Vista's dead (at least this copy)

[Fuzzyblob]

I had a lot of programs open on my Dell XPS m1330 notebook yesterday, and one of Adobe's programs (probably Acrobat) was installing an update (I'm not sure if that's relevant, but it's the only readily apparent reason I can think of for this to happen all of sudden). The system stopped responding (it wouldn't even bring up task manager), and after a few minutes of waiting I lost patience and forced it to turn off. Now, when I turn it on it presents two options: repair windows, or start normally. Selecting the first just makes it load the same screen again. Starting normally, it gets to the progress bar loading screen and just stays there indefinitely. Booting into safe mode reveals it's hanging at crcdisk.sys. I've tried booting up with the Vista disc to try and repair it, but the oddest thing happens: it appears to load the files, and then a mouse appears on a blank black background, but nothing ever loads after that. It still didn't load after I left it sitting there for two hours while I went to see the new Frost Nixon movie (which was overdramatized but fascinating, and had great performances). It hangs on Last Known Good Configuration as well. I really need my laptop for school. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mechBgon]

From a fact-finding point of view, my next move would be to make a bootable HDD-diagnostic CD and run HDD diagnostics. Do you know what brand of HDD it is?

From a "I need my stuff rescued" point of view, I'd take the HDD out of the lappie, put it into an external enclosure, and concentrate on getting copies of any important files I need rescued.

 

[Fuzzyblob]

OK. Is there a specific program you would recommend?

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

As mechBgon was getting at, you can get a utility from the manufacturer's website. They're usually the best. If you don't know the manufacturer and don't feel comfortable taking the HDD out of the laptop, you could probably get by with a mashup boot CD that has multiple utilities. The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows has HD Tune, which could do an error scan and check for SMART issues, for example.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Fuzzyblob
OK. Is there a specific program you would recommend?

I was thinking of the one made by your HDD's manufacturer, so if it were a Seagate drive, that would be SeaTools, and if it were a Western Digital, it would be Data Lifeguard.

 

[Fuzzyblob]

Sorry, I was in a rush this morning and missed your question. I don't think I can use UBCD because it requires an XP disc, which I don't have. The manifest for my laptop says "HD,250G,S2,9.5, 5.4K,TSHBA-LEO", which I assume means it has a Toshiba HD. I burned the Dos version Toshiba's diagnostic Seatools, but as it was loading on my laptop I got this error:

"Invalid opcode 7147 1660 3006 4C30" .... "006B
Invalid opcode DACB 8B00 024"

Google only has one mention of this specific error, by somebody on a forum almost a year ago. He doesn't say how he resolved the issue, and I can't see how to contact him. Any ideas how to fix the problem with Seatools, or what program I should use instead?

 

[Fuzzyblob]

OK, here's a status update. I called Dell, and they walked me through using Dell's built in diagnostics to scan the HD for errors (it's very convenient they've got that programmed in there, and a good thing too since the Toshiba and subsequently the Dell HD diagnostics couldn't load for some reason!). It found a bunch of errors, so tomorrow I'm going to reformat the disc and reinstall Vista. As per your suggestion MechBgon, I bought a hard drive enclosure and am now backing up my data to my desktop using that in concert with O&O DiskRecovery. So we'll see how that goes. Thanks so much for your help!