Vist not loading

[Buzby]

Our main PC running Vista will not start up this morning.

We get as far as the loading Windows bar but then the PC resets its self.

We have tried safe mode, last know configuration and booting from the DVD with no success.

I have even tried to repair from the disc and do a restore, also with no success.

The only thing that I think I can do now is to install Vista over the top.

Can anyone advise if I am likely to loose anything from the PC by doing this?
All important items are backed up. It is just those items that are not that important but would like to keep if poss.

Any advice would be welcome.

Many thanks

Jason

[Mike Hughes]

If you reinstall the OS then you'll lose everything on the disk.

If there's stuff on there that you want to keep then the easiest thing to do is to take out the disk and connect it to another PC using a usb to ide / sata cable. You can often get them on ebay for around £20 including a power adapter.

You could also just plug the disk into another PC as long as theiy're compatible (ie ide / sata).

Mike

[chris ashdown]

It sounds like a dard disk failure, we had one last week and you could hear the disk searching, I think we looked in the setup and found something with an error which started S.M.A.R.T. which we were informed was a prelude to a disk failure. Prehapse other more knowlegable can enlighten on this as we were in overload when this happened and not making notes

[acompton]

Can anyone advise if I am likely to loose anything from the PC by doing this?
All important items are backed up. It is just those items that are not that important but would like to keep if poss.

I've reinstalled XP over an existing disk and not lost anything. In XP, it is an option whether to format the disk. Dunno if this is true with Vista.

[OllyBug]

yep, hard drive i would think. If there were no BIOS beeps at start then it is likely that all other components are OK. It could be something like dust on one of the disks. (happened to me a couple of years ago)

Another thing to look at are if all fans are working. If the CPU fan is not spinning Vista may restart as a safety precaution when over heating

Buy a new HD and stick the old one in as a slave to get the data off. Or you can buy a USB to IDE lead - Maplin will no doubt do one.

[CymraegKev]

Swap out the keyboard and mouse too when booting just to check. A couple of weeks ago I had exactly the same thing and it was doing my head in. Safe Mode logging showed me it was restarting on one of the AVG driver loads - it was a new update the AVG the day before that installed a keyboard driver checker on bootup. It turned out one of the pins in the keyboard plug was bent, and the AVG was spitting on that. Very wiered, took about eight hours for me to figure it and a simple swap of the keyboard made it work.

[bcomp]

re-installed XP many times over the years over the top of an installation and never lost any data, there are specific steps so that data and programs etc remain and i would assume it's the same with Vista. It's also quite possible that you could hang the drive as a slave on another pc and copy over any files that you need before you do the re-install just to be sure.

It sounds more like a corrupt Vista update to me which i've seen a few times, but could well be a hard drive problem as suggested.

[Mark H]

I can recommend this gadget for reading bare disks using a USB port:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...avigationKey=0

[gabrielcrowe]

download slax operating system:

http://www.slax.org/

put it on a cd and boot from it.

after it has booted, access your hard disc and copy its entire contents to another external drive, via usb, or your shop folder, to a small usb key (plus any other files you may need).

Slax does not damage, or format your drive and is a clever way to access your borked disc using a friendly interface.

after you are sure you have your gubbins, reformat the drive, or optionally, buy a mac, move to the countryside and take up sculpture.

its much less stressful.

[jont]

dbuy a mac, move to the countryside and take up sculpture.

.. and listen to some jazz. Nice.

[Mike Hughes]

It sounds like you can now re-installan OS without losing data. I guess that shows how long it is since I last tried it.

I'm not sure I'd rely on it, but maybe I'm just a wus regarding data. I'd be concerned that a) it might all go horribly wrong and b) the disk might be buggered anyway.

Make sure you have a good backup and recover any other files you need first and I guess you can't go wrong.

Mike

[gabrielcrowe]

I do not trust windows to leave your data alone. i dont care what the installer says. The installer could simply *choose* to format the filesystem, and you'd loose everything.

I suggested a linux live cd, just for this reason. I know that Slax will not interact with your drive, and you can know that the data is safe (assuming its still there).

A usb connector is actually a great idea, some sort of enclosure, or even the dongle suggested is great.

good luck!

[Buzby]

Many thanks for all your replies.

I have resorted to installing a new hard drive, even though the computer is only 2 months old. I will revisit the thread as soon as I am set up to read all your posts about retrieving the data.

I went to PC World to buy the hard drive and can only compare it to Monty Pythons Cheese Shop, they had as many as Pets at Home next door.

I ended up purchasing a 1TB Hitachi drive which was on offer at £89.99 from Maplin. Here if you are interested http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=36450

Once again many thanks for all your help.

Kind regards

Jason

[Duncan Rounding]

...I went to PC World to buy the hard drive and can only compare it to Monty Pythons Cheese Shop...

Customer: (deliberately) Have you in fact got any cheese here at all.
Owner: Yes, sir.
Customer: Really?
(pause)
Owner: No. Not really, sir.

http://bit.ly/90s9
What a great analogy. (Pun intended)