PC not loading Windows

[ryanbatc]

My wife's Dell is pretty old now at 6+ years.

Yesterday upon power up I get a black screen with white text stating something like "sorry for the inconvenience but Windows did not load successfully, it may be due to a recent hardware change" and so on

So what might be the problem? I checked all the connections - everything was secure and appeared as normal. I wasn't even able to run safe mode with cmd prompt (in attempt to run CHK DSK). The power supply fan was spinning as well

I can get into BIOS, and I can change boot order. I put in a Windows XP install CD and it loaded up the setup files ok, but I don't want to format anything yet. There's data on the HDD that could be important. I don't have an extra HDD to test with...

Any ideas?

[Apache Warrior]

You could put the HD in your computer as a slave and copy the important files, before you did anything else.
Apache

[ryanbatc]

As an update I attempted to run the repair option (from windows CD). It didn't do what I thought but it did get me a temporary command prompt - which is what I needed. I ran CHKDSK and the scan found errors on the hard drive. Which was my initial conclusion as to why it wasn't loading XP.

Let's say I want to read the drive from my system. It's not a SATA drive I think its EIDE or whatever those old ones are. How would I go about doing that.

Or, is there something else I should do to remedy the problem?

EDIT: I just read your response apache.... How could I do that?

EDIT AGAIN:

Thanks for your help, I *think* I have it solved.

What I did was insert the original Win XP CD and choose the "repair" option. I then ran CHKDSK, which gave some errors. I then booted into safe mode finally (successfully) and the Windows desktop and all files appeared to be intact. Then I powered off, rebooted without the CD in the drive, and loaded Windows as normal. Things appear to be back..... hehe time will tell.

This PC is definitly on its last leg. I can't believe it's lasted 6 years lol

[juneau]

You can pop it into a different PC as a slave drive and recover as much data as you can, however the drive sounds like it could be dying. Make sure you do not keep accessing the drive before you do this, as each time it's powered up the likelihood of more data becomming corrupt increases.

[ryanbatc]

Ok thanks, it's sort of our backup pc, well not like saved pictures, but just another pc for email and internet usage. I will make sure everything is backed up.

[Apache Warrior]

You can pop it into a different PC as a slave drive and recover as much data as you can, however the drive sounds like it could be dying. Make sure you do not keep accessing the drive before you do this, as each time it's powered up the likelihood of more data becomming corrupt increases.

I did not say it quite as well.
Apache

[MRDEATH[GoD]Gen]

Get yourself a WD USB external hard drive...they come in all sizes.But all your important stuff on it,being pictures or music or important documents.Its not safe to keep them on your main drive....all it takes is one bad bug and you can lose all of it.With a USB external hard drive,you can back things up and then disconnect it and keep it in a safe place.

[juneau]

I did not say it quite as well.
Apache

Maybe you were in a rush.