 HDD at all, as Win 98 is FAT32 and XP is NTFS.
>> >
>> > You may have a couple of options here : either fit the faulty HDD in
>> > another
>> > XP PC as a slave and try copying the files over from the faulty HDD or
>> fit
>> > the faulty HDD into an external housing and do the same, that way.
>> >
>> > I had a PC and a laptop that refused to boot recently : for the PC, I
>> was
>> > able to get it up and running by simply connecting the faulty HDD as a
>> > slave
>> > and running Scandisk from the good HDD and telling it to fix all errors
>> > automatically.
>> >
>> > As for the laptop, I was unable to the suggestion above as it kept
>> causing
>> > the PC it was connected to, to reset every time the bad HDD was powered
>> > up.
>> > So, I had to download NTFSBOOT from http://tinyurl.com/9s7pn from which
>> I
>> > was then able to run scandisk which again, fixed the problem.
>> >
>> > Hope this helps   ...   PCP
>>




>
> On 11/04/07, Ron Grant <nortnarg at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks PCP!
>> I wish I had done this first now.
>> I may have really screwed the files on the disc. Your opinion please . . 
>> .
>>
>> I put the faulty drive in a USB enclosure as you suggested and am able to
>> see files.
>> The problem is I have done the scandisk previously and allowed repairs
>> with
>> the Win 98 startup disc.   The files are now all named "recovered file
>> fragments".   I have no file association for that file type.
>>
>> In the original computer, I had scandisk create an undo disc, but I do 
>> not
>> know how to use it.  Just putting the floppy it created in does nothing. 
>> I
>> used the startup disk to get me back to an A:/ prompt and it see's the
>> "scanundo" file.  I do not know how to make it run.
>> Sigh . . .
>>
>>
>>