Total Meltdown!!!

JohnthePilot · 11-06-2006, 03:46 AM

Hi,
I don't know if this is the place to be but I've got to start somewhere. Please move if necessary. I am having to post this from an Internet cafe because my machine has stopped bigtime

When I woke this morning my machine had done a restart and the message on the screen was something to the effect that there was a disc access error - Please press Ctrl+Alt+Del. I tried this a couple of times and the same thing happened. I then tried to boot from my Windows XP CD. I got a message that "setup is checking your computer's hardware configuration" then nothing. Not even the three fingered salute worked. I've got a couple of diagnostic floppies so I ran those. The first was the Hitachi Hard Disk Drive analyser. This did a very thorough scan of my hard drives and reported everything to be OK. I then ran CheckIt and this showed everything on my machine. Nothing seemed out of order. I just don't know what to do next.
Regards,
Pilot.

**manic** · 11-06-2006, 04:42 AM

Have you tried safe mode?Are you running antivirus software, and do you
have recovery floppies?. Sounds like your os got whacked. If you decide
to format get a copy of killdisk, or boot and nuke to format.

JohnthePilot · 11-06-2006, 09:15 AM

Hi Manic,
Thanks for your reply.
I'd love to be able to get into Safe Mode. You'll see from my previous post that I can do nothing. I sending this from an Internet Cafe. My recovery disc isn't recognised, and my Windows XP CD does nothing. I have run two diagnostic programs from Drive A and Windows Memory Test from a CD so something is working. None of these programs has reported a fault. What I need is a program that I can download to a floppy to try and get my machine working again. Any ideas?
Regards,
Pilot.

**manic** · 11-06-2006, 10:19 AM

You will need your winxp cd, and some blank floppys.. Do a google for
xp boot floppy and it should walk you through the process. I have done
this with win 2000 but never xp, should be straight forward enough
though. You will need a pc in order to do this,borrow a friends, or here
in the U.S. folks use the library.....Sounds like your mbr got whacked
somehow, maybe a bug. I could be totally going in the wrong direction as
well.

dai · 11-06-2006, 11:40 AM

can you see the hard drive in the bios
if not check the ide cable is secure
try a new cable
if you can see it listed in the bios
download the drive makers diognostic utility and run it on the hard drive

JohnthePilot · 11-06-2006, 03:12 PM

Hi Guys,
Up and running again, but what a nightmare. Turned out to be corrupted files on my hard drive. I had to take it back to the shop I bought it from and get it reformatted. I've now got the job of reinstalling everything

Thank God I'd backed up all my important files to a second hard drive AND to a DVD. I've been caught out before and won't make that mistake again. A message for others there

Regards,
Pilot.

**manic** · 11-06-2006, 03:34 PM

Cool,,make sure you install mobo drivers...often forgotten..ride safe

JohnthePilot · 11-06-2006, 09:52 PM

Hi Manic,
Thanks for that. I don't want to look thick (but I am

), but what are mobo drivers?
Regards,
Pilot.

dai · 11-07-2006, 01:35 AM

they are on your m/b setup cd
the chipset drivers

JohnthePilot · 11-07-2006, 05:27 AM

Hi Dai,
Told you I was being thick. I should have realised what mobo was.Yes, I had installed these. Everything nearly back to normal
Regards.

**linderman** · 11-08-2006, 05:20 AM

Something you may wish to consider since you ARE sharp enough to appreciate the value of back-up

download and try Drive Snapshot (in my sig) its damn easy then create a back-up image of your current OS to your spare drive then when your regualr OS falls on its face you simply restore the "whole" thing without having to reinstall ANYTHING

also do your self a favor and make the ultimate boot CD (free in my sig) thats another very helpful tool !

JohnthePilot · 11-08-2006, 06:16 AM

Hi linderman,
Those are very useful links. Wish I'd done it before

I've also considered investing in SpinRite 6. It costs $89 but my data (and my time) are worth more than that. What do you think?
Regards,
Pilot.

**linderman** · 11-08-2006, 12:03 PM

I find no weakness to Drive sanpshot whatso ever and its cheaper!

I guess the end result is, doesnt really matter how you accomplish the back-up as long as it means we can completely restore our boot drive without having to install "anything" again

good luck & enjoy

JohnthePilot · 11-08-2006, 12:15 PM

Cheers Joe.

**linderman** · 11-08-2006, 12:49 PM

here is a very good performing FREE one

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

JohnthePilot · 11-08-2006, 02:29 PM

Hi Joe,
I've made recovery discs with Ultimate Boot Cd and Snapshot (belt and braces

) and am now playing with the trial version of Snapshot. It looks very good and the price is a small one to pay for the security. The only thing I'm not happy about is that the image is saved to the same HD. Is this just a feature of the test version. I would rather save to my backup HD in case of total loss of my main HD. Does the full version allow this?
Regards,
John.

**linderman** · 11-08-2006, 02:41 PM

have you tried running the drive snapshot thats is on the ultimate boot CD

and YES its insane to save an image to the drive that you want to back up!

you should be saving your crucial image to your back-up hard drive I have never had any problems selecting diff drives with drive snapshot

have you tried the drive image XML program they work the same and the latter is free (this one only works on win xp & win 2003 ONLY no earlier OS versions)

BTW: I have never been limited by either the 30 day trial version nor the full version; actually the 30 day trial version IS the full version but with a time deadline packed into it!

keep me posted

**linderman** · 11-08-2006, 03:09 PM

Here are the screenshots for snapshot

screen one: this is where you select what you want to do ???? make a back-up image or restore a image to a drive
http://123pichosting.com/images/929snapshot screen1.JPG

Screen two: pick which drive or partition you want to create an image of
http://www.123pichosting.com/images/9302snapshot screen 2.JPG

Screen #3: pick which drive or partition you want the stored image sent to for storage
http://123pichosting.com/images/7431snapshot screen 3.JPG

Screen #4:

the destination box will come up to inquire where you want your image stored
http://123pichosting.com/images/112snapshot screen4.JPG

thats it the whole enchilada!

**linderman** · 11-08-2006, 03:15 PM

JohnthePilot · 11-08-2006, 03:17 PM

Hi Joe,
No, I haven't tried the snapshot on Ulimate Boot CD. I'll try that next. I'll also try the other freebie. As for Snapshot, it definitely wouldn't let me save to my D: drive. I'll try it again. I think I may have to invest in a new backup drive. My main drive is 250GB and my backup only 15GB, enough for important files. That may be the problem, although Snapshot is supposed to give the option to abort if running out of space, which implies it would try and save even if there wasn't enough space. I can remember when we wondered how we could possibly fill a 10MB disc. How times have changed.
Regards,
John.

11-06-2006, 03:46 AM	#1 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Total Meltdown!!! Hi, I don't know if this is the place to be but I've got to start somewhere. Please move if necessary. I am having to post this from an Internet cafe because my machine has stopped bigtime When I woke this morning my machine had done a restart and the message on the screen was something to the effect that there was a disc access error - Please press Ctrl+Alt+Del. I tried this a couple of times and the same thing happened. I then tried to boot from my Windows XP CD. I got a message that "setup is checking your computer's hardware configuration" then nothing. Not even the three fingered salute worked. I've got a couple of diagnostic floppies so I ran those. The first was the Hitachi Hard Disk Drive analyser. This did a very thorough scan of my hard drives and reported everything to be OK. I then ran CheckIt and this showed everything on my machine. Nothing seemed out of order. I just don't know what to do next. Regards, Pilot.

11-06-2006, 04:42 AM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,205 OS: xp	Have you tried safe mode?Are you running antivirus software, and do you have recovery floppies?. Sounds like your os got whacked. If you decide to format get a copy of killdisk, or boot and nuke to format. __________________

11-06-2006, 10:19 AM	#4 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,205 OS: xp	You will need your winxp cd, and some blank floppys.. Do a google for xp boot floppy and it should walk you through the process. I have done this with win 2000 but never xp, should be straight forward enough though. You will need a pc in order to do this,borrow a friends, or here in the U.S. folks use the library.....Sounds like your mbr got whacked somehow, maybe a bug. I could be totally going in the wrong direction as well. __________________ Last edited by manic; 11-06-2006 at 10:23 AM.

11-06-2006, 11:40 AM	#5 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,221 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	can you see the hard drive in the bios if not check the ide cable is secure try a new cable if you can see it listed in the bios download the drive makers diognostic utility and run it on the hard drive __________________

11-06-2006, 03:34 PM	#7 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,205 OS: xp	Cool,,make sure you install mobo drivers...often forgotten..ride safe __________________

11-06-2006, 09:15 AM	#3 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi Manic, Thanks for your reply. I'd love to be able to get into Safe Mode. You'll see from my previous post that I can do nothing. I sending this from an Internet Cafe. My recovery disc isn't recognised, and my Windows XP CD does nothing. I have run two diagnostic programs from Drive A and Windows Memory Test from a CD so something is working. None of these programs has reported a fault. What I need is a program that I can download to a floppy to try and get my machine working again. Any ideas? Regards, Pilot.

11-06-2006, 03:12 PM	#6 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi Guys, Up and running again, but what a nightmare. Turned out to be corrupted files on my hard drive. I had to take it back to the shop I bought it from and get it reformatted. I've now got the job of reinstalling everything Thank God I'd backed up all my important files to a second hard drive AND to a DVD. I've been caught out before and won't make that mistake again. A message for others there Regards, Pilot.

11-06-2006, 09:52 PM	#8 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi Manic, Thanks for that. I don't want to look thick (but I am ), but what are mobo drivers? Regards, Pilot.

11-07-2006, 01:35 AM	#9 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,221 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	they are on your m/b setup cd the chipset drivers __________________

11-07-2006, 05:27 AM	#10 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi Dai, Told you I was being thick. I should have realised what mobo was.Yes, I had installed these. Everything nearly back to normal Regards.

11-08-2006, 05:20 AM	#11 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Something you may wish to consider since you ARE sharp enough to appreciate the value of back-up download and try Drive Snapshot (in my sig) its damn easy then create a back-up image of your current OS to your spare drive then when your regualr OS falls on its face you simply restore the "whole" thing without having to reinstall ANYTHING also do your self a favor and make the ultimate boot CD (free in my sig) thats another very helpful tool ! __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

11-08-2006, 06:16 AM	#12 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi linderman, Those are very useful links. Wish I'd done it before I've also considered investing in SpinRite 6. It costs $89 but my data (and my time) are worth more than that. What do you think? Regards, Pilot.

11-08-2006, 12:03 PM	#13 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	I find no weakness to Drive sanpshot whatso ever and its cheaper! I guess the end result is, doesnt really matter how you accomplish the back-up as long as it means we can completely restore our boot drive without having to install "anything" again good luck & enjoy __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

11-08-2006, 12:15 PM	#14 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Cheers Joe.

11-08-2006, 12:49 PM	#15 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	here is a very good performing FREE one http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

11-08-2006, 02:29 PM	#16 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi Joe, I've made recovery discs with Ultimate Boot Cd and Snapshot (belt and braces ) and am now playing with the trial version of Snapshot. It looks very good and the price is a small one to pay for the security. The only thing I'm not happy about is that the image is saved to the same HD. Is this just a feature of the test version. I would rather save to my backup HD in case of total loss of my main HD. Does the full version allow this? Regards, John.

11-08-2006, 02:41 PM	#17 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	have you tried running the drive snapshot thats is on the ultimate boot CD and YES its insane to save an image to the drive that you want to back up! you should be saving your crucial image to your back-up hard drive I have never had any problems selecting diff drives with drive snapshot have you tried the drive image XML program they work the same and the latter is free (this one only works on win xp & win 2003 ONLY no earlier OS versions) BTW: I have never been limited by either the 30 day trial version nor the full version; actually the 30 day trial version IS the full version but with a time deadline packed into it! keep me posted __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 11-08-2006 at 02:44 PM.

11-08-2006, 03:09 PM	#18 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Here are the screenshots for snapshot screen one: this is where you select what you want to do ???? make a back-up image or restore a image to a drive http://123pichosting.com/images/929snapshot screen1.JPG Screen two: pick which drive or partition you want to create an image of http://www.123pichosting.com/images/9302snapshot screen 2.JPG Screen #3: pick which drive or partition you want the stored image sent to for storage http://123pichosting.com/images/7431snapshot screen 3.JPG Screen #4: the destination box will come up to inquire where you want your image stored http://123pichosting.com/images/112snapshot screen4.JPG thats it the whole enchilada! __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 11-08-2006 at 03:11 PM.

11-08-2006, 03:15 PM	#19 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	__________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 11-08-2006 at 03:20 PM.

11-08-2006, 03:17 PM	#20 (permalink)
JohnthePilot Manager, TSF Articles Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cheltenham, near Wales. Posts: 30,781 OS: XP Home SP3, PCLinux, Vista Home Premium SP1 My System Blog Entries: 1	Hi Joe, No, I haven't tried the snapshot on Ulimate Boot CD. I'll try that next. I'll also try the other freebie. As for Snapshot, it definitely wouldn't let me save to my D: drive. I'll try it again. I think I may have to invest in a new backup drive. My main drive is 250GB and my backup only 15GB, enough for important files. That may be the problem, although Snapshot is supposed to give the option to abort if running out of space, which implies it would try and save even if there wasn't enough space. I can remember when we wondered how we could possibly fill a 10MB disc. How times have changed. Regards, John.