when it rains it pours

[Infamous]

ok, so the other day my 2nd machine took a crap, last night my main gaming rig crapped out.. i think that i have a windows issue, i can i think hear the HDD, system starts, goes through bios, but when windows icon should appear, i getnothing,
here is my real problem. i have the windows disc in, and i am sitting looking at the windows recovery console.. it asks me which installation of windows i would like to log onto, or to hit enter to exit.

what do i enter here? entering 1 doesnt work, and if i hit enter it restarts,, i am completely lost, and extremely frustrated. id like some help if you guys can, especially help "fixing" and install of windows as opposed to a complete reinstall, i still have stuff id like to try and recover first.

[Infamous]

if my HDD wont boot up, do i use "fixboot" or fixmbr" what happens during those choices. Fixmbr seems to be more severe , and it suggested that i do not do it if i am NOT having a hard time accessing HDD...

Fix boot asks me if i want to write a new boot sector, but i do not know exactly what that means or if it will screw up and of the old files i have on there i am looking to get.

[Infamous]

fixboot did nothing for me...
fixmbr gives me the prompt " this computer appears to have a non standarrd or invalid mbr"
fixmbr may dmg my partition tables on this drive. doing so may make all partitions unaccessable.

i guess my problem is this,, am i having a prblem accessing my drive? windows wont start, so id say yes. but im not sure. i know some of you are techy's big time, and often fix this stuff for a living. sorry to be such a bum, but i am lost.

being 1 rig down was rough, 2 down forces me to type this crap out on GF's laptop which id call a POS but its actually running right now, so i cant.

[Duke{CLR}]

I would stop fiddling with it until someone who is knowledgeable about these things posts here or you could loose all you data if you haven't already.

[Infamous]

ive stopped, its just sittin in console mode.

[Warhead]

Do you have all of your important files, pictures etc. backed up somewhere else? If you need stuff that's on that drive, someone in the flesh is going to have to help you for the best chance of saving anything

[Infamous]

the thing tht is stopping me is im not sure, i did just move all my photos from it, to the other comp that cashed, so as far as music, photos, i know im set.
i pretty much only game via steam, so im not too worried about losing all that info.. local stuff like setting will be a pain, but whatever.

still going to wait a bit till i bite the bullet and just try to reinstall. thing that is killing me is with both machines down, i am unable to trouble shoot or swap parts to test hardware. being one of the most impateint folks i know with two of the worst weeks in a long time under my belt is just stressing me out.. something has to give.


when all this is done i need to get with someone about ow to set up a back up routine. maybe use an old Hdd for my source.

[Warhead]

If you're fairly certain you'll be ok with some data loss, go to the drive manufacturers site and grab their bootable disk diagnostic utility. This will usually help you tell if its the drive or just some bad files.

[Infamous]

i tried pulling my hdd from the other computer into the big one in order to try and get it to boot. didnt work, now i am unable to enter setup, or console mode, im frustrated, tired, angry and going to bed.


if anyone else has some advice, im down for it, otherwise, i think i may just be screwed.

[Infamous]

i can get back into bios this morning, but nothing from there... i think tonight comes the wipe unless i can get some advice (

[Duke{CLR}]

I would just wipe it and move on as it sound like you have the data you need.

[Infamous]

yeah, since i have talked myself into the reinstall, i am now screwing around with some of tee options available in the recovery console. my biggest let down is i dont have any friends with desktops allowing me to just pop this in as a slave and dbl check first.

hope to be up and running on at least 1 machine by sat morning,,, we'll see

[Warhead]

Knoppix Linux Boot CD, Download Disk and Documents, Discuss, Get Help

If the contents are still readable, knoppix should let you access it.

I still suggest the manufacturers diagnostic utility to see what caused this in the first place, and to do a low level format before installing again, especially if there is an MBR issue.

[Infamous]

maxtor didnt offer anything useful. so the manufacterers stuff wasnt an option.

i cant seem to enter bios or get it to boot from cd now. i tried the "repair" option when i was going to just reinstall,,, it didnt seem to help at all

[Infamous]

"Ntkrnlmp.exe Could Not Be Loaded Error Code 7"

lastest and last problem for the night. cant install windows from disc, and i cant seem to format the disc via a bootable dos disc. i am not savvy enough in dos to get it to format. i looked up that error, says its some sort of power setting error. resettingto default bios doesnt seem to take.

i think i am going to have to rob a bank, and take it into the "experts". i should take a class on this stuff......

((not actually going to ride a bank))