Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Sun Jan 16 18:05:29 CST 2011
I think your idea of running Spinwrite is a great idea as it sound like you hard drive is failing. I was looking at a discount place and they had Dell computers, 1 GB RAM and XP home...no idea what the hard drive size is but the price was $88. With these sorts of prices around it seems hardly worth wasting time on. OTOH, Tina, your comments suggest a HD failure and if you want to save the drive for its contents, run Spinwrite and when the drive is recovered, image the drive with a bootable CD with something like DriveImage XML, install a new drive then re-image it back and use EASEUS Partition Master to clean up and re-partition the new drive. Reboot and you're done. It is a little more complex than that of course but if you have the tools it will take about an hours worth of your time but a couple days computer time. Jim -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gary Kjos Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2011 2:24 PM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Trying to revive a computer I've not done any dual booting. John Bartow, Drew and Jim are your best bets for advice on this one. Good luck, sounds like you have done the right stuff so far. If you could run SPinrite from a CD or floppy maybe that would be able to fix the disk problems if there are any. GK On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 1:55 PM, Tina Norris Fields <tinanfields at torchlake.com> wrote: > Me again, > Did a little searching and found some information about using the Recovery > Console. Started a chkdsk without switches, which got stuck at about 50%. > Restarted the whole shebang, and this time when I got to the Recovery > Console, the two installations of Windows were listed - they had not been > listed in any of the previous visits to this console. > I logged in to the first Windows installation and am now running chkdsk /r - > we'll see how that goes. Still looking for any great ideas you guys have. > T > > Tina Norris Fields wrote: >> >> Hi Guys, >> >> Maybe you can help me bring a computer back to life. It's a dual boot >> setup – Win 2000 Pro and Win XP Home. It began its life as a Win 2000 Pro, >> and was updated with the second operating system added on a couple of years >> later. The Win 2000 Pro was kept because of a game that wouldn't play on Win >> XP. >> >> This computer belongs to our kids, Cheryl Lynn and Brad, and their family. >> It's sitting here in my office until they finish putting together their >> library and study area in their house. The girls often use it to do homework >> and to visit online with their friends. Three days ago, I saw it had the >> awful blue screen of almost death – the one that says if this is the first >> time you've seen this screen, reboot, otherwise go get professional help or >> call the undertaker because your computer is dead – or something to that >> effect. >> >> I rebooted. It reached the point where Win XP should start and stopped. It >> displayed this message: >> >> "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: >> system32\DRIVERS\pci.sys >> You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the >> original Setup CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair." >> >> I thought I'd try the other operating system. When Win 2000 tried to >> start, it displayed this message: >> >> "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: >> <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll >> Please re-install a copy of the above file." >> >> I had to find my way into the BIOS to switch the boot sequence – by guess >> and by golly to find which function key it needed (I think it ended up being >> F2, but I'm not sure), because it was A:, C:, D: - and I needed D: to come >> before C: Got that done, and put in the Setup CD-ROM and booted. >> >> Setup went through a process of loading lots of files, then came to the >> first screen. I selected the 'r' choice. It brought me to what looked like a >> DOS screen with the following message: >> >> "Microsoft Windows XP(TM) Recovery Console. >> The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. >> Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer. >> C:>" and a blinking cursor >> >> There were no other instructions on the screen and I am not familiar with >> this Recovery Console. First, I thought that perhaps some recovery and >> repair functions had happened in the background and it was time to EXIT. So, >> I typed EXIT and pressed ENTER and the machine began trying to restart – of >> course, I still had the CD in, so we went back around. I removed the CD and >> rebooted, with precisely the same results as before. >> >> I have run Spin-Rite on this computer at three different levels, 2, 4, and >> 5. There is a consistent uncorrectable error reported in the same section of >> the partition. In the technical report screen, it is at the far right of the >> screen, and it says "01." >> >> When the computer goes through the boot sequence, the POST sound is fine, >> but when the operating system selection is made, there is a sort of >> "squishy" sound that reminds me of the noise made by that failing hard drive >> I worked on last year – a sort of high-pitched little squishy peep. I think >> maybe the drive has a really bad spot right where some critical operating >> system files are. >> >> I don't know what commands to use in the Recovery Console. If I did, I >> would certainly give that a GO. Does anybody on this list have any good >> advice – in addition to getting a new hard drive, or new computer >> altogether? >> >> I did try to let Windows install itself, but it came back with the message >> that the partition was too full or sick or something and would have to be >> formatted before installation could proceed. And, no, my kids do not have >> their stuff backed up from this computer, so I did not move ahead. >> >> Thanks for any ideas, >> >> T >> >> _______________________________________________ >> dba-Tech mailing list >> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >> > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- Gary Kjos garykjos at gmail.com _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com