PC advice

When I switched on the PC this morning I got the following message
"disk boot failure, insert system disc and press enter"

I suspect this is a hard disc failure but any clues welcome. I don't
have a separate system disc but have used the recovery and diagnostic
discs that came with the machine to no avail.

I have E Mailed Catman separately as he has repaired previous
problematic computers to see if he can help this time. And yes I
haven't got all (most but not quite all) of my data backed up just in
case anyone wishes to know how much of a numpty I am!

Paul C
via Google

 

Something similar happened to a friend of mine's pc - the machine wouldn't
boot - I don't recall what message he got. I used Linux puppy (an operating
system on a DVD) to boot the computer. Puppy let me see the hard drive so I
took the data files off onto an external hard drive. I stuck in a new hard
drive and reloaded his operating system. I got Linux puppy as a free
download by Googling.

John

 

eatmorepies escribió:

Puppy linux is very trimmed down for machines with hardly any resource.
Might as well boot from a proper distro.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Paul Corfield

Unplug any USB devices you've got in there and try again. Long shot, but
worth a try.

 

This can sometimes occur if you have left a non-system floppy disk in a
floppy drive or a non-bootable CD in a CD drive if these drives are set to
boot first. Go into the bios menu and check what disk it is set to boot
from - it may have lost or corrupted its settings.

Other things to check - connections to the drive. Is the data cable
firmly seated (disconnect and re-connect to make sure). What OS are you
running?

Get hold of a copy of Ubuntu on a bootable CD so that you can boot from
your CD drive - then try mount the hard disk and see if you can see its
contents.

Try it as a slave in another PC and see if it is readable.

DO NOT TRY ANY KIND OF RECOVERY SOFTWARE IF YOU VALUE YOU DATA. If the
disk is still capable of being recognised by a computer then your data is
probably recoverable but there is a fairly good chance that you will ****
it up if you mess about with software recovery.

 

So? For what eatmorepies wanted to do, it is perfect. I haved
used a number of different versions of Puppy Linux and it is a
truly useful distro with a huge amount of functionality packed
into a minimal footprint. Nice to be able to sling it on even
a 1GB USB stick with plenty of room left over.

 

A what now?

 

http://abcresellers.com/store/product204.html

Can't believe the price these sell for!

 

Errrr why? Every recovery program I've used leaves the original data intact.

 

Did that once when I built a new server. Put in a 5-1/4" and a
3.5" drive that I had hanging around. Stuck a random floppy in the 5-1/4"
drive, but couldn't see any files in WinXP. Forgot it was there, rebooted,
and suddenly there's the 2.4 GHz quad-core running IBM PC-DOS 1.1!

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

I should have clarified - such software needs to be run from another disk,
not from the one that is already flaky and not from a CD or suchlike.
Ideally you should attempt to clone the drive sector by sector if possible
and then run recovery on the clone from yet another hard drive. If the
disk can't be cloned then any data recovery software should be run from
another hard disk. Otherwise the data recovery program may writing data to
the flaky disk, often compounding the problem.

If an enthusiastic amateur starts trying to recover a flaky disk with
software that he/she is unfamiliar with then there's a fairly good chance
that data will get terminally fucked up. I have recovered data and
complete partitions from quite a few disks and I know how easily it is to
make things worse!

 

What is this 1GB USB stick you speak of?

Knoppix for me. But these days opensuse live would probably be my
attack vector. Horses for courses really.

 

You have mail, now I are back in the yuk

--
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#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Oddly, I tried that deliberately a few years ago (on a 3GHz) with some
strange results. Some of the DOS progs wouldn't run at all or fucked up
bigstyle as I suppose some internal timings were happening just too
fast.
The ones that did work absolutely flew by, often so quickly it was
impossible to make out what dosbox screens said before they disappeared.

 

No discs left in drives - I have enough competence to check that one.
I haven't checked the BIOS as Catman has advised that I stop fiddling
and leave the machine off which I have done.

I don't have sufficient competence to open up PCs and start delving
inside so I haven't checked the data cable. I suppose these things can
dislodge but given I haven't touched the machine other than to press
the on button I struggle to see what may have dislodged the thing.

I am running Windows XP.

You have strayed into technical territory I have no awareness of. I
know my limitations so I'm not about to start removing hard discs.

I used the discs that were provided with the machine when bought new.
They have not been of any help. I have no other recovery software.
The main risk to the data is some photos that have not been backed up
to an external drive - my lack of diligence. Some were still in the
camera so I have extracted those separately to a small netbook I have
that came with Photoshop Elements on it.

I will see what Catman can do to retrieve matters. In the meantime I
have bought a replacement desktop machine as the netbook was driving
me quietly mad. This purchase, of course, raises other issues. As it
is a Windows 7 machine it will not recognise the modem I have - an
Alcatel Speedtouch 330. There are no driver updates for the 330 either
which means more expense.

As I am hopelessly out of date with technology am I correct in
assuming that it is not possible to buy modems as single units
anymore? A look on the shelves of PC World seems to suggest modem
technology is now bundled in with wireless router technology. Any
suggestions as to a numpty (i.e. me) compatible wireless router that
will happily allow my ADSL broadband service down a BT phoneline to
connect to my new PC? I know Belkin seems to have a dire reputation
from people here and, of course, PC World stock them. I think they
also stock Netgear stuff.

One related question - the Speedtouch requires a filter to be
connected to the phone line connector. Is it likely that that filter
will be usuable with replacement kit plugged into it?

Any further advice welcome on the router question. It's odd how tied
up your life can be with online stuff. When it's not there you
suddenly realise all the stuff you can't access or check or research.
Most annoying.

 

The filter will work with any new device, although every new device I have
bought has had 2x filters in the box.

I'd advocate a wifi router as it enables you to use the netbook in any
location in your home. I use mine to listen to the R4 cricket commentary
anywhere from the kitchen to garden.

PCWorld do an Edimax[1] ADSL/router which did well in a PCPro survey for
under £40
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/edima...50mbps-adsl2-2-modem-router-04274402-pdt.html

Order it online for collection at a store convenient to you.

You will be able to plug the desktop PC into it via a wire & use the wifi
with the netbook. Just make sure the wifi security is enabled to stop your
neighbours surfing porn via your internet connection.

[1] no, I hadn't heard of them either. From Taiwan.

 

88.198.244.100:

bad form etc

The other thing to do is contact your ISP and blag a freebie router.
Threatening to migrate to another supplier who is offering a wifi router as
a bribe is the usual tactic. My "spare" is a Virgin branded Netgear job
blagged from them a few months before I jumped ship to Bethere.

If you are still with Pipex or whatever they have changed their name to
this week then now would be a good time to jump ship anyway as you'd get a
freebie router and a better, cheaper connection.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker stick your phone no. in
there & see what LLU options come up.

 

Duly purchased and plugged in. Start using wizard and it doesn't
recognise the factory provided current password. I have reset the
router to factory settings and restarted the wizard - all to no
effect. I am clearly doomed to failure with technology.

E Mail duly sent to Edimax UK for a response.

 

I never bother with wizards - unlike your USB Speedtouch thing, you should
not need any extra software on the PC to make it work.

http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html gives 2 possibilities for the
default login:
User name: guest Password: (none)
User name: admin Password: 1234

 

Wow. I must of junked 100s of those in the 90s.

Fraser