OD404 Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Right, turned my pc on this morning to do some uni work, everything was fine and dandy until it locked up (whilst using a CAD package if it makes any difference). I restarted the but now it won't go any further than the XP boot screen, it just keeps going back to first bios screen. I've tried going into safe mode but I get the same thing. My pc spec is: AMD XP3000+ 1gig ram (2x512mb), can't remember the make... ABIT NF7-S motherboard MSI 6600gt graphics card Maxtor 300gb SATA hdd I've unplugged all my other drives to eliminate them from causing the problem so the above is simply what I need to run the pc. I've also tried taking each ram stick to ensure they aren't the source. So far no luck, so if anyone here can help it would be much appreciated (especially as I still have uni work to do) (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Could your windows install be borked? Have you tried the "last known good configuration" thing (Same menu as the safe mode)? Don't suppose you have a Knoppix live CD you can try do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OD404 Posted March 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 I thought it might be something to do with XP, so I tried the "last known config" option, but I got the same results (Y) Unfortunately I don't have a Knoppix CD (though if I were honest, I don't know what it does :D) I'm gonna pick up a copy of XP in a moment (mine is still at uni)to try and repair the installation, but I'm reluctuant to format due to the large amount of important uni work contained on the disc. My only other thought was that it might be to do with the gfx card and it seems to reset when the boot screen finishes and the resolution changes for the logon screen... other than that I am fresh out of ideas EDIT: Just looked up that Knoppix cd, and have got it downloading now (good job the parents have just got broadband installed (Y)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Knoppix is a Linux distro that will run off the CD. Just stick the CD in, turn the PC on, and it boots into a fully working linux OS. Which is nice, but the best use is that you can test your system with it; If Windows is the problem, Knoppix will still work. So you could try that - Although it is a 700MB Download. The other thing to do would be to swap GFX cards with someone to eliminate that as the source of the problem. Can you do "Safe Mode: Command prompt only"? Booting to the command prompt won't change the resolution, so you could test your GFX card theory that way. EDIT: Also, using Knoppix, you could save your data and write it to CD, then you could format the HDD (If that is the problem). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OD404 Posted March 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Haven't tried the command prompt only yet - best do that now i think. Unfortunately I don't have a cd writer at the moment, but if Knoppix recognises my hdd has two partitions I can remove the important info from the windows partition and format it. EDIT: Command prompt only did exactly the same thing, looks like its windows thats boogered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Unfortunately I don't have a cd writer at the moment, but if Knoppix recognises my hdd has two partitions I can remove the important info from the windows partition and format it. ← It should do, my Knoppix recognised even my NTFS partitions without any trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OD404 Posted March 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Well Knoppix works, and recognises my hdd (and the 2 partitions) but it wont copy the files from one to the other (Y) Anyone got any ideas why? Could it be because the drive is SATA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnzaNewbie Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Have you gone into safe mode, then find windows recovery. do a recovery from about 2 months maybe then tryed again? This has just happened to my 98se, its still buggered. but i tryed runing system file checker etc, give them ago, you nevery know you mite be lucker than me (Y) Marc :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Well Knoppix works, and recognises my hdd (and the 2 partitions) but it wont copy the files from one to the other :lol: Anyone got any ideas why? Could it be because the drive is SATA? ← I dont know if this will work but its worth a try :o mount -o remount,rw /mnt/hda1 NB you will have to change the "/mnt/hda1" to reflect the partitions on your system. You should then be able to drag-and-drop or copy the files recursively from the command line, eg: $ cp -r /mnt/hda1/data /mnt/hdb1/destination maybe delusional will pop up somewhere (Y)" pinky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haydon_peter Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 steve, just as a temporary measure, could you install xp onto a different partition or hd, then use that install to copy all the important stuff onto another partition (or HD). Maybe change the hd you use for windows to another one, although you may have residual problems when turning your pc on in terms of selecting which version of windows to boot into etc. Andy @ Tic's (p.s) sorry i didnt take your call yesterday i was driving and then busy :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 steve, just as a temporary measure, could you install xp onto a different partition or hd, then use that install to copy all the important stuff onto another partition (or HD). Maybe change the hd you use for windows to another one, although you may have residual problems when turning your pc on in terms of selecting which version of windows to boot into etc. Andy @ Tic's (p.s) sorry i didnt take your call yesterday i was driving and then busy (Y) ← He also might have trouble viewing that partition but I wuldnt know as ive never done it :lol: pinky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haydon_peter Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 He also might have trouble viewing that partition but I wuldnt know as ive never done it :lol: pinky ← If it gets into the XP load screen then the partition table is fully in tact, im pretty sure it wouldnt even boot properly if the partition table was damaged. And as Steve said he managed to see the partitions in linux anyway so they must be ok. The problem i was talking about was where if you have multiple OS installed on the same pc, you get a menu just after the initial POST asking you which os to run, i think there is some software you can use to sort this out though, so it shouldnt be a problem. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocktrials Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 unplug all pheripirals and leave them out, then unplug all wires and plug them back in :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 If it gets into the XP load screen then the partition table is fully in tact, im pretty sure it wouldnt even boot properly if the partition table was damaged. And as Steve said he managed to see the partitions in linux anyway so they must be ok. The problem i was talking about was where if you have multiple OS installed on the same pc, you get a menu just after the initial POST asking you which os to run, i think there is some software you can use to sort this out though, so it shouldnt be a problem. Andy ← why is this a problem though? he can just select which XP he wants (again not sure if this will cause conflicts but its worth a try) But that command I posted up there should let you sort it ^^^ pinky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 unplug all pheripirals and leave them out, then unplug all wires and plug them back in (Y) ← :lol: How is that gonna help his partition table? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haydon_peter Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 why is this a problem though? he can just select which XP he wants (again not sure if this will cause conflicts but its worth a try) But that command I posted up there should let you sort it ^^^ pinky ← yeah you can just select the one you want, i did it to a mates pc who had problems with a windows installation. You just have to be quite quick to select the correct xp install as it doesnt pause for some reason :lol: Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocktrials Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 :lol: How is that gonna help his partition table? ← i read the problem.....mine did exactly the same, wouldnt go past the 'hp' screen and so i tried a few things which didnt work.....unplugged it and took it to computer store they said nothing was wrong with it, it booted up straight away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 How is that gonna help his partition table? ← There's nothing wrong with his partition table. The reason he can't write to disk using Knoppix is that Linux doesn't have NTFS write support (yet), only read. So he can copy to CD/flash disk or something. I might be wrong, but I think he's sorted it now anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OD404 Posted March 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Yeah everything is sorted in theory, just need to get round to a mate who has a SATA compatible motherboard so I can back up my work :lol: Cheers for the replys lads, much appreciated (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 There's nothing wrong with his partition table. The reason he can't write to disk using Knoppix is that Linux doesn't have NTFS write support (yet), only read. So he can copy to CD/flash disk or something. I might be wrong, but I think he's sorted it now anyway... ← Ah ic so knoppix developers are slow :lol:" pinky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Ah ic so knoppix developers are slow :lol:" ← Um yeah. I know you're joking, but I'll explain anyway (Y) Microsoft basically won't realease the source code for NTFS (Why would they, frankly?), so no-one outside of MS really knows how it works. So basically, you can try writing stuff for NTFS by a sort of trial and error. They've got as far as read access. But most people using Linux won't need NTFS support anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Um yeah. I know you're joking, but I'll explain anyway :lol: Microsoft basically won't realease the source code for NTFS (Why would they, frankly?), so no-one outside of MS really knows how it works. So basically, you can try writing stuff for NTFS by a sort of trial and error. They've got as far as read access. But most people using Linux won't need NTFS support anyway... ← yep so what do we learn from this children? Yes thats right bill gates is a clever fanny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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