windows xp major problem
 

ok for some reason windows xp pro decided to blank screen me while i was using it, now i seem to have lost ALL of my files, as i had to give it a hard reboot.......

so how can i recover them ? (over 100gb!!!!!) :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

tried a system restore....no cigar

Re: windows xp major problem
 

Can you load in safe mode ( rapidly press f8 when you turn the machine on and select safe mode ) From there open a command prompt and type "chkdsk c:" If the problem is a currupted file system then this will fix it.

Re: windows xp major problem
 

remember the golden rule and always BACKUP!!

Re: windows xp major problem
 

Have you tried the XP Recovery Console using the Win XP CD ROM?

Re: windows xp major problem
 

ill give that a whirl now :)

got this info

C:\Documents and Settings\kronas>chkdsk c:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)..
Security descriptor verification completed.

Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the vo
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

120624020 KB total disk space.
100250620 KB in 66797 files.
26820 KB in 4837 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
154420 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
20192160 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
30156005 total allocation units on disk.
5048040 allocation units available on disk.


on the first load up, xp said it 'could not load my personal settings, and it could not find my desktop :disturbd:


thanks for the helpful advice :rolleyes: i was trying to last night, norton ghost kept on freezing :rolleyes:

thanks to all who helped so far :)

Re: windows xp major problem
 

Run chkdsk with the /f option m8.. Its sounds like currupt files are your culpret.

If you are going to use the recovery system make sure that you choose the second autorecover option and not the first one that is offered.

Re: windows xp major problem
 

OMG 100gb of Avril!!!

Re: windows xp major problem
 

done that no help :(

i choose the option to press 'R' to repair it just brings me to the c:windows prompt what do i do after that.......

and it seems my bios is having troble detecting whats on my IDE cables :disturbd:

Re: windows xp major problem
 

hard drive failure? does it find any ide devices dvd?

Re: windows xp major problem
 

Thats the first one he mentioned kronas. That doe's give you the command prompt. Try again for the second ;)

Re: windows xp major problem
 

im on the pc now, it finds my hard drive (sometimes) but it takes ages to find my cd-rom drives, after a hang, i hit f4, brings up my drives i continue.....

but its the fact that all my files are missing on the drive that bothers me right now!!!!!

Re: windows xp major problem
 

This is because the repair option is just to give you a command line so that you can try and fix your pc at a lower level. It is doing what it should but you need to know what to do next.

What happens when you use the /F option, can you provide the results? If you run it again, is the same error still showing.

Also, there is another command that you can use if all else fails, its called FIXMBR and you would run it from the dos promt in the repair option. This will rebuild your master boot record, but if it cant be rebuilt you hard drive is fooked from a software point of view and will need a reformat.

You say that the BIOS is having problems with seeing your hard disk though, this could be the cable but is more likely to be the disk and it makes it much more likely that this is a hardware and not a software problem. You just got to swap it out and see if the problem goes away.

If it does you know your hard disk is a gonner, and if its under a year old you could send it back to the manufacturer to get them to attempt a data recovery on it.

Re: windows xp major problem
 

Or when you get to the part that asks's if you wont a fresh installion or fix you choose fix and it repair's everything for you from there. Again this is the second option

Re: windows xp major problem
 

when i do it in safe mode it states that it cannot be done because the volume is being used, so it then says would you like to schedule it upon next boot, which i did and it all checked ok.......

it told me my current boot record is 'invalid or unrecognizable' and if i continued my current partition may be unreadable.

problem solved via CMOS clearence.

its out of warranty :(


thats the one i went to.......

Re: windows xp major problem
 

Can you check the drives SMART status?

With a program like Active smart or speedfan?

This COULD (as it's not always accurate) give an indication of immanent drive failure or any problems.