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Windows XP forum: xp won't boot

by: murman May 10, 2007 11:09 AM PDT

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xp won't boot

by murman - 5/10/07 11:09 AM

A friend of mine who has a emachine he bought from walmart said his machine won't boot, but will into windows. Let me explain. It'll boot up to the windows screen, but fails to continue with the message: windows failed to boot properly. There are options on the screen, but he says he's tried them all and none of them work. I suggested he go into safe mode from a cold start and try to run a virus scan. I have one of those linux live cd's and was wondering if anyone has used this to do any repairs to windows? Also he doesn't have a restore disk as such. They put his os on a seperate partition. I also suggested he make his partition the 1st boot device in his bios, but he's got some pictures and such he wants to try and save. Any help would be appreciated.


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Not familiar with E-Machines

by retired - 5/10/07 12:07 PM

In Reply to: xp won't boot by murman

But some have a hidden recovery partition on the HDD that is started by tapping a key combination such as F11 while booting. That will do a simple non-destructive recovery. If you don't have that option and no CD you will have to get in touch with the Manf to get one. Also one can download the 6 disk floppy set from http://www.bootdisk.com/ to run the Recovery console. I have used the Linux live CD to save data but not to repair the OS.


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EMachines

by murman - 5/10/07 2:55 PM

In Reply to: Not familiar with E-Machines by retired

It does have the recovery partition on it, but he wants to try to save the photos and what not. I think the recovery partition will put it back to the original state when he first bought it. I might give him the linux cd just to try and see if he can get to the system restore function in xp. Thanks


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sometimes recovery give options

by mark04276 - 5/10/07 6:59 PM

In Reply to: EMachines by murman

try to start recovery and see if it gives options.


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emachine

by murman - 5/11/07 3:47 AM

In Reply to: sometimes recovery give options by mark04276

Yes, it does have options, but he said he's tried them and none work. He called me while he was at work (at night). He also said he'd try some of the stuff I suggested and call me back the next afternoon after he's got some sleep. Haven't heard from him since. I'll have to call him and catch him at the right time. I'll have to gather some more information on what he's done so far. He may have got it for all I know. Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated.


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The Linux option is a good one

by MarkFlax Moderator - 5/11/07 4:08 AM

In Reply to: emachine by murman

eg using Knoppix on a CD is a very good way to access a hard drive and copy those files he wants to retrieve.

The problem is, he needs something to save them to, eg a 2nd CD/DVD R/RW drive, an USB external hard disk or a flash drive. Without any of those he can't copy the files. If he only has the one CD burner then he needs that for the Knoppix CD to load up.

He could conceivably upload them somewhere on the internet because Knoppix allows internet access, but you would have to investigate where that could be.

I hope it works out for him.

Mark


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emachine

by murman - 5/11/07 4:49 AM

In Reply to: The Linux option is a good one by MarkFlax Moderator

I've used it before, just playing with it on my machine. I read somewhere that you could use it to access windows and copy files, but I haven't tried it. Sounds good anyway. I think I'll let him have use and if don't work try something esle. Thanks


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