Laptop help : vista update
 

on updating the laptop its stuck on a loop,

stage 3 of 3, and restarts.....

no cd/dvd drive on laptop,

no recovery software

i have important files on this, and need it operational,

any help will do

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Restart Laptop, press F8 straight after Bios Screens. You may need to press a few times.

Select Last Known Configuration and press enter.

If this don't work, restart and select Safe Mode instead.

Re-run Windows Update.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

any joy with safe mode? if not perhaps source a live cd of sometype pclinux works in ram if you have enough (I dunno if other nix do as I do not know anything about it) this will allow access to your files I believe. The other option is a clean install but leave the partition intact if you have some operating system software.

Do you have a Vista dvd?

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

tryed going into safe mode, it still does the updating and restarts, and the last known config doesnt work it does the same,

the livecd thing is a nogo as its not got a cd/dvd drive, unless it works by usb flash pen thingy

edit: yeah i got the disk but no dvd drive,

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

yeah sorry missed that you can get distros to boot off usb but you will need some other nix gurus to sort you out.

What machine is this? how can it ship with no way of recovery?

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

when i go to boot the recovery it like says

edit windows boot options for : vista bla bla

path \windows\system32\winload.exe

partition: 2
hard disk: do4bf3dd

[ /noexecute=optin ]

then it goes to load vista again and carries on with the restarting

---------- Post added at 21:07 ---------- Previous post was at 21:06 ----------

i wouldnt mind going the usb way, i could do whats needed that way?

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

what machine is it

http://www.linux-usb.org/

you would be better off waiting for those more knowledgable in nix

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

just some random acer laptop, dont know model number, couple months old,

okies i'll wait for them

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Take it you have tried hitting CTRL and F11 or just F11 I think they are the combos for acer

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

yeah thats when its coming up with the edit boot options,

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

You can convert a Linux CD to USB with this tool:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Personally, before I messed with it any more I'd pull the hard disk and slave it to another machine. If you have important files on there you want to be damn sure they're safe before you try to mess with recovery options.

Unfortunately this requires special connectors, so you'll probably need a tech.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
you'd need a 64mb usb device to make a damn small linux bootable OS. The instructions there are pretty good.
if you have alarger device, you could put on something you may find more user friendly/feature packed, but a simple Damn Small Linux should be enough to see your files, I'm fairly sure it can see NTFS now. If nto maybe Puppy Linux can.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

you can get external usb interfaces that may be ok for just getting files off a misbehaving drive

for example

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...C=SO&U=strat15

for IDE

or a bit more expensive (at Maplin anyway) for SATA

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...C=SO&U=strat15

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

but if he can't get the lappie to boot it's all theoretical anyway.

That's why I suggested the slave route.

I guess boot from a USB stick and save to a USB drive could be a workable combination but it's a lot of work when a slave job would be quicker and easier.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

SysrescueCD will run happily off USB flash drive, only abt 250Mb and you can read NTFS and save files to the flash drive.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Cool link, thanks.
:)

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

I do own solutions for both ide and sata laptops. I have an esata docking station that takes sata and I have an laptop ide to usb caddy so id be ok lol

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

This might help:

http://vistape.net/

Though you will need an ISO image of Vista. If you know where to look I'm sure you'll find one.

Worse comes to the worst, you can do an inplace upgrade with it.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Instructions for mounting an NTFS HD are here.
Typically you would do something like -
fdisk -l (find out the device name for your NTFS partition, usually /dev/sda1, and the USB drive, /dev/sda2 - fdisk tells you how big each disk is, so easy to spot which is which)
mkdir /mnt/windows
mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
mkdir /mnt/usb
mount -o rw /dev/sd2 /mnt/usb
cd /mnt/windows
<find files>
cp <files> /mnt/usb/

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Ditto. Sadly they're not the sort of kit the OP is likely to have kicking around in the kitchen drawer..

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

ok, ive put my hd of laptop into my pc, but the pc doesnt pick it up?

am i doing something wrong?

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Ricky, you need a special adaptor that supplies power to the disk as well as the data connections. If you don't have one of these don't try it. You may damage the disk.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

if its sata is it not powered the same whether 2.5 or 3.5 thats how my docking station works anyway

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

it looks like i just need a sata cable to connect it to the motherboard, i have the other lead that plugs into it to give it power,

how cheap are theses leads?

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

Oops, you're quite right. It's getting late and I was thinking IDE..

Ricky, they're cheap as chips. If you have a local small pc shop they've probably got a box full.

Re: Laptop help : vista update
 

hey,

just thought i'd inform you all,

stop messing about with it all , went to my mates used his external and reinstalled it,

now to turn off microsofts updates