XP on laptop won't start

[compudog]

I have a Dell Latitude that won't boot. XP SP2 animated screen comes up for about 20 seconds and then it flashes quickly to a BSOD stop error, but too fast to see anything. I did a FIXMBR and FIXBOOT under recovery console but still no joy. Any suggestions? There is some data on the HDD I'd like to recover but have no way (without buying a laptop HD to 40 pin converter) to access the drive.

 

[compudog]

TTT

 

[FlyingPenguin]

First off a laptop to IDE adapter costs maybe $12. You can also buy a 2.5 HDD USB enclosure for $15 shipped at NewEgg. Anyone who owns a laptop should have one of these just for emergencies.

You could also boot the laptop using a BartPE disc and copy everything to a USB memory stick or USB hard drive. Most modern computers will recognize a USB drive when you boot with BartPE (drive needs to be plugged in BEFORE you boot since BIOS needs to recognize it).

BartPE disc builder download: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

ANYWAY, some suggestions for fixing the OS install on the drive:

- Download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic utility. Run the FULL (Advanced) diagnostic (may take hours). If it passes there's nothing physically wrong with the drive. If it fails it MAY allow you to repair the damage.

- Run scandisk on the drive. Can you at least boot into safe mode? If so run scan disk from there. Otherwise you can do it from the recovery console or booting from a BartPE disc.

- You can try a repair install of Windows (assuming the drive passes the diagnostic and you've scandisked it). Instructions: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

- Your registry may be corrupt. If you can't get into Safe Mode and the "Last known good configuration..." boot menu option doesn't work, there's a way to manually restore the registry from the repair folder backup, which should allow you to boot into Safe Mode and use system restore. Procedure described here (this procedure is MUCH easier if you use a BartPE CD instead of the recovery console): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

- Last option is, of course, to transfer the data however you can, format and do a clean install.

Hope this helps...

 

[compudog]

Thanks FlyingPenguin! BartPE did the trick. I was able to run the BartPE CHKDISK and get back into Windows. I copied the data to a network share before the hard drived clicked. It still runs, but freezes in 30 minutes or so. Thanks again.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Glad that worked. You might want to do a thorough spyware scan just in case. Here's my detailed spyware removal instructions: http://soldcentralfl.com/flyingpenguin/spyware/spyware_help.html

Then run a FULL virus scan from SAFE MODE.

I would also recommend you download the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility and do a FULL (Advanced) diagnostic on the drive to make sure it's not failing on you.