Solved Computer won't boot - HELP!!!

[richc46]

Thanks so much but I have to just skip back a step. I just found my VISTA product key on the sticker on top and I am going to have to plug in the new HDD. I rang NEC and it will cost $45 and 2-3wks to get a copy of VISTA OEM disc. Can I download it from somewhere now I have my product key? Or do I boot with Ubuntu disc I made and then download Vista? Or is it better to upgrade to Windows 7??? I'm kinda lost here. Apparently I will need to install drivers and things as well. Sorry I'm such a knuckle-head pain in the bot

Before you download anything, you have to decide do you want Vista or Do you want Seven. You will need the upgrade version of Seven if you decide to go with Seven. The cost of the upgrade in the USA is about $135.00. If it were my computer, and could afford it, I would go with Seven. Vista is really yesterday and Seven is Today. Seven has an easier to use UAC and it has a lot of "eye candy" that you will probably like. Once your computer is ready, download to see if you can handle Seven.
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - Download - Microsoft Windows
If you can handle Seven you must decide do you want 32 bit or 64 bit and if you can handle 64 bit.
Why You Should Go 64-Bit With Windows 7
32-bit and 64-bit Windows: frequently asked questions.
When you install Seven or Vista, be sure that you are online. Most of the drivers and things that you need will be downloaded automatically.
You no longer need Ubuntu to install either Seven or Vista.

 

[pombonted]

BAD NEWS The disc is DEAD! What I found on the disc earlier about RAID 0 is a bit weird bc when I went back to p/up PC he asked me if I knew about the 2nd HDD. I had no idea there was another sitting up near the DVD drive. Anyway, it's the RAID 0 #1/2. So now I know what that means. So the computer was sold to me as a 500GB but there were 2x 500Gb HDD configured to a RAID 0, which apparently makes them faster at transferring data BUT a VERY high risk of danger i.e.if one disc dies then everything is lost on both. If u don't back-up then you will be "crying in your beer" like I did bc you will lose EVERYTHING!!!.

I didn't resort to the putting it in the freezer bc he said he is going to reinstall Vista Ultimate to one of them to run programs and he will format the other so I can have that one to store data on if it's OK.

So will see what happens in the end tomorrow.

So the advice I got from you all was wonderful and I'm glad I went and sort the help of this guy who seems marvelous.

Just to note, the specs on the one they were trying to sell me yesterday was LESS than this old one which was bought in Aug 2007, so I'm glad I held off and worked thru it with you guys. I would never have been able to do any of this myself and I have also now found a local guy who is super good and will go to him when I get some cash and get a new one.

Backing up this lappy as we speak, and gonna take the time to sort all my data & back-up and do the maintenance stuff that Richard has documented above.

So thanx again for all the help.

Pom xo :D

I will hopefully post a happy conclusion to this sorry saga tomorrow.

 

[tom982]

Ill be honest, I mentioned in my first post that I really could not add much more to the thread as Tom has been very thorough and has followed procedure to get you up and running. I dont really think that the cause is due to your hard drive being too full. I think that the hard drive has failed. I cannot be sure of that because your particular situation is confusing to say the least. If you are able to load Ubuntu it follows that you should be able to use the Vista CD, but you cannot. I have never heard of that problem before and I know Tom is just as baffled. Tom always tries his best and gives every member 100% and knows his stuff, but your situation is unlike any other that either of us has seen before.
I know you are not in the mood now, but after this problem gets resolved and it will, one way or another, post to remind me and I will give you excellent advice on how to maintain your computer and easy instructions on how to back up your entire drive (not just your stuff) so that in the event of any problem you can just fix the computer and put everything back the way it was before the onset of problems.
The advice that I will give you will be easy to follow and you can ask any questions that you have, so that when the next problem occurs you will be able to fix it without any loss of time. In fact, I hope that with the proper maintenance, you will not even have any problems.

Hi Rich,

Yes Tom has been wonderful. I am only new to this forum and I don't really know what I'm doing. I seem to keep missing him in between bc of the time difference.

I tried to reboot with the Windows Home Premium disc and it tries really hard but nothing comes up on the screen.

I tried ur link to get another Windows Disc but I'm afraid I'm an idiot and can't do it. I don't know what version my computer was (it had 4Mb of DD2 RAM) so I don't know whether it is 32 or 64 download. Regardless I downloaded 32 and then don't know what to do from there???

So I ended up on the other page to do a Recovery Disc and then that file wouldn't open???

Then I ended up on the page to make a USB bootable thing and got the USB formatted and then it asks about DVD or ISO and I don't know what to do from there???

Then this computer froze up and I had to close and reboot.

I think this one might be close to it's end as it's got the HD all in red now and I tried to back-up yesterday and it gave me an error msg and wouldn't do it.

So I'm completely lost. I just saw Tom pop on b4 but I missed him again. Sorry if I've broken any rules about who I'm supposed to be talking to but I joined in a panic and haven't had time to read the rules.

Very lost and frustrated at the moment???

Thank you both for the kind words They really do mean a lot to me.

Hi everyone,

Well I think I may have stuffed things up somehow??? Don't know for sure.

I went searching for a computer place and the one I wanted had closed down so I ended up just calling into one I drove by, pure chance. A lovely Chinese man took it and had a look. His computer could read the HD as 500G, but he said there was nothing on the disc. He sound it sounded fine and it was warm from me playing with it but there was no info on it. I could really tell this guy knows what he is doing. He asked if I had formatted the disc and I know I didn't. Maybe it got infected???

Anyway, I said that even if a disc has been reformatted I've heard that some criminals know how to get at the info. He agreed there was way to try to recover data. Said it was very slow - probably take one week. He said he'll charge $150 if they can get any data off it. Said I can have a new HD for $90 so either way I'll need another HD to get the computer running again and if he gets info he can transfer it to that. I just can't afford a new computer at the moment so I think that was a fair offer he has made. So u were right Tom and I 'm sure those other guys were having a lend of me.

So now I need to work out how to b/up my laptop onto one of my external HD. So any info about how to do that would be greatly appreciated.

I'll keep u posted so if anyone has the same problem in future it may provide an answer.

Still not sure why Ubuntu would even recognise the HDD when hi computer did, even though he said there's nothing on it????

That's great news! I'm glad you managed to find a cheaper alternative, the other one was truly extortionate! With something like this, it's an easy sell for them if they push it strong enough, the customer is usually distraught about their data and the company can (unfortunately) use that to their advantage.

There are all sorts of fancy things they can do to your drives to recover data, so hopefully something will work. Take a look here if you want to have a read up on it:

Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory

#2 on that page. It's full of complicated words, and I don't even know what half of them mean, but it's an interesting read if you've got a few minutes.

Yes, it's strange that Ubuntu won't recognise the disk but other software will. Perhaps it's due to the RAID configuration :huh:

BAD NEWS The disc is DEAD! What I found on the disc earlier about RAID 0 is a bit weird bc when I went back to p/up PC he asked me if I knew about the 2nd HDD. I had no idea there was another sitting up near the DVD drive. Anyway, it's the RAID 0 #1/2. So now I know what that means. So the computer was sold to me as a 500GB but there were 2x 500Gb HDD configured to a RAID 0, which apparently makes them faster at transferring data BUT a VERY high risk of danger i.e.if one disc dies then everything is lost on both. If u don't back-up then you will be "crying in your beer" like I did bc you will lose EVERYTHING!!!.

I didn't resort to the putting it in the freezer bc he said he is going to reinstall Vista Ultimate to one of them to run programs and he will format the other so I can have that one to store data on if it's OK.

So will see what happens in the end tomorrow.

So the advice I got from you all was wonderful and I'm glad I went and sort the help of this guy who seems marvelous.

Just to note, the specs on the one they were trying to sell me yesterday was LESS than this old one which was bought in Aug 2007, so I'm glad I held off and worked thru it with you guys. I would never have been able to do any of this myself and I have also now found a local guy who is super good and will go to him when I get some cash and get a new one.

Backing up this lappy as we speak, and gonna take the time to sort all my data & back-up and do the maintenance stuff that Richard has documented above.

So thanx again for all the help.

Pom xo :D

I will hopefully post a happy conclusion to this sorry saga tomorrow.

I'm sorry to hear that! Fingers crossed that your data can be recovered though, it sounds like you've got a lot at stake! Do let us know how it goes

Yes, it takes a while to set up to begin with, but once you've done it once, it's much quicker for future runs. Plus, it's well worth doing, Rich's post with those instructions just about covers every problem that you'll run into

Tom

 

[pombonted]

OK I'm back. Finally got my PC back up and running and found what I think is an old back-up from may 2011. Not too bad BUT to do a full restore will mean I lose this computer gain so I did a full back-up on an external hard drive (twice) and I don't know whether to risk? I also don';t know if this b/up isfrom the desktop (the one that lost everything or the laptop which were both named LeannePC (not smart I know but there were defaults). So now wondering what to do??? I would like to see if it was the right back-up and it it is I'd like to run with it BUT also would like to just be able to add back in the current file. Again I don't have a VISTA CD in case I lose my operating system just the OEM code. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[pombonted]

False alarm,it was a back-up of the laptop and I could access the files to see without a whole restore issue.

Thank you everyone for all your help thru this whole drama, I have learnt so much.

Pom xo

 

[tom982]

OK I'm back. Finally got my PC back up and running and found what I think is an old back-up from may 2011. Not too bad BUT to do a full restore will mean I lose this computer gain so I did a full back-up on an external hard drive (twice) and I don't know whether to risk? I also don';t know if this b/up isfrom the desktop (the one that lost everything or the laptop which were both named LeannePC (not smart I know but there were defaults). So now wondering what to do??? I would like to see if it was the right back-up and it it is I'd like to run with it BUT also would like to just be able to add back in the current file. Again I don't have a VISTA CD in case I lose my operating system just the OEM code. Any help greatly appreciated.

False alarm,it was a back-up of the laptop and I could access the files to see without a whole restore issue.

Thank you everyone for all your help thru this whole drama, I have learnt so much.

Pom xo

That's great I don't usually help during the day, I focus on revision, and I was planning on posting later. But it's good to hear that you've sorted it all out! I've only got a few minutes now, so I'll reply to your PM later, just thought I'd pop in here quickly.

Once again, you're most welcome It's always nice to help someone as appreciative as yourself. You would be surprised at the number of people who just won't post back at all after we've helped them out. But occasionally, we get people like you who make it all worth it