computer boot problems.....

[rubberman]

Got a DELL desktop with windows ME. Yesterday it worked fine but today it wont boot up. It will when i select Safe Mode but the Normal Mode it hangs right after the Dell boot screen. I tried scanreg/restore but that didnt help. SYstem restore wont work. any ideas?

[Garibaldi]

Got a DELL desktop with windows ME. Yesterday it worked fine but today it wont boot up. It will when i select Safe Mode but the Normal Mode it hangs right after the Dell boot screen. I tried scanreg/restore but that didnt help. SYstem restore wont work. any ideas?

Could you just backup your data in safe mode and then do a clean install?

[bazooka]

When is the last time that you ran scandisk?

[rubberman]

everytime i booted up in safe mode it would run scandisk right before everything loaded on the desktop.

I was trying to avoid a clean install but i guess i may not any other choice.

[bazooka]

You may need to run a thorough scandisk, and have it check the disk surface as well as check for errors.

[rubberman]

scandisk runs everytime i boot up in safe mode. no errors

[bazooka]

scandisk runs everytime i boot up in safe mode. no errors

You are not understanding me.

There are two types of scans.

One is standard and the other is thorough.

By default standard runs at startup.

You need to switch from standard to thorough.

[Garibaldi]

I was trying to avoid a clean install but i guess i may not any other choice.

Do you have files on the hd that you want to recover? If you can't get your hd to work I would recommend that and then a clean install as a I said before. If you can't burn from safe mode, you could always use a live-cd to burn your data off.

[rubberman]

i did a thourough scandisc which ran for a couple of hours and it did not find any errors. also in safe mode my cdr and dvdrw drives are disabled so i cant maybe any backups of my files.

[rubberman]

is this possible can i partition my HD and install windows on that then somehow transfer my files from the old OS to the new OS which will be on the same HD. Possible?

[ViRaL1]

It's possible. You can also reinstall the OS over top of itself without reformatting. All your files should be there. Apps MAY need to be reinstalled but you shouldn't lose any actual data.

[rubberman]

it wont let me partition the extra on the HD. When i run fdisk it shows the partition as Non-DOS but when i start safe mode it shows it as FAT32. So when i run the ME setup it sees the partition as NFTS(non DOS) and kicks out. Is there a way to activate my cdrw drive in safe mode?

[bazooka]

You have to delete the non-dos partition.

[rubberman]

the non dos partition is what windows is on.

[ViRaL1]

Sounds like your boot disk is an older version of DOS that doesn't recognize FAT32. If so, you might try getting a more up to date boot disk.

[rubberman]

its my ME boot disc

[ViRaL1]

It's possible your FAT may be corrupted.

[rubberman]

gonna go reformat and reinstall windows. thanks for your help.

[Garibaldi]

it wont let me partition the extra on the HD. When i run fdisk it shows the partition as Non-DOS but when i start safe mode it shows it as FAT32. So when i run the ME setup it sees the partition as NFTS(non DOS) and kicks out. Is there a way to activate my cdrw drive in safe mode?

YES! There is a way for you to make your cd burner work- use a live-cd.
download and burn the iso file from
www.slax.org
and burn it to a cd. Then insert the cd at startup and you will boot a live-cd version of slackware linux. This should let you access your hd and burn all your files to cds using the burning program K3b.
I hope this will help!

[ZAPPER]

Can't you pull your HD, install a new one, install your OS get everything going like it should and then add your old drive with its data back into the mix. I mean thats how I got stuff strewn all over my PC

[Garibaldi]

Can't you pull your HD, install a new one, install your OS get everything going like it should and then add your old drive with its data back into the mix. I mean thats how I got stuff strewn all over my PC

You could do that but it may be less time consuming to just use the slackware os from the slax live-cd to access the hd. That way you can access and burn off the info without having to install a new hd or install xp twice.

[gmatov]

If you actually have a "non-DOS" C drive, you may be able to revive it with your boot disk, and when you get to A:\ prompt, do a " sys C: "

It sounds like your System Files are corrupted, Command, MSDOS.sys, HIMEM.sys, the like. Sys C:\ will rewrite them to the C drive.

Worth a try.

Cheers,

George

[rubberman]

I Installed ME back on there and got all the other programs installed. The only problem now is that i cant get the sound card to work. Its a Sound Blaster Live Value which sounds really good with my Harmon Kardon with Sub. The computer will recognize it but says it needs the drive. I used the driver cdrom that came with but freezes up when trying to install that driver. I also tried old and newer driver but get the same result. Also tried different PCI slots = no go. Think the card is toast? any ideas

[Garibaldi]

I Installed ME back on there and got all the other programs installed. The only problem now is that i cant get the sound card to work. Its a Sound Blaster Live Value which sounds really good with my Harmon Kardon with Sub. The computer will recognize it but says it needs the drive. I used the driver cdrom that came with but freezes up when trying to install that driver. I also tried old and newer driver but get the same result. Also tried different PCI slots = no go. Think the card is toast? any ideas

Go to www.driversguide.com and sign up for a free account. You can then search for and download the drivers for your soundcard, and when the installation asks you where the drivers are, tell it that folder rather than your cdrom.

[rubberman]

i downloaded the drivers from Creative;s website so would that even matter?

[Garibaldi]

downloaded the drivers from Creative;s website so would that even matter?

Just use those then rather than the ones on the cd and it should be fine

[rubberman]

i did download the drivers from Creative. didnt help

[Garibaldi]

i did download the drivers from Creative. didnt help

What did you do with them specifically? Was it an executable that you installed or a bunch of dll files in a folder? I would give drivers guide a try if you can't get that to work, you've got nothing to loose.

[rubberman]

i think it was an exe file.

[Garibaldi]

i think it was an exe file.

Yeah, I would try drivers guide and download the dll files. Then go through the setup you did before and instead of choosing the cd choose the folder with the files, that way you know for sure that it installed the drivers.