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Windows won't load...


LuLu

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Will the Hiren's CD boot?

if yes, select "Mini XP" and let Windows (mini xp) load.

 

How many partitions do you see when you click on My Computer in the top left corner of the desktop?

 

If you see a partition with the letter C:, then run Redhawks fix, repeated here:

...

When you're at the desktop "Start", "Run", cmd.exe

A black box with white text appears, you enter the following:

chkdsk.exe c: /f

exit

 

Richard S.

 

What happened? :-)

 

PS, on this computer that looks like this:

 

th_Hirensdesktop.jpg th_Hirensmycomputer.jpg

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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I thought I said all this earlier but maybe I didn't. I was tired when I was posting. lol So let me try again. Yes I got into Mini XP. But there is no C drive listed, only X and B. When I try to run chkdsk on C (or any other letter other than B and X) it tells me it cannot open the volume for direct access. And also, when I click on HBCD from the desktop, nothing happens. If I go into windows explorer and access the folders/files from there, Opera and all the others come up as invalid or some such mess. So in essence, I can't do a darn thing.

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Sorry, LuLu, forgive my density, I wasn't sure where you were.

 

In the X: drive, there is another link to "HBCD Menu".

It is "X:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Start Menu\Programs"

When I click it here, it opens a popup which offers to "Browse Folder".

When I click "Browse Folder" it opens a list of tools which are on the cd. They have the .bat extension. Some are partition tools.

Right now I'm going to click on one called "PartitionRecovery.bat" and see what it does.

Will post back if old hal here doesn't go south on me. :-)

 

edit...that didn't work,

 

gonna try "PartitionWizard.bat"..

that worked, just called up a partition manager, but it does offer the option to find lost partitions...??

 

gonna try "PartitionFindAndMount.bat"

That worked too, but just found the partitions that are on the HD now, not any old ones.

 

gonna try "DiskGenius.bat"

That worked, too. DiskGenuis found the partitions that are on here.

 

I guess the bottom line is to try those tools if you can call them up. If the hard drive isn't physically zapped, some of those tools might find your partitions. There is one called PQSERVICE, and another called AcerData, if I recall right. If you find and restore them, the old Acer might work.

 

I know you are tired and probably aggravated, I would be breathing fire by now, but post back if you can get to those tools thru the X: partition.

Edited by login123

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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Not your density. lol I think I just posted it all wrong and that's why you got lost.

 

Ok so following your method, I still can't open the HBCD menu. I even burned a 2nd copy to try in case something got messed up on the first, and still no-go. I'm about to toss the hard drive out the window. lol

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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Well, I'm stumped...might just be that the hard drive is damaged.

Wouldn't hurt to check the checksums of the .iso file, but I can't imagine that it would run if the download had gotten corrupted.

An MD5 checker is HERE.

Maybe Redhawk or someone else will be back around and think of something else.

:(

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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That's probably the case. I might be able to get my hands on ERD Commander 2009. Think that might do any good?

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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That's probably the case. I might be able to get my hands on ERD Commander 2009. Think that might do any good?

 

Couldn't hurt... but probably not. If nothing from Hiren's works to access the HD, you're probably right, it's done for. If you can just figure out a way to run chkdsk, you can know for sure if the HD is going to be useable.

 

The other thing I think of is to run puppy linux from a cd and find out if it recognizes any partitions, files, folders, whatnot. Even if it doesn't, you can run it like a portable OS from the cd.

 

But it sounds like the HD is done for.

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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Ok when I have more time I'll download Puppy and give it a go. But I think he's just gonna have to buy a new hard drive and start from scratch.

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If you can get a copy of ERD Commander, it has a Wizard system for scanning and repairing System Files, and a Wizard system for accessing a drives System Restore files and, you've guessed it, doing a System Restore.

 

It guides you through a couple of very simple steps to do either.

 

If it's a goosed Hard Drive, then it won't help, but if it's trashed System Files, it might do something.

 

Definitely worth the cost of a blank CD to find out, and besides that, it's a tremendous thing to have in your tool box anyway.

 

And bear in mind, under some of these rescue packages, the drives are allocated strange drive letters. The System Drive, usually C: will be the "Primary/Active" partition if the drive is partitioned.

:)

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Well, I ended up with a copy of ERD Commander 2008 I believe. After trying to boot from it, I saw the WIndows logo screen and then received a message saying A problem has occured and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to the computer. Could it be a crap copy of ERD or is this just one more testament that the drive is shot?

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Hey, LuLu, you get my vote for dedication to duty. Your brothers friend should appreciate you.

 

I don't want to give up on this one either. If we fix it, we might get to share the Golden Screwdriver award, assuming DennisD doesn't rig the vote. <_<

 

Couple of thoughts. At this point, I would for sure spin up a puppy linux disk, and see what if anything it finds on the hard drive. It runs in memory, and fast, so if necessary you could put ANOTHER cd in the drive to work from that. And it has some partition manager tools built in.

 

Back in a minute.

 

Here is a screenshot of Puppy, shows the hard drive icons at the bottom, cool eh?

 

th_Puppyinstall15-CopyingCD.jpg

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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He better or he's not getting his laptop back. LOL

 

Right now I'm using TestDisk under MiniLinux and so far it's shown many "read errors" while under the Analyse Cylinder thing. I guess in a way it's a good thing since it found the hard drive to actually delve into. So we'll see what the result is once it's finished. Right now it's at 11%.

 

As for Puppy, what version should I download? And what is the most trusted source?

 

ps - I want to thank everyone who has been helping me thus far. It's much appreciated. Without you guys, I probably would have tossed that poor thing through a window already. haha

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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Here is a screenshot of Puppy, shows the hard drive icons at the bottom, cool eh?

 

th_Puppyinstall15-CopyingCD.jpg

 

Very cool!!

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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OK, back now using Firefox from a Puppy 5.1.1 CD. Puppy is pretty fast to use once you get the downloads done and the CD made.

 

One question: what was the OS that came installed on the kaput computer? You might need an install disk for that OS if you can get scannow or fixmbr to run.

 

Here is a screenshot of some of the menus in puppy. The drive at the bottom called "sdb1" is an external usb HD, and the open window is a list of files and folders on it. Also the built in partition managers are shown in the popout menus. So the point is, if there are viable directories/files/partitions on the HD puppy might be able to find them.

 

th_23-puppy511_menu.jpg

 

Another thought: if you can get that ERD commander to go, I think it has some windows commands available, maybe scannow and chkdisk.

 

And another: If your brother got a message that HAL.dll would not load, there are some specific fixes for that.

I can not reference them right now, but they use a linux distro to copy HAL.dll onto the corrupt windows installation. Better check that for yourself, though, its complicated.

 

scannow HERE and HERE

 

fixmbr HERE and HERE

 

Edit: Gotta go. Back later.

Edited by login123

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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Thanks for the links! Will I use those while running Puppy or will I boot from those by themselves?

 

He had originally told me it was XP that was on the system but when he got here told me that it was actually Vista that had come with it. When he told me he tried his XP disk on it, he failed to tell me at the beginning that it was a restore disk from his own computer, which I promptly told him would not work on his friend's laptop. So that in and of itself has made me wonder if what he did has made the situation worse or not. I'm hoping not, especially since he never got XP to load onto the drive. I did try a copy of XP Pro, but it never installed either.

 

As of right now, Mini Linux is still running the TestDisk Analyse Cylinder thing. It's only at 14%. I'm probably going to stop it and use Puppy once I get it burned. My head is beginning to hurt from all of this. lol

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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Probably should let that program run, take a break from your labors, be patient, forget it for a while. IMHO.

 

Scannow, chkdsk, and fixmbr will not run from puppy, AFAIK. Some or all of them are probably available in Hiren's minixp or ERD.

 

The puppy idea is just to see what the HD looks like. What is still there. If the original restore applications are still there, then our main objective is to get them to run.

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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There is one last program you could try it's a disk repair utility called MHDD.

Fortunately you don't need to download and burn a copy since it already exists on the Hiren's CD. :)

 

-Boot the Hiren's CD

-Select Dos Programs, Hard Disk Tools, MHDD 4.6 and let it auto detect stuff first.

 

When MHDD is running you need to select the hard drive device this should be: 1

At the MHDD> prompt type "scan" (without quotes) and enter.

A box appears with some numbers, press cursor down to "Remap" and hit space bar so it's set to "ON".

When you're ready press Ctrl + Enter or F4 to start the scan and repair procedure.

This process could take as long as 5 hours depending on the number of damaged sectors that need relocating.

After MHDD has finished scanning I would recommend a rescan to capture any possible bad sectors that haven't been detected from first run.

 

Once you're done with MHDD, restart Mini XP and try to run chkdsk.exe as I had suggested in my previous post.

 

Richard S.

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Well, I got as far as the prompt for scan and that's when it told me the device was not ready. I tried 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...and got the same message. I guess this isn't looking too good, eh? lol

 

Is there anything else in the DOS programs on Hirens that I should try? Or should I finally just throw the drive out of a window and put it out of it's misery? haha

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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Well, just for kicks and grins, I searched around in the Hiren's disk under DOS programs and found a Toshiba hard drive tester. It told me the hard drive is defective, but nothing more. I attempted the MHDD thing again and had the same outcome as earlier. I guess he's gonna have to buy a new hard drive. Or or a new laptop. lol

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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  • 2 weeks later...

After a whole week of attempts I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely, positively give up. lol Thank you everyone for your help, but nothing fixed the drive and no other OS's would detect it. He's just gonna have to buy a new one and call it a day. But you can't say I didn't try. haha

I'm here. What are your other two wishes?
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