Computer help sought please

[upthealbion1970]

Hi, my old desktop refuses to start up with this message:

It is a dell with a pentium4, has windows xp and despite its slowness has always fired up. Bought it second hand about 6 years ago.

Any assistance greatly recieved

And yes I've turned if off and on again

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[supaseagull]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

 

[upthealbion1970]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Thanks, but that might as well be written in Greek. I should have put that I'm the least computer literate person I know


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[beorhthelm]

assuming you dont have a CDROM, floppy or USB plugged in that its trying to boot from, that means your hard disk is knackered. not completely, enough that the bit that needs to be read to start is knackered.

if you dont have nay confidence or aptitude for computers, its the computer shop for this one. it is fixable.

 

[Mannakin]

Thanks, but that might as well be written in Greek. I should have put that I'm the least computer literate person I know

Make sure you haven't got a USB memory stick or a bootable PC in the PC when you start the PC.

If you have neither, then it is likely that your hard disk drive has become corrupted. It may be possible to recover this is you have the original CDs with Windows on it (or can find someone with a copy). http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/ntldrntdetect.htm

Do you have anything important on the PC i.e. music, documents or photos? You have them backed up to an external disk right? No,
probably not
If your hard disk has been corrupted and you manage to get it back working, buy an external disk drive and back any important stuff up.

PCs fail - hopefully you haven't lost anything important. If you have, it's a painful way to learn to back up your PC.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Hi, my old desktop refuses to start up with this message:

It is a dell with a pentium4, has windows xp and despite its slowness has always fired up. Bought it second hand about 6 years ago.

Any assistance greatly recieved

And yes I've turned if off and on again

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Can you here the Hard Drive power up when you turn on the machine?
If you do and it makes a clunking noise it might be game over.

I don't how competent you are, but one way to get data off your hard drive if it is not knackered is to boot a Linux Live CD.
You can boot Linux and run the operating system off the DVD. It should find and mount your windows drive on the desktop. Plug in your USB drive, and should be able to drag the files over.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

NTLDR is the o/s loader
If you put your Win XP cd in and boot from that, re-running install will detect the presence of your C: drive installation and repair / correct the missing loader file and you're sorted ....

 

[GreersElbow]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318728

In all honesty, upgrade. You can get some fairly decent laptops these days for about £400, just try and find one that does Win7.

 

[upthealbion1970]

Thanks for the replies folks, I can hear something spinning up and there's no klunking sounds. Much as I'd love to upgrade I can't afford it (the joys of being a carer), and no I've never backed any of my stuff up
I didn't get any discs with it when I bought it, and I'm not competent with this type of thing at all
Will have to wait to get some funds together for a trip to a computer shop so no pies at the Amex for a while for me!
If anyone has any recommendations for somewhere reliable and not stupidly expensive near newhaven I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks again


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[Tom Hark Preston Park]

And yes I've turned if off and on again

Then I'm afraid I can be of no assistance on this occasion

 

[upthealbion1970]

Then I'm afraid I can be of no assistance on this occasion

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[Billy the Fish]

Can you here the Hard Drive power up when you turn on the machine?
If you do and it makes a clunking noise it might be game over.

I don't how competent you are, but one way to get data off your hard drive if it is not knackered is to boot a Linux Live CD.
You can boot Linux and run the operating system off the DVD. It should find and mount your windows drive on the desktop. Plug in your USB drive, and should be able to drag the files over.

^^^^^^

What he said.

 

[burnee54]

I'm assuming your O/S is XP?

Press either F2 or DEL on boot up.
Set the BIOS to boot from CD and pop the XP cd into the drive.
With XP you can install windows to the same drive folder without wiping everything first.
You will still have to reinstall your programs like Office etc but your other data should be safe.

 

[burnee54]

Just found this on youtube might be helpful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FifJkeLzR0

Shows you how to recover from your problem step by step.

 

[upthealbion1970]

I'm assuming your O/S is XP?

Press either F2 or DEL on boot up.
Set the BIOS to boot from CD and pop the XP cd into the drive.
With XP you can install windows to the same drive folder without wiping everything first.
You will still have to reinstall your programs like Office etc but your other data should be safe.

Just found this on youtube might be helpful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FifJkeLzR0

Shows you how to recover from your problem step by step.

I really appreciate the advice, but I don't have the XP cd


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[burnee54]

I would love to help you out but I am off on holiday in the morning. Try borrowing one from a friend. As long as you get the same version as the one on the bottom of your laptop. Just read the label carefully.

 

[EDS]

I used this on my friends old laptop and it got it working again, very simple to use but you do need your own Windows product key, on your computer somewhere. Not bad for £4.50

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Windows-X...ting_Software_Software_SR&hash=item3a80d55788

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

no pies at the Amex for a while for me!

That should save you £20 a game