computer crashed and won't reboot, help

computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

I am writing this at my folks house on the old computer that I gave to them. Been having problems lately with ultra slow computer, ran various spyware programs, had just reinstalled mcafee virus protection and was scanning for virus's when I went to the Doctor. Came home couple hours later, my computer was asleep or so I thought. Couldn't reboot in safe mode, so I took my computer down to the local repair shop. Hope they have success, I have a large microsoft plus (part of old office) schedule and contacts file that I'm afraid may be lost, oh what to do, any recent problems with the window xp service pack 2 that I installed last week, I haven't a clue.
anyone here of any similar scenarios lately?

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

ya couldt boot in safe mode? it may have to have os reinstaled

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

Don't let them reimage your computer! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif If you have to buy another hard drive and image that. Then with both drives in the computer new one master, old one slave, see what you can retrieve off of the old hard drive. Good Luck!

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

buying another hard drive sounds good, i'll check in Tuesday after hearing from the tech. Odd that my computer crashed immediately after reinstalling McAfee virus scan and was running a scan while at the docs. Anyone hear of any attack spyware that could do something like that. MrBulk and some other people have had problems with their machines lately, wonder if there is any connection.

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

Really not that odd. First could you give spec on what the PC Make, proccessor, memory, etc. How long you have had it. I have had PCs, servers run nie for years. the moment you shut them down of upgrade them (old pc) the spindle on the HD snaps. If it was a old PC say three years +, tho it should not happen (i still have a 128k Mac with a 10MB HD Still rockin), its possible. I have seen BRAND SPANKIN New computers go bad. When you say that it would not boot up, what exactly do you mean. No power at all? LEDs light up then shut down? Beeps when it boots powers up? Any error messages like could not find bootable device, etc. Have to have more details.

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

You use one of the Linux live distros to boot Linux from a CD, then you can check to see if the HDD is dead or not.

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

Assuming your user data was not encrypted, pull the drive and put it as a slave into a working XP computer. You should easily be able to get your data back. That should be the absolute FIRST priority here.

A local tech will likely try to "fix" the "pc" as a whole. This is secondary.

If you have no backups, do not play around with your data. Also, you want someone GOOD working on this. Give me your amex # and I'll fly out first thing in the morning.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

If you can get to a a PC with a CD-RW try this:

Ultimate Boot CD

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

nah, you guys are jumping the gun. It just be a power supply issue. If it is, a bootable cd wont do !@#$. baby steps.

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

[ QUOTE ]
keithhr said:
buying another hard drive sounds good, i'll check in Tuesday after hearing from the tech. Odd that my computer crashed immediately after reinstalling McAfee virus scan and was running a scan while at the docs. Anyone hear of any attack spyware that could do something like that. MrBulk and some other people have had problems with their machines lately, wonder if there is any connection.

[/ QUOTE ]

I work at a hospital and support a few hundred computers, and yes a virus can bring a computer down. You said that you have already tried the f8 and safe mode to do a restore correct?

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

I couldn't even boot in safe mode, took it down to a repair shop and was told they couldn't get anything from my documents for files folders, I had em install two new hard drives and was able to get my contacts list back in this computer from a cd copy I made a few months ago. I've been setting this pristine empty computer up for the last few hours, internet, e:mail etc.

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

do you still have the old hdd?
you would be surprised what i have recovered from a trashed drive by hanging it on my test board and booting knoppix.
open k3b and drop the files into the project and click burn.
this will teach you to ghost it when you get it set up again.

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

As snakebite said, I would try to access the drive yourself I just don't trust any shop. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Re: computer crashed and won\'t reboot, help

hmmmm, keith IMHO, it sounded to like a pwer supply issue. a $40.00 fix. Thats just my gut. you really did not tell me much on specs and symptoms, etc. glad your back up tho. make backups brother.