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Vista not booting on Laptop

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Vista is refusing to boot on my laptop, the laptop itself is only a few months old,

I've tried booting

Normally,
Last known good configuration,
Safe mode,
System repair

All that is happening is it's getting to the loading screen (where it says Microsoft Vista and the green loading bar, and thats it, the bar keeps moving but nothing after this, i've waited but nothing.

Help please, We have very important photos of my son (last 2months worth) on there and need to get them off)

I'm running out of ideas, help please?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My Guess would be that the way it Boots Up has been changed, but sounds like a damaged file.

    But you say you've already tryed the system repair that is the same as Recovery console right?
  • smitherzsmitherz Posts: 968 Part of The Mix Family
    Yea I would go with recovery console if its a boot problem.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    I don't know about vista, but I had a similar problem in XP and it was a damaged boot sector.
    Fixed by loading up the installation CD and using "fixmbr".
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Problem is, I cannie find the boot disk or it didn't come with one

    and is it recovary console? i may be this im using, says "loading window files!" then onto windows load screens then stop,

    Hmmm don't mind the reinstall, if I can find my disk. got my Key just not the disk. although not had a proper look for it, grrrrr
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Quite a few major OEM's don't ship their machines with recovery discs anymore, alot of them will have a utility on the machine, which will let you create a disc from a blank CD/DVD. Of course this is no help if you've not created one.

    As others have said, if you can get hold of a windows vista disc (any will do) and use the recovery console to do chkdsk, this will usually fix most boot problems, If you don't have your disc, and you're not afraid to open your laptop, then you could take the HDD out and connect it to your desktop PC and let your windows XP scan it as a slave disc (Usually if you put a drive with a knackered install into a machine with a good install, the good install will realise that the drive needs to be checked and automatically do that)

    If your laptop is relatively modern then it may have a sata connection, in which case you won't need an adaptor at all, if it's the older IDE then you'll need a 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor (£5 in maplins)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    noog wrote: »
    Quite a few major OEM's don't ship their machines with recovery discs anymore, alot of them will have a utility on the machine, which will let you create a disc from a blank CD/DVD. Of course this is no help if you've not created one.

    As others have said, if you can get hold of a windows vista disc (any will do) and use the recovery console to do chkdsk, this will usually fix most boot problems, If you don't have your disc, and you're not afraid to open your laptop, then you could take the HDD out and connect it to your desktop PC and let your windows XP scan it as a slave disc (Usually if you put a drive with a knackered install into a machine with a good install, the good install will realise that the drive needs to be checked and automatically do that)

    If your laptop is relatively modern then it may have a sata connection, in which case you won't need an adaptor at all, if it's the older IDE then you'll need a 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor (£5 in maplins)

    Hmm i got a Vista disk for my desktop but it says for use with Dell machines will this work? I could try booting from the disk etc,

    I dont really want to open it as it is still under warrenty.

    Its a 2/3month old Fujistu Siemans Amilo Lappy,
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hellfire wrote: »
    Hmm i got a Vista disk for my desktop but it says for use with Dell machines will this work? I could try booting from the disk etc,

    I dont really want to open it as it is still under warrenty.

    Its a 2/3month old Fujistu Siemans Amilo Lappy,

    Oh one of my customers has one of those, and i can confirm it never came with a recovery disc. Your dell vista disc should be ok to run chkdsk from but NOT to install from.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    It's cos its shit.
    No, seriously. It breaks msot things it comes across.


    Boot Sector error I say. Indrid is probably right. I'd say, honestly, get a cheap laptop to IDE wire and rip out the HDD, plug into PC, backup everything, and request the disk off the laptop company. If not, torrent it.

    Recovery Console is a fucking joke. And a bad one at that. Try it, but don' hold out hope, eh?

    Dell vista will run on any pc FINE. It just will need ALL the drivers, motherboard, gfx, etc, as it will only come with Dell ones.

    As a last ditch effort mate, get and download DS Linux, it boots off CD, and then you can access and copy any files you need onto a USB pen.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What He said ^^

    Good Luck
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    noog wrote: »
    Oh one of my customers has one of those, and i can confirm it never came with a recovery disc. Your dell vista disc should be ok to run chkdsk from but NOT to install from.
    How do i do a chkdsk?

    and Gerbal, know anywhere with DS linux to download, at work atm and cant look at certain sites.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

    chkdsk.... generally, I use a boot floppy for that. So no idea off CD's...
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