What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Tech Studs - Windows Won't boot, not even Safe Mode (1 Viewer)

Soulfly3

Soulfly3

Footballguy
Ok, I dont know how this happened, but my niece's laptop will no longer boot. She wears she didnt download anything virus related (I know it has active antivirus etc, I installed it)

Im fairly savvy w comps, so Ill just cut to the chase.

Will no longer boot in Safe Mode. any of them. Or normally. system will just hang, and then BSOD or just stay put. I can get to the windows login screen, but no further. And in safe mode, it hangs on the last dos command..

She has some important photos of family/friends (deceased and alive) that she really wants to recover and some important docs, but other than that, I could just use the ASUS recovery tool (F9 on startup) to completely wash the system...

But not what I want to do... yet... I need those photos/files if possible.

She does not have the windows disc, or any disc for recovery for the system... I assume Ill have to make one.

Any pointers/tips on how to go about this? I have an official microsoft download link for the version of windows she's running (windows 7 premium) and the KEY for it is on a sticker under her laptop...

Help. Thanks!

 
You could create an Ubuntu disc and try to boot from that. If that will boot and the hard drive is still good, you can probably recover the items from the drive.

 
this is exactly why you do not roll your lawnmower on its side to change the oil brohan take that to the bank

 
The other options is to not choose safe mode but you can boot step by step. Or you can boot to command prompt

 
Before messing with it too much, I would remove the hard drive and use an adapter like this to copy all of the important pictures/data to a working computer.

 
Can you remove the hard drive and connect the hard drive to a working computer? I've done that before on a laptop that was fried.

 
Thanks guys.... Ubuntu seems simple and straight forward.

Ill try that route before I mess with any hardware.

According to her, the error started, and w a reboot o two she could use the comp again for hours on end... then blue screen error... reboot a few times.. work again...

now, just wont boot at all, so I assume its more a software issue w windows, the kernels or something of that nature... something got pooched.

Hope it's not hardware anyways. Im not too smart w removing/adding hardware... just the software side Im ok with.

Thanks again

 
Last edited by a moderator:
gianmarco said:
Sounds like the hard drive is failing/fried and probably not software related.
Click to expand...
entirely possible...

Trying the software route to recover is my last hope I guess... If that works, Ill try the ASUS recovery tool/partition to get WIndows back to squeeky clean factory state...

and HOPEFULLY that's all it is.

 
Soulfly3 said:
gianmarco said:
Sounds like the hard drive is failing/fried and probably not software related.
Click to expand...
entirely possible...

Trying the software route to recover is my last hope I guess... If that works, Ill try the ASUS recovery tool/partition to get WIndows back to squeeky clean factory state...

and HOPEFULLY that's all it is.
Click to expand...
Depending on what kind of drive it is, I remember learning a while ago about putting it in the freezer before giving it one last try to recover stuff.

 
If the HD is fried... is it worth getting a new one installed or is the time/cost factor not even worth bothering?

 
UBUNTU HELP!!!

So I managed to get the computer to boot from the USB drive, which I have the live ubuntu on...

ubuntu "try me" loaded and the OS came up, no problems... was able to navigate and all that, except I couldnt see any of my windows hardrives!!!!

I tried looking for answers on google... and read and read, but they all seem to say that the C drive should be visible, or under "host"... but it isnt...

Im lost now

 
Soulfly3 said:
UBUNTU HELP!!!

So I managed to get the computer to boot from the USB drive, which I have the live ubuntu on...

ubuntu "try me" loaded and the OS came up, no problems... was able to navigate and all that, except I couldnt see any of my windows hardrives!!!!

I tried looking for answers on google... and read and read, but they all seem to say that the C drive should be visible, or under "host"... but it isnt...

Im lost now
Click to expand...
Sounds like the HD is toast. When you go into the BIOS do you see the hard drive? What kind of laptop? Most have a diagnostics tool that you can boot into to tell if there are hardware problems.

 
Cliff Clavin said:
Soulfly3 said:
UBUNTU HELP!!!

So I managed to get the computer to boot from the USB drive, which I have the live ubuntu on...

ubuntu "try me" loaded and the OS came up, no problems... was able to navigate and all that, except I couldnt see any of my windows hardrives!!!!

I tried looking for answers on google... and read and read, but they all seem to say that the C drive should be visible, or under "host"... but it isnt...

Im lost now
Click to expand...
Sounds like the HD is toast. When you go into the BIOS do you see the hard drive? What kind of laptop? Most have a diagnostics tool that you can boot into to tell if there are hardware problems.
Click to expand...
yes, the harddrive is there in the bios.

the computer boots up, then I get the "windows didnt close properly" error... I click "boot windows normally" and then it just hangs at the windows logo forever... it used to get to the login screen, but not the last few boots.

when I go to the boot menu to boot from USB, the hard-drive is listed there, so it's recognized and "working"

So confused by ubuntu doesnt show it... do I need to mount it or something?

FWIW, Im pretty sure the HD has a partition... a c and d drive... one of which was never used, and I think ASUS keeps their system recovery option on there

 
I don't think you should have to mount it. Are you looking here?

Just click the folder icon on Ubuntu’s launcher to open the file manager. You’ll see your Windows drive under Devices in the sidebar; click it and you’ll see your Windows file system. If you have multiple partitions or hard drives, you’ll see multiple devices here.
Click to expand...
 
Dippa said:
I don't think you should have to mount it. Are you looking here?

Just click the folder icon on Ubuntu’s launcher to open the file manager. You’ll see your Windows drive under Devices in the sidebar; click it and you’ll see your Windows file system. If you have multiple partitions or hard drives, you’ll see multiple devices here.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
yup.... it wasnt there. or anywhere.

right now Im at the windows "system recovery options" menu after a reboot... and ran a memory diagnostics test (which was fine)

I dunno, it lets me do some things, and not others... I just dont understand the ubuntu thing.

Want me to do it again and this time Ill snap a pic for you to see?

 
Soulfly3 said:
Cliff Clavin said:
Soulfly3 said:
UBUNTU HELP!!!

So I managed to get the computer to boot from the USB drive, which I have the live ubuntu on...

ubuntu "try me" loaded and the OS came up, no problems... was able to navigate and all that, except I couldnt see any of my windows hardrives!!!!

I tried looking for answers on google... and read and read, but they all seem to say that the C drive should be visible, or under "host"... but it isnt...

Im lost now
Click to expand...
Sounds like the HD is toast. When you go into the BIOS do you see the hard drive? What kind of laptop? Most have a diagnostics tool that you can boot into to tell if there are hardware problems.
Click to expand...
yes, the harddrive is there in the bios.

the computer boots up, then I get the "windows didnt close properly" error... I click "boot windows normally" and then it just hangs at the windows logo forever... it used to get to the login screen, but not the last few boots.

when I go to the boot menu to boot from USB, the hard-drive is listed there, so it's recognized and "working"

So confused by ubuntu doesnt show it... do I need to mount it or something?

FWIW, Im pretty sure the HD has a partition... a c and d drive... one of which was never used, and I think ASUS keeps their system recovery option on there
Click to expand...
Possibly - here are instructions. Try some of the command line checks provided in those instructions to find if you can see the windows partitions on the hard drive.

ETA: another set of instructions on mounting an NTFS partition from linux

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks... but while I walked away to take a piss Chkdisk started up and there's no way of stopping it... seems like it's going to town too on some errors....

I have to wait til this ends to try ubuntu again.

such a headache.

 
Soulfly3 said:
Thanks... but while I walked away to take a piss Chkdisk started up and there's no way of stopping it... seems like it's going to town too on some errors....

I have to wait til this ends to try ubuntu again.

such a headache.
Click to expand...
Sounds like she'll need to replace the disk. In that case, since you'll be removing the current one anyway, you might just get a disk cage and try and transfer the data that way if you don't want to deal with linux.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I get this error in Ubuntu when i do the "fdisk -l"

"this doesn't look like a partition table"

.... fark.

 
Soulfly3 said:
Thanks... but while I walked away to take a piss Chkdisk started up and there's no way of stopping it... seems like it's going to town too on some errors....

I have to wait til this ends to try ubuntu again.

such a headache.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a failing disk....lots of errors indicate bad blocks. Windows is trying to recover those blocks most likely. Does it make a lot of clicking or grinding noises? I would pull the hard drive ASAP and get it into an adapter to see if you can recover the files.

Also a good time to use this as a lesson to backup important stuff.

 
Soulfly3 said:
I get this error in Ubuntu when i do the "fdisk -l"

"this doesn't look like a partition table"

.... fark.
Click to expand...
The more you mess it with the more likely it is that you won't be able to ever get anything off of it. Pull the hard drive and get it into an adapter.

 
Thanks guys. Gonna have to do that

How difficult is pulling a HD from a laptop and putting another one in?

F paying a guy to do that, if it's a simple job

 
Soulfly3 said:
Thanks guys. Gonna have to do that

How difficult is pulling a HD from a laptop and putting another one in?

F paying a guy to do that, if it's a simple job
Click to expand...
Depends on the laptop, but usually a few screws and then it slides out. Pretty easy.

 
Soulfly3 said:
I get this error in Ubuntu when i do the "fdisk -l"

"this doesn't look like a partition table"

.... fark.
Click to expand...
That's not good. I just booted my Ubuntu live disc and tried Gr00vus' second set of instructions, and they worked to mount the disk.

 
Dippa said:
Soulfly3 said:
I get this error in Ubuntu when i do the "fdisk -l"

"this doesn't look like a partition table"

.... fark.
Click to expand...
That's not good. I just booted my Ubuntu live disc and tried Gr00vus' second set of instructions, and they worked to mount the disk.
Click to expand...
I get something like sd1,2,3,4 and all have a "? " under BOOT. It basically says sd1 is my ntfs drive, but when i follow the next steps w sd1, I get nothingGonna have to replace, I guess. Gah.

Thanks again guys. Tech support over a forum is so... Frustrating

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Soulfly3 said:
Thanks guys. Gonna have to do that

How difficult is pulling a HD from a laptop and putting another one in?

F paying a guy to do that, if it's a simple job
Click to expand...
Did you try the f9 restore option. Usually ASUS first option is to do a restore which saves the files you have on it.

 
jon_mx said:
Soulfly3 said:
Thanks guys. Gonna have to do that

How difficult is pulling a HD from a laptop and putting another one in?

F paying a guy to do that, if it's a simple job
Click to expand...
Did you try the f9 restore option. Usually ASUS first option is to do a restore which saves the files you have on it.
Click to expand...
Are you sure?

I was under the impression that deleted everything and brought your computer to a factory state

 
Soulfly3 said:
jon_mx said:
Soulfly3 said:
Thanks guys. Gonna have to do that

How difficult is pulling a HD from a laptop and putting another one in?

F paying a guy to do that, if it's a simple job
Click to expand...
Did you try the f9 restore option. Usually ASUS first option is to do a restore which saves the files you have on it.
Click to expand...
Are you sure?

I was under the impression that deleted everything and brought your computer to a factory state
Click to expand...
I wouldn't do anything else with that drive until you pull it out and use it in an external adapter. It sounds like the hard drive is failing and the more you use the the more likely it is the only way to recover it will be to send it to a recovery service.

 
Ya, Im done fiddling w this POS

Tho, must be said, I dont mind the look of Linux

Maybe Ill install it alongside Windows

 
Soulfly3 said:
Ya, Im done fiddling w this POS

Tho, must be said, I dont mind the look of Linux

Maybe Ill install it alongside Windows
Click to expand...
I'd use Mint over Ubuntu. You should try a few live USB distro's to see what would work best for you. unetbootin is a go to Linux USB application for that.

 
Had this happen awhile ago and it was the hard drive. I used one of those thingys in post 8 to get all of the data I could off the hard drive. It was very simple.

 
drummer said:
Soulfly3 said:
Ya, Im done fiddling w this POS

Tho, must be said, I dont mind the look of Linux

Maybe Ill install it alongside Windows
Click to expand...
I'd use Mint over Ubuntu. You should try a few live USB distro's to see what would work best for you. unetbootin is a go to Linux USB application for that.
Click to expand...
I tried out a few distributions (including Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, and a couple of others) and ended up going with openSUSE on my laptop. It's working great. I might try slackware next time because of the whole systemd fiasco though. For people moving over straight from windows, the linux window manager is probably a bigger deal than any given distribution - I think each distribution lets you try out different window managers. I use KDE myself.

 
No updates, havent attempted anything yet after Ubuntu

might give mint a try, we'll see.

tough lesson learned for her.

 
Little late to the party but I would try ultimatebootcd to boot from CD/DVD. Then see if the OS see's the disk. If so, copy needed files to a USB drive. Then use UBCD to test the drive.

 
3C said:
Little late to the party but I would try ultimatebootcd to boot from CD/DVD. Then see if the OS see's the disk. If so, copy needed files to a USB drive. Then use UBCD to test the drive.
Click to expand...
Is that still updated?

ETA: Guess so:

20 Nov 2014

UBCD V5.3.3 is now available for download. Besides the usual app updates, CPUstress has been updated to V2.5.4 by Explorer09. You can download the latest version here.

Somehow I was under the impression this was dead. Guess I was wrong!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Soulfly3 said:
No updates, havent attempted anything yet after Ubuntu

might give mint a try, we'll see.

tough lesson learned for her.
Click to expand...
If you are running Windows 7 or 8.1 and you have 6-8 GB of memory, you should install VirtualBox on Windows and run Linux side by side. It's drop dead easy to do - a quick search for VirtualBox tutorial on YouTube will have you on your way. This will allow you to install as many distros as you want (you can't run them all at once) and you choose the pick of the litter.

 
Mister CIA said:
Soulfly3 said:
No updates, havent attempted anything yet after Ubuntu

might give mint a try, we'll see.

tough lesson learned for her.
Click to expand...
If you are running Windows 7 or 8.1 and you have 6-8 GB of memory, you should install VirtualBox on Windows and run Linux side by side. It's drop dead easy to do - a quick search for VirtualBox tutorial on YouTube will have you on your way. This will allow you to install as many distros as you want (you can't run them all at once) and you choose the pick of the litter.
Click to expand...
This is what I did. While it is not "pure" it saves from cleaning my drive to do a dual install and boot loader.

 
belljr said:
Mister CIA said:
Soulfly3 said:
No updates, havent attempted anything yet after Ubuntu

might give mint a try, we'll see.

tough lesson learned for her.
Click to expand...
If you are running Windows 7 or 8.1 and you have 6-8 GB of memory, you should install VirtualBox on Windows and run Linux side by side. It's drop dead easy to do - a quick search for VirtualBox tutorial on YouTube will have you on your way. This will allow you to install as many distros as you want (you can't run them all at once) and you choose the pick of the litter.
Click to expand...
This is what I did. While it is not "pure" it saves from cleaning my drive to do a dual install and boot loader.
Click to expand...
Yeah, setting up dual-boot is for the birds these days, especially on a PC.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

rockaction
My Miniature Christmas Tree And New Year's Snow Globes
2
Replies
51
Views
1K
rockaction
rockaction
Doug B
Old iPhone, old Windows laptop. Can file transfer be done?
Replies
3
Views
125
[scooter]
[scooter]
Galileo
IT/cyber security guys please chime in
Replies
28
Views
724
TripItUp
TripItUp

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top