Guest A Watcher Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 My wife's laptop won't boot up. I can access the files on the HD by using a linux livecd. That tells me that the file table is still OK so there must be something wrong with the boot sector. Either it got overwritten or it has gone bad. We can't find the original Windows CD that came with it. What can I do? Thanks for any help.
Guest sgopus Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 RE: Boot sector clobbered? any errors displayed? "A Watcher" wrote: > My wife's laptop won't boot up. I can access the files on the HD by > using a linux livecd. That tells me that the file table is still OK so > there must be something wrong with the boot sector. Either it got > overwritten or it has gone bad. We can't find the original Windows CD > that came with it. What can I do? > > Thanks for any help. >
Guest A Watcher Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Boot sector clobbered? sgopus wrote: > any errors displayed? > > "A Watcher" wrote: > >> My wife's laptop won't boot up. I can access the files on the HD by >> using a linux livecd. That tells me that the file table is still OK so >> there must be something wrong with the boot sector. Either it got >> overwritten or it has gone bad. We can't find the original Windows CD >> that came with it. What can I do? >> >> Thanks for any help. >> The message says "We apologize for the incovenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this." I'm beginning to think that some Windows files were overwritten or damaged. I created a boot cd from a different PC and it tried to boot. It first did a disk check and repaired a couple file links and then proceeded to give me the same error message. None of the modes works. The Knoppix cd still works so I can access the files. She uses MSN, though, and it doesn't store the saved messages in text files. I can recover the other stuff if I have to.
Guest Rey Santos Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Boot sector clobbered? How to fix a computer that won't start http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/support/nostart.mspx#2 -- Rey "A Watcher" wrote: > sgopus wrote: > > any errors displayed? > > > > "A Watcher" wrote: > > > >> My wife's laptop won't boot up. I can access the files on the HD by > >> using a linux livecd. That tells me that the file table is still OK so > >> there must be something wrong with the boot sector. Either it got > >> overwritten or it has gone bad. We can't find the original Windows CD > >> that came with it. What can I do? > >> > >> Thanks for any help. > >> > The message says "We apologize for the incovenience, but Windows did not > start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have > caused this." > > I'm beginning to think that some Windows files were overwritten or > damaged. I created a boot cd from a different PC and it tried to boot. > It first did a disk check and repaired a couple file links and then > proceeded to give me the same error message. None of the modes works. > > The Knoppix cd still works so I can access the files. She uses MSN, > though, and it doesn't store the saved messages in text files. I can > recover the other stuff if I have to. > > > >
Guest Patrick Keenan Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Boot sector clobbered? "A Watcher" <stocksami@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:luApi.11738$zA4.1805@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net... > sgopus wrote: >> any errors displayed? >> >> "A Watcher" wrote: >> >>> My wife's laptop won't boot up. I can access the files on the HD by >>> using a linux livecd. That tells me that the file table is still OK so >>> there must be something wrong with the boot sector. Either it got >>> overwritten or it has gone bad. We can't find the original Windows CD >>> that came with it. What can I do? >>> >>> Thanks for any help. >>> > The message says "We apologize for the incovenience, but Windows did not > start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have > caused this." > > I'm beginning to think that some Windows files were overwritten or > damaged. I created a boot cd from a different PC and it tried to boot. It > first did a disk check and repaired a couple file links and then proceeded > to give me the same error message. None of the modes works. > > The Knoppix cd still works so I can access the files. She uses MSN, > though, and it doesn't store the saved messages in text files. I can > recover the other stuff if I have to. Would suggest that you make that backup first. Then, figure out how to get a replacement CD to do a repair install. HTH -pk
Guest A Watcher Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Boot sector clobbered? Thanks for the microsoft link. Perhaps I can find something useful there.
Guest A Watcher Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Re: Boot sector clobbered? On Jul 25, 7:13 am, "Patrick Keenan" <t...@dev.null> wrote: > "A Watcher" <stocks...@earthlink.net> wrote in message > > news:luApi.11738$zA4.1805@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net... > > > > > sgopus wrote: > >> any errors displayed? > > >> "A Watcher" wrote: > > >>> My wife's laptop won't boot up. I can access the files on the HD by > >>> using a linux livecd. That tells me that the file table is still OK so > >>> there must be something wrong with the boot sector. Either it got > >>> overwritten or it has gone bad. We can't find the original Windows CD > >>> that came with it. What can I do? > > >>> Thanks for any help. > > > The message says "We apologize for the incovenience, but Windows did not > > start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have > > caused this." > > > I'm beginning to think that some Windows files were overwritten or > > damaged. I created a boot cd from a different PC and it tried to boot. It > > first did a disk check and repaired a couple file links and then proceeded > > to give me the same error message. None of the modes works. > > > The Knoppix cd still works so I can access the files. She uses MSN, > > though, and it doesn't store the saved messages in text files. I can > > recover the other stuff if I have to. > > Would suggest that you make that backup first. Then, figure out how to get > a replacement CD to do a repair install. > > HTH > -pk Yes I will certainly save what I can before trying any fixes! Thank goodness for Knoppix.
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