Computer dying

**Eagle5US** · 02-15-2006, 09:53

SONY VAIO LAPTOP:
1GB RAM, 3MHz processor

Last night opened the deck to ifnd
"No operating system detected"

Restarted the computer in safe mode. ALL OK
Ran virus scan: Shut down during scan with above message

Restarted:
tried disk analyzer...unable to analyze due to corrupt file segments

Ran CHKDSK from DOS Prompt
Multiple unreadable file segments with some corrupt files "deleted"

restarted:
tried disk analyzer and defrag...unable to analyze due to corrupt file segments

Restarted:
Tried SYstem restore
"Unable to restore system to earlier time"

Restarted:
ADOBE Photoshop CS2 unable to start, CONTROL PANEL will not initialize, attempts to run MSCONFIG from DOS prompt resulted in shutdown with
"No operating system detected".

I have 30 GB of music and 28 of photos I really do not want to lose

. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Eagle

hoepoe · 02-15-2006, 10:08

Ok

My suggestion:
2 options:
Get hold of an external/usb hard drive with an operating system installed, connect it.
Configure your BIOS to boot from it
Boot, copy the data if possible
get a new hard disk for the laptop
or send it to me :-)

option 2
get hold or download a linux live cdrom
boot from cdrom
connect to network/other pc
copy all data if possible to pc 2
get new hard drive
or
send laptop to me:-)

Hope this helps
seems that the issue is clearly a faulthy hard drive. Is it still under warranty? did you give it a knock about? if the answer is yes there is warranty, no you dod not abuse it, meybe the warranty will cover new HD and data transfer?

Hoepoe

HOLLiS · 02-15-2006, 10:48

I have lost serveral HDs. Do you have a boot CD/disk?

Use the recovery disk and check.

Check connections HD, electrial and data cable. Sometimes they get loose and HD will not work.

or... you may need to take it to a tech.

Dead HD's data can be recovered, but from my understanding it is very expensive.

I guess a future prevention would be to back things up. We have three machine, two with rather large HDs. I have imporant info on BU on another machine. There are USB HDs that have gotten rather inexpensive, that might be a future BU option or CD Writers.

**Eagle5US** · 02-15-2006, 21:30

Thanks.....
I'll give that a shot!

BTW...I saw an add for your blades in Combat Handgunner this month. Very nice

Eagle

Warrior-Mentor · 02-15-2006, 21:30

Check you out!

Not just all screaaaach...

Who you gonna call?

Sacamuelas · 02-15-2006, 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle5US

BTW...I saw an add for your blades in Combat Handgunner this month. Very nice

Eagle

Me too... don't remember which mag it was, but I thought it was great the way she gave an insider tribute to NDD's old username from some of the other websites. Very "sneaky".

I wonder if NDD knew she was using his endorsement in her new ads about the discount HAK.

**The Reaper** · 02-15-2006, 21:45

Quote:

99% non-screech! Mostly sweetness instead!

Just the arms, and the nails.

TR

**Eagle5US** · 02-16-2006, 08:17

Quote:

Anddddddddddddd, ::stern tone::

Eagle, did you dog-ear the page and leave all of them folded open to that page, and then quietly walk away? Hmmmmmmmmmm?

Actually, that wasn't an ad, that was coverage! Big difference! Latter is highly preferable!

99% non-screech! Mostly sweetness instead!

Just perused it on the news stand...didn't buy it (yet)

Tried your suggestion...same results as running it in normal start-up mode. A whole SLEW of unreadable segments...then it goes to deleting some corrupt segments. But alas no change.

Martin was kind enough to give me a call last night with some good thoughts and then e-mail me some program informaiton-but it will have to wait until this weekend when I can buy another drive.

I also tried to delete Photoshop CS2 and there are corrupt file segments that prevent the uninstall program from either repairing or uninstalling all of the sudden.

Any continued ideas would be welcomed.

Eagle

Detcord · 02-18-2006, 23:24

All computer users who have "work" on their system should make frequent backups. HD's are pretty reliable, but like anything in life, they fail at the worst possible moment.

"Work" means anything you have spent a lot of time creating, converting, finding, etc.

a single 15kb webpage that took a long time to find, a 100-page report, or 30 gigs of MP3's are examples of "work."

Computer systems really have no "value," it's the work we create on them that's of value.

Let's say my boot drive self-destructs. With frequent backups, I can walk into any computer store, buy a new system, and be up and running at full strength in minutes. OTOH, if I lost my work I could buy a hundred new systems and all that hardware won't help me get my lost data back, and I'd be back at square one.

Get "Spinright" Eagle, best $89 you will ever spend.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

**Eagle5US** · 02-19-2006, 00:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detcord

All computer users who have "work" on their system should make frequent backups. HD's are pretty reliable, but like anything in life, they fail at the worst possible moment.

"Work" means anything you have spent a lot of time creating, converting, finding, etc.

a single 15kb webpage that took a long time to find, a 100-page report, or 30 gigs of MP3's are examples of "work."

Computer systems really have no "value," it's the work we create on them that's of value.

Let's say my boot drive self-destructs. With frequent backups, I can walk into any computer store, buy a new system, and be up and running at full strength in minutes. OTOH, if I lost my work I could buy a hundred new systems and all that hardware won't help me get my lost data back, and I'd be back at square one.

Get "Spinright" Eagle, best $89 you will ever spend.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Thanks for the lecture. It provides exactly zero assistance.

All of my files are now backed up onto a USB drive. ...going to try your suggestion again. Last time, no joy. Additional suggestions would be appreciated. FYI-this SONY VAIO did not come with any software on disk. I called SONY and they said they quit supplying software disks about 3 years ago "because systems nowadays are so reliable and system restore should solve any problem you have"

Sure-OK.

Ambush Master-
If you could please send that program to the secondary e-mail address I sent to you. Outlook quarentined it when it came through.

Thank you both once more.

Eagle

Huey14 · 02-19-2006, 07:17

USB drives are the shit. I bought mine from Uni but was ripped off to hell (which I didn't realise at the time).

I've got mine here with me but I didn't bring some of the files I wanted to because I wasn't sure if they would check it.

But it turns out I could have brought them through.

**The Reaper** · 02-19-2006, 10:52

So, now we know that the Chinese government has not yet blocked this site.

How interesting.

TR

FearMonkey · 02-19-2006, 11:23

Unfortunately I can't offer any advice of value on how to breath life back into a hard drive on it's last legs, but I can offer some advice if you decide to get a new one. I suggest visiting NewEgg, they sell computer components for extremely cheap. Since you've got all your files backed up on a USB thumb drive it will make it very easy to swap your hard drives and get up and running again.

Here's the link for Hard Drives from NewEgg:
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Ca...sp?Category=15

Once you have a hard drive in hand you can install it yourself too. Swapping a hard drive on a laptop is a bit more involved than it is on a desktop version, but here's a step-by-step guide to swapping hard drives on a Sony Vaio laptop:
http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/sonyhdswap/

Just be sure you ground yourself by touching metal before handling the hardware because static electricity is a computers worst enemy.

That should be all the information you need if you want to go that route. By going this way you can save some moola by keeping your laptop away from a techie. Hope this has been helpful, and good luck with your laptop.

**Eagle5US** · 02-19-2006, 12:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcogan

Unfortunately I can't offer any advice of value on how to breath life back into a hard drive on it's last legs, but I can offer some advice if you decide to get a new one. I suggest visiting NewEgg, they sell computer components for extremely cheap. Since you've got all your files backed up on a USB thumb drive it will make it very easy to swap your hard drives and get up and running again.

Here's the link for Hard Drives from NewEgg:
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Ca...sp?Category=15

Once you have a hard drive in hand you can install it yourself too. Swapping a hard drive on a laptop is a bit more involved than it is on a desktop version, but here's a step-by-step guide to swapping hard drives on a Sony Vaio laptop:
http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/sonyhdswap/

Just be sure you ground yourself by touching metal before handling the hardware because static electricity is a computers worst enemy.

That should be all the information you need if you want to go that route. By going this way you can save some moola by keeping your laptop away from a techie. Hope this has been helpful, and good luck with your laptop.

Thanks for the links. I am back up and running on the "original" HD after some fiddling in safe mode. Only a few file (and one program) causalties.
The hard drive swapout may be the best plan at this point.

Eagle

Huey14 · 02-19-2006, 22:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

So, now we know that the Chinese government has not yet blocked this site.

How interesting.

TR

Point taken, Boss.