My Computer is on the fritz . . . Again!

[Mithosphere]

Well looks like something really screwed up this time. I dont know how it happened, but I shut it down for the first time in a couple of weeks, ya know for the uninstallation and installation of programs, but now it refuses to restart. That's not entirely true, it starts, it just doesnt go past the windows loading screen.

Now i get the whole beep start-up show the Sony logo and the little progress bar for the Windows Home loading image, but then it just goes to black and the little lights stop blinking. Its disturbing. Although it is about 5-6 years old. My father thought it was the video card, but it couldnt be because then i couldnt see anything. Also its not either of the monitor ports -vga or dvi- tried both.

After the black screen, my LCD merely shows the No connection or something like that. Yea so something is up with it any ideas?

On a side not, i still have 8 or 9 gigs of music that i have yet to copy to my external (i only have 4 GB left on the 160). That and i need to get some other important info off of it, so is there a way for me to transfer files off of the internal drive? Like simply putting it into another computer? I needs the help.

Also ill probably be in the market for a cheap gaming rig, well ya know one under 600, if that is possible, cause i figure i can reuse the hard drive and maybe the ROM drives, im just more concerned about the computer tower itself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Mithosphere

[Capper]

try firing up the system in safe mode

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by Capper

try firing up the system in safe mode

Yes, and just in case your not sure how to do that, as you start to boot the system, hit the f8 key, and the boot up option screen will come up.

[Panda Man]

Also from the menu of boot options, you could give "l;ast known configuration" a try. If that and safe mode both fail... then it looks like you have a corrupt installation. Grab the XP disk!

[gvblake22]

Yeah, try booting into safe mode and see how that goes. But before you reformat and loose all your music, you could try putting that HDD into a friend's computer as a secondary drive and see if you can recover your files that way. Don't try to boot from the drive, just boot from the main drive in your friend's system and then open up the contents of your drive once you are into windows and then plug in your external drive and finish the transfers. Sounds like you need a good reformat though. Either that or your HDD is going bad (but let's just hope that is not the case).

[Mithosphere]

well, it wont let me boot into safe mode, although i can access the bios, but then that doesnt really give me any options.

As for removing files, can i still access the one partition with the OS on it? like stuff in the My Documents folder . . . One of my friends had a problem where he couldnt rip anything from that folder, because he didnt have administrative access. Also could i just hook the HDD into an external enclosure or would i have to have a direct connection internally?

[Hitman]

You could make a BartPE disc, and transfer the files to your external from BartPE.

Another option would be to reinstall windows, but don't format or partition your HD. You can then go into the Documents and Settings Folder, transfer the files then to a clean install.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Mithosphere

As for removing files, can i still access the one partition with the OS on it? like stuff in the My Documents folder . . . One of my friends had a problem where he couldnt rip anything from that folder, because he didnt have administrative access. Also could i just hook the HDD into an external enclosure or would i have to have a direct connection internally?

You could probably plop it in external enclosure too if you wanted. But I suggest doing it directly to the motherboard via IDE because the tranfer speeds will be much better compared to USB with the drive in an external enclosure.

HERE is some more information about the BartPE thing Hitman mentioned. I've never tried anything like that or know much about it though...

[Mithosphere]

Ok that reinstall of Windows, sounds good, but what exactly do i need to do for that? I really dont have an XP disc persay, merely 4 recovery discs from Sony . .

[gvblake22]

I think he was referring to a repair install, in which case you really need your Windows disk. You should have gotten it somewhere with your computer. I don't think they can legally sell you a computer with windows installed without giving you the original disks.