Argh, Windows won't start

Craig321 · 23 Oct 2006 at 14:58

Hi,

Turned on my PC this morning and it's just all of a sudden looping through the post screen and the Windows loading bar.

I guess I shouldn't have ignored the possible corrupt file in an ntuninstall folder (Windows warned me about it and said I should to a chkdsk) - I didn't think it'd cause any problems as it's only an uninstaller, it wasn't a file in a main folder or anything. I'm thinking that's what could have caused the problem?

Every time I turn the PC on it posts fine, I then see the F8 menu (Safe mode, boot with last known good config, boot normally etc.).

When I go into start normally it goes to the Windows loading screen and does about three slides and then goes back to post again.

When I click start with last known good config it does the same thing.

Same thing with safe mode...

I guess I should be doing a repair from the Windows CD then? Or is there anything else I can do to fix it?

Thanks,
Craig,

Dr_Evil · 23 Oct 2006 at 15:03

chkdsk /f

Craig321 · 23 Oct 2006 at 15:04

Ah, yes, didn't think of running that from the recovery console :rolleyes:

Will try it now.

Craig321 · 23 Oct 2006 at 17:12

Dr_Evil said:
chkdsk /f

I'm in the recovery console at the moment and chkdsk /? only gives the options of /P and /R - which one should I be using?

Thanks,
Craig.

ns400r · 23 Oct 2006 at 17:31

/r

/p - Performs an exhaustive check even if the drive is not marked for chkdsk to run. This parameter does not make any changes to the drive.

/r - Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Implies /p.

Dr_Evil · 23 Oct 2006 at 17:41

ns400r said:
/r

/p - Performs an exhaustive check even if the drive is not marked for chkdsk to run. This parameter does not make any changes to the drive.

/r - Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Implies /p.

They have changed the parameters since MS Dos 6.2 ?? ;-)

Craig321 · 23 Oct 2006 at 19:16

Dr_Evil said:
They have changed the parameters since MS Dos 6.2 ??

Those are the only given options in the recovery console.

I think the hard drive is failing on me and I haven't been able to backup the data as it's my second hard drive!

After the CHKDSK got this:

SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk 0: QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS40.0-(PM)

WARNING: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent.

Press F1 to continue

ffs, now my second PC is failing... my first one has been away for a month getting replace and now my second one decides it doesn't like me anymore

Craig321 · 23 Oct 2006 at 20:31

Just put the hard drive in another PC, at first I thought it didn't pick it up, but Windows hadn't assigned it a letter yet.

Haven't been able to access it yet though

Craig321 · 23 Oct 2006 at 21:45

Well, it's officially gone.

Is there any freeware/trial programs (that fully function) I can use to try access it please?

There's not much on there, but there's a couple of things I'd like to save.

EDIT

Suppose this should be moved into the hard drives section?

Thanks,
Craig.

Craig321 · 24 Oct 2006 at 16:33

I managed to get it running in another PC, managed to finish a chkdsk on it. After that it let me access it.

I managed to save everything & I'm running on the hard drive at the moment (obviously I'm not trusting it).

SMART is still warning me on every boot up.

Thanks for the help everyone

Craig.