Help on fixing a computer

Awesomeish · 11 Mar 2010 at 14:28

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with something. Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I think this is right.

My chum's computer has recently stopped working. Upon starting the computer we're met with a "Disk boot failure" message (or something similar). Apparently Acer didn't supply a Vista CD with the computer when my friend bought it, and I don't want him to have to take the computer back to Acer for fixing (this has happened before, and he had to go through loads of trouble).

He has a lot of work on there so if it can be fixed without needing to format then that'd be grand

. Or at least, is there a way we can recover the files?

Any help would be muchly appreciated!

Howitzer · 11 Mar 2010 at 14:30

Do you/does he know anyone that might have a Vista install disk? He could borrow it and try to boot from that to recover his important stuff...

Yakyb · 11 Mar 2010 at 14:32

you'll prob find that there is a recovery partition i would try getting access to that if you can

Awesomeish · 11 Mar 2010 at 14:39

Why, thanks for the fast replies

Well, I do have a Vista install disk, but it's for my laptop. Does that matter? And would using the 'repair' function be likely to fix the problem?

Philtor · 11 Mar 2010 at 15:02

Use your Vista disk and boot from that - you should see an option to 'repair your computer' and from within here there's an option to 'fix problems that prevent windows from starting up' - select this. If it doesn't resolve the issue then it might be necessary to reinstall the o/s.

Hagar · 11 Mar 2010 at 15:24

Disk boot failure could be hardware or software so I would not guarantee results from an install disk.

Any install disk should get you into the system repair and fixboot is the command for XP, I do not use Vista so am not sure of any differences.

before you trash the filesystem, I would make a Bart PE boot disk and download all the work related stuff and anything else important. You can make one that boots from a USB stick and leaves the DVD writer to copy stuff to. Google it. Tell him in future to back up his work, cheers.

andy.