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Computer won't boot up and black screen with pointer
(46 posts)
juhank48,
Am not sure what the re-install disc does on a pre-built machine.
Was thinking if you had a FULL copy of Vista, may be could install WITHOUT formating and that would create Windows.old directory where you could retrieve data.
I have never run Vista, only XP and Windows 7.
Do NOT do anything until one of the Vista Folks can help you.
Rick P.
I recommend that you attach your drive to another computer and see if you can retrieve your data. I use a Sabrent USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable for 2.5-Inch/ 3.5-Inch / 5.25-Inch Drive with Power Adapter.
You can try this. You have to burn to Cd then boot off of the Cd.
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm
Copy all your files to an external storage device.
Once all your files are safe then you can attempt restoring your system.
I have tried everything I know to try to get access to any of my drives. I cannot access any prompts to try to type in a command. This is totally frustrating. Someone told me how to get to my drives when this happened years ago on another machine. I really believe this is viral, but I cannot run any scans to check because I can't access the drives. I appreciate any suggestions you can provide. I really don't want to lose my info on the computer. (taxes, documents, etc.)
If OP thinks it's " Viral but can't run scans"
Have you tried the portable SuperAnti?? ( Download towards the bottom) Obviously making the portable cd on another computer.
http://www.google.com/url?q=ht.....Wq4f6t7Alw
Granny maybe talking rubbish, sometimes the simple's can give you a start.LOL!!!
If it's a virus you will need to use a bootable utility so windows is not in the picture.
You mentioned you can't access your Cd, is it broken?
If you try and use your Vista disks you will be starting from scratch and will overwrite everything on your hdd.
This might be your best option
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download.
Download it then make a bootable USB drive. The instructions are right on the downlaod site.
This will allow you to recover your data then you can do a clean install
I cannot get to my c prompt the cd drive or anything else. The computer goes to the windows screen then cycles back to the start windows normally or repair screen. It won't go any further. If I go into safe mode, I get the same thing. It appears to load the windows drivers then hesitates and goes back to the same screen. I tried booting to safe mode with C prompt. Same thing. I tried resetting bootup options to cd drive as priority. Same thing. I am totally stuck! I can put a CD into the drive and it does the exact same thing. It never reads the data.
What CD are you using in the CD drive? Is it actually a bootable CD? Do you get the message when starting "Press any key to boot from CD... ? Do you press a key? Will that CD boot i8n another computer?
If you are actually booting from the CD you should not get any Safe Mode selections.
It is not even recognizing the disk in the cd drive. It goes directly to the windows welcome page and cycles back to the repair computer or start normally. The same thing happens when I go to the Safe Mode. It loops back and forth from the welcome page to the start up page. It does this when I set the bootup to start with my hard drive or the cd drive.
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