Cousins laptop refuses to boot into windows!

Lighters

Lighters

Lighters

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Joined
11 Jun 2006
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Dell inspiron 1300
Battery is broke but works from an AC-Mains Adapter.
Apparently they have some photos they wanted me to try and save.

I have tried booting from:
Start windows normally - Progress bar then black screen
Last known good config - Progress bar then black screen
Safe mode - Displays the wall of text and gets stuck for 5min+

I have tried booting from cd-rom but while trying to format or perform a recovery it gets stuck saying: searching for previous version of windows

Ideas? is the HD completely broke?
 
Doesn't sound good. I was in a similar situation once, and recovered my documents by taking the HDD out and putting it in a 3.5" usb enclosure. I then took ownership of the relevant files and recovered them that way (but you need a professional rather than home version of Windows installed on the second PC I think).
 
AlfBaxter said:
Doesn't sound good. I was in a similar situation once, and recovered my documents by taking the HDD out and putting it in a 3.5" usb enclosure. I then took ownership of the relevant files and recovered them that way (but you need a professional rather than home version of Windows installed on the second PC I think).
Click to expand...

If you can't run the windows setup and install it over the top then try "chkdsk /r"-ing it, if that doesn't work then you're pretty much out of ideas and will have to do the above.

If you can't do the above then take it to a PC repair place and get them to do it for you

B@
 
Problem is my pc only takes sata HD's and no doubt the laptop is IDE. I dont have any 3.5 USB enclosures or whatever they are I assume like SSD's where they fit inside the main hardrive case or something?

I cant run chdsk /r as I am unable to boot into windows unless you mean I can do that from the post screen. I am unable to enter any commands as I can only press any key to boot from disk otherwise it takes me to load windows screen with safe mode/last known config
 
download and burn a version of linux onto a cd/usb stick and boot into that, it loads it into the RAM so won't need the HDD at all. Providing the HDD isn't completely dead you should be able to get files off it that way.
 
Downloading ubuntu 11.4 iso now - May be a silly question but I have 0 cd's left. Will it still be bootable after burning it do a dvd?

The laptop has a optical dvd drive.
 
wow thanks, that was so easy lol. Booted fine from dvd and ran it from disk.

Went into documents and recovered the pictures just fine.

Really appreciate it.

Now why wont it let me install a fresh windows operating system onto the laptop? Surely this means the HD is actually working?

How do I go about wiping it now, my cousin simply wants it for browsing and is used to windows, low spec laptop so runs at 1.2ghz single core lol 512mb ram
 
No problem :)

How far into the windows install can you get?
Which version of windows are you trying to install? XP?
You can format the drive as part of the new install - if you can get that far.
 
How far into the windows install can you get? searching for previous version of windows... so cant format or install

Which version of windows are you trying to install? Windows Xp

You can format the drive as part of the new install Cant get to format using Windows XP disc.

Could I format it using ubuntu then install windows over maybe? Thoguht my HD had broke as it was unable to boot windows or find previous version of windows while trying to format. Tried 2 different versions of XP
 
lol sorry should have read thoroughly.
theres a good chance that the mbr is corrupt which is why you cant boot and it can't find previous versions of windows.

hmmmm i don't think ubuntu live allows you to format the drive.

I know its a slow and long way round it, but you could load ubuntu and the install it to the hdd. it will then ask you format it to NFS (its file system), do that for the whole drive, onces that is done you can then try windows again?
 
Just want to say a big thank you!

Managed to format laptop install ubuntu then operating system was detected while using my windows xp disc.

Now running Windows XP with internet working and their photos saved in my documents.

They are chuffed :) Thanks!
 
For future reference. If you want to format an HDD and can't boot into an operating system. You can download "Gparted" it boots from CD and is based off of Linux. It will allow you to format all the drives you want.

It's also free.
 
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