gizmo87

Yeah, i've checked all that :-/ I think i'll just admit defeat on this one and just grab a new hard drive lol I appreciate all your help though :-D Thanks so much :)

Yep, tired that, it's now going on to a black screen, white writing saying Searching for boot record from IDE-0.. not found Searching for boot record from cdrom.. not found searching for boot record from BBS-0.. ok Searching for boot record from SCSI.. not found

Just tried it, i've got a blue screen saying "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer" IT's telling me to check for viruses and make sure the hard drive is properly configured.. But obviously i cant check for viruses if i cant get on to the computer lol

No i haven't tried that, i'll give it a go now and get back to you, thankyou :) *fingers crossed*

Hello i'm in serious need of help :) I have a Packard Bell PC running xp, on startup i get this error message Windows root\system32\hal.dll please replace (or something smiliar) I can't boot in safe mode, when i went into bios the computer is seeing the HDD but i just wont start up at all and i've tried every suggestion i've found on forums, even down to silly things like checking cables and removing and replacing RAM:-s I have no recovery disk and i'm not too bothered about losing the data, there's nothing on there that i desperately dont want to lose. I have heard that i can connect the HDD as a slave to my other PC with a working version of xp and replace the corrupt files that way????? I have no idea how to do it and wondered if someone can talk me through it, if it is at all possible? Thanks :-D

It Worked! I'm using it now. You are a genius lol Thankyou so, so much!!! *Virtual squeeeeze*

Does that mean the first thing it'll go to is the CD? I haven't tried that, i dont know how to lol

That's what i thought. Would it be worth re-installing XP on the Advent? I figured it's the last thing i can try really, but i dont know if it'll solve all the problems he's caused with it/ As for the Floppy disk for the packard bell, it's a red one that says "packard bell recovery disk" I have been on other websites and forums and it mentioned something about an additional CD but they were all getting a bit technical and i couldn't understand a word of it :-/

First of all.. Hi! I'm a complete noob to the whole massage board thing so you'll have to excuse me. First of all, i have an Advent PC running on Xp Home. My lovely ex boyfriend f**cked it up something royally and i cant get on the internet at all anymore amongst various other problems. I tried to do system restore which he had turned off so i then tried running the recovery CD. At which point i found out he had made his own admin account to which i dont know the password and have spent HOURS trying to guess. When i try to run the recovery CD it says something like the administrator has blocked this action. Second of all. I gave up with that and i'm now using an archaic Packard Bell which is running at the speed of a snail, i can only assume it's because someone has put XP on it when it was originally Windows 98 and i have never seen anything so old inside a PC! I want to run the recovery disk on that too because i assumed it would put it back to 98 and run a little faster? But i cant work out how to run the floppy disk lol Any idea for any of my problems? I'm clueless. Thankyou.