Posted: 8/28/2011 2:06:08 PM EDT
| My desktop computer has been continuesly rebooting at restart and I can not get into windows (I am on my laptop). I have tried starting it in safe mode but it still reboots even in safe mode before windows gets open. All the info I have found online says to restart it in safe mode but does not say what to do otherwise. It has windows XP, I just need to get back in it to do one more back up for my music and pictures. After that, I am throwing it out. Thanks for any suggests. |
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If that's all you need boot it up using a Linux CD and copy the needed items to an external drive. Scan the newly copied items before opening in Windows. No access to the antivirus boot up disc and what is a Linux CD. I already have a external drive I do back ups on. |
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You have a virus, do you have access to a virus boot disk? I have been working on computers for over a decade and i have seen countless computers that will not boot into safemode. it had absolutely NOTHING to do with a virus as posted already, use a cd like knoppix or another live cd and copy your files to a usb thumbdrive. then either take the computer in for diagnostics or... |
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You have a virus, do you have access to a virus boot disk? I have been working on computers for over a decade and i have seen countless computers that will not boot into safemode. it had absolutely NOTHING to do with a virus as posted already, use a cd like knoppix or another live cd and copy your files to a usb thumbdrive. then either take the computer in for diagnostics or... Agreed. It _could_ be a virus/malware, but that's hardly the only thing that could be wrong here. OP, if you have access to another machine, you might be better off putting the drive in that and then backup your files. You could also get a USB to HDD adapter and plug it into another computer to back up our files. A live CD would do it, too, but this might be easier. |
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Quoted: Quoted: If that's all you need boot it up using a Linux CD and copy the needed items to an external drive. Scan the newly copied items before opening in Windows. No access to the antivirus boot up disc and what is a Linux CD. I already have a external drive I do back ups on. The Linux CD will allow you to boot your desktop into a Linux OS for the purpose of rescuing your data to an external hard drive. Download the Ultimate Boot CD ISO image (CD image) from here to your laptop (laptop must have a cd-burner): http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html If you are familiar with bittorrent, use it to download the image. Otherwise, use one of the download mirrors at the bottom of the page. Burn the image to a blank CD. There is a specific way to burn ISO images to a CD that differs from burning regular data to a CD. If you don't have a program that supports burning ISO images to CD, use Active ISO Burner. The link to that program is half-way down the page that I linked you to. Plug in your external HDD to the desktop. Put the UBCD into the desktop and restart it. Or, given its current state, just turn it on and let it restart itself. If your BIOS is configured correctly, on the next restart, the machine should boot from the CD instead of the HDD in your desktop. When you get to the UBCD main menu, go into the 'Others' category and select 'Parted Magic.' Boot with default settings. This will boot you into a tiny version of Linux with a graphical user interface. Double-click 'My Documents' and start rescuing your data. When you are finished rescuing your data, you should reboot back to the main UBCD menu and use the manufacturer-specific hard drive diagnostic utility to check for hardware problems first, before doing anything else. |
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Quoted: You have a virus, do you have access to a virus boot disk? Doubt that. Sounds more like the oh-so-annoying SATA driver problem which causes a BSOD when windows is trying to load, but it reboots before you can see the BSOD and fetch the info from it. This would also cause a reboot going in to safe-mode, which is what makes me think this is the problem. Somewhere in BIOS will be a SATA setting you can change, your options will usually include SATA, IDE, AHCI or Compatibility. Change it to Compatibility and try booting up the laptop. If that fixes the problem, then fetch the latest SATA drivers from the motherboard manufacturers website and install them, then change that setting back to default in BIOS. Edit: Just noticed he said it has XP, even more reason to believe this is probably SATA driver related. |