ME boot problems

[gnasher]

Hi,

My laptop took a hefty fall last night. The machine attempts to boot, shows the ME launching screen for an instant and then starts again. I've tried using a boot disk - I cannot enter in safe mode, nor will the machine boot after selecting a recent saved configuration.

Do you think there is anyway I can get it to work without having to reinstall the OS and therefore lose the contents of the hard disk?

Gnasher : (

[GretaP]

Hi gnasher,
After a "hefty fall", I wouldn't be surprised if the hard drive is toast. Do you have a drive diagnostics diskette or do you know the make of hard drive so you can possibly d/load the drive diagnostics from their website? Another thing you could try, in order to establish the possible state of the hard drive, is to boot from a WIN98 or WINME startup floppy disk (ensure that the boot device order in BIOS is set to boot from floppy first) and invoke FDISK at the A: prompt. If it returns a message such as "No fixed disks present", then chances are your drive is no good.

[gnasher]

thanks for the speedy reply.

i don't have a drive diagnostics diskette, neither do i know the make of hard drive.

i tried the fdisk option and i didn't get the message "no fixed disks present". it did give the option to re-format.

i guess that means the hard drive is ok?

what should i do now?

[GretaP]

i tried the fdisk option and i didn't get the message "no fixed disks present". Well that sounds promising :)
it did give the option to re-format hmmmm....never had that option come up while in fdisk.....or did you try running the format command, just to see if it would error out on you or not?

It might be possible to get it working again by reinstalling the operating system without formatting first........but I would highly suggest running Scandisk from the startup disk before going any further. After it runs through a basic scan, it will prompt you for whether you want to do a thorough scan.......choose Yes to do the thorough scan.

[gnasher]

sorry i meant create the partitions instead of reformat.

the full scan disk ran ok. it found only one error to do with the amount of disk space being reported incorrectly - repaired.

should i try to install windows now? does it make any difference that the version is OEM?

thanks!

[GretaP]

Just out of curiosity, did you try starting the laptop "normally" after running Scandisk?

Also, did you happen to update IE/OE and/or Windows Media Player from the versions that come preinstalled with the operating system? Just asking because having the updated versions and then reinstalling ME (that would have previous versions that would then be installed) sometimes will cause problems.

Is it a Recovery or Restore CD that you have? Some of them will allow you to reinstall the operating system without formatting first (think it's called "Non-Destructive Recovery").

[gnasher]

I tried swicthing her off and back on again, but still no joy.

It is possible that IE or Windows Media player have been updated as different people have used the machine. But the only thing that I have updated is the ME security patch.

The next step is to get hold of the recovery disk - so i need to get one from somewhere that allows a non-destructive recovery. OK more from me tomorrow.

Thanks again.

[GretaP]

Another place you could look to see if the setup files were placed on the hard drive is C:\Windows\Options or C:\Windows\Options\Install
Do you know the DOS commands in order to view the contents of the directories? If so, look for files that end in .cab (eg., Base2.cab, Catalog.cab, Driver5.cab, Driver6.cab, etc.)
If the setup files are on the hard drive, then you could attempt to run Setup from the directory in which these files are stored.

[gnasher]

I can kind of fumble way through dos. In this case not very far though. I can see the contents of directory by using c:\windows\options\install but i don't know how to search for the files ending in .cab

[GretaP]

When you're at the c:\windows\options\install prompt, key in:
dir/p
<ENTER>
It will show you all the files and subdirectories within that subdirectory, one screenful at a time (press the spacebar to have it scroll to the next screenful). Starting from the left side, the first column will show the file (or directory) name, and the second column shows the file extension. You should see some entries that will have CAB in that second column....you should also (hopefully) see Setup in the first column and EXE in the second column.

I gotta break for dinner now, but I should be back in a little while.

[gnasher]

hope you had a nice dinner.... : )

it doesn't actually let me move into the directories. so i have to do it like this:
dir/p c:\windows\options\install

at this point, there is no setup.exe file

i had a look in a sub-directory entitled c:\windows\options\install\..

this contains another sub-directory called c:\windows\options\install\..\install

but this only returns me with the same contents as the first install directory. probably some copy.

it looks like the setup file isn't here : (

thanks anyway! you're being a brilliant help and guide.

i'll check in again soon, as soon as i get my hands on the recovery disk.

[GretaP]

Thank you, yes, I had a nice dinner :) Chicken on a bun with fettucine alfredo.

Anyhow........let me know when you get your hands on a recovery or install CD.