Can the computer be saved?

pjohnson

So we had an idiot electrician over and he managed to turn off the mains and now my home computer wont start and gets stuck on the loading screen.


It is an old machine and uses windows XP but despite this it did work fine, as recent as Saturday, sure it was a bit slow, it was never used for internet or college. It does have personal photos of family so this is worry and extremely upsetting. It wont get past the loading screen on either manual, safe mode or last settings.


Is there any hope the machine can be fixed so that it will actually turn on and be used again, or failing that the files be retrieved at least? It was just a great reliable tool for myself and grandmother. Loosing it is upsetting.


I'm technologically dumb so I really just want to know is there any hope of getting my beloved machine back or is it destroyed?

Terrlock

Well it's turning on which is a good start.

If it's stuck on the XP loading screen then it's likely xp is having issue loading something, possibly a driver.

You could try booting it into safe mode. If your not in any way computer literate I would suggest getting a computer professional to have a look at it for you.

L8rdude

That's a shame, If you can't boot it - perhaps you can buy an external hard drive cable/caddy - and use this to connect the hard disk to another PC - hopefully you can get your photos back

pjohnson

Terrlock wrote: »

Well it's turning on which is a good start.

If it's stuck on the XP loading screen then it's likely xp is having issue loading something, possibly a driver.

You could try booting it into safe mode. If your not in any way computer literate I would suggest getting a computer professional to have a look at it for you.

So its worth pursuing and is possibly fixible? Safe mode did mention "drive/driver" in a wall of txt that appeared but it didn't do anything else to actually load the machine.

Atlantic Dawn

Worst case it could be hard drive failure, best case would be operating system corrupted.

What I would do is take out the hard drive and connect it to an external hard drive enclosure and connect it up to another computer to see if it can be read. Something like this...
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/All-in-1-USB-Dual-SATA-IDE-2-5-3-5-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-Dock-Station-Caddy-Case-/361637413110?hash=item54334500f6:g:M~kAAOSwIaFZG8FN

pjohnson

L8rdude wrote: »

That's a shame, If you can't boot it - perhaps you can buy an external hard drive cable/caddy - and use this to connect the hard disk to another PC - hopefully you can get your photos back

I have a black external hard drive I put music on. How would I get my files from the computer that wont turn on?

pjohnson

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Worst case it could be hard drive failure, best case would be operating system corrupted.

What I would do is take out the hard drive and connect it to an external hard drive enclosure and connect it up to another computer to see if it can be read. Something like this...
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/All-in-1-USB-Dual-SATA-IDE-2-5-3-5-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-Dock-Station-Caddy-Case-/361637413110?hash=item54334500f6:g:M~kAAOSwIaFZG8FN

This is beyond my capabilities, would a repair person be able to do this? The fact its an XP doesnt complicate the problem?

davo2001

pjohnson wrote: »

This is beyond my capabilities, would a repair person be able to do this? The fact its an XP doesnt complicate the problem?

Any competent PC repair / data recovery company will be able to handle it, where are you located?

Arbitrary

If you have the original XP disc you could try a system repair.

https://neosmart.net/wiki/windows-system-repair/

pjohnson

davo2001 wrote: »

Any competent PC repair / data recovery company will be able to handle it, where are you located?

Rural Galway so I'd need someone who house calls.

Kimbot

I would say if you followed these steps to repair the mbr (Master Boot Record) it should solve your issue.

https://neosmart.net/wiki/fix-mbr/

degsie

You could try boot from a 'rescue' disc (cd/dvd) and see if you could run a repair utility.

http://lifehacker.com/5984707/five-best-system-rescue-discs

pjohnson

Ok I have my original installation disk. I will see some of the above advice. Its clearly labelled step by step. I appreciate all the help

Duncanwooly

I'd try booting from a live USB of linux and then copying the files to an external drive. You'd want to be fairly tech savvy and not mouse click happy as you could do damage

Spear

I'd suggest something simpler first before trying anything drastic.

Try booting XP in safe mode first.

When it first starts attempting to boot, batter the F8 key until the menu appears and choose Safe Mode. Then see if it can boot to the desktop at least.

If that's possible, we can then decide further what to do from that point.

Kimbot

Spear wrote: »

I'd suggest something simpler first before trying anything drastic.

Try booting XP in safe mode first.

When it first starts attempting to boot, batter the F8 key until the menu appears and choose Safe Mode. Then see if it can boot to the desktop at least.

If that's possible, we can then decide further what to do from that point.

The OP already said this in his OP:

It wont get past the loading screen on either manual, safe mode or last settings.

I have had this issue plenty of times with old machines and the fixmbr has worked everylast time. The pc's i done it to were all on UPS and had just experienced a powercut they couldn't recover from similar to the OP.

FanadMan

Think the OP said it didn't get past safe mode. Just in case, I'd unplug everything from the computer apart from keyboard, mouse and monitor and try booting again. Might be something external like a scanner or printer whose drive is not loading.

Spear

I read the OP too quickly it seems, and ironically I didn't get past the loading screen part myself....

pjohnson

To elaborate it gets stuck after loading one of the "drivers" in safe mode. I'll try and save the driver and post here.

Edit:

AGPCPQ.SYS is the last one that loads

Spear

That's the last driver loaded, and it's a graphics one which isn't surprising. It doesn't mean it's the issue though.

Next light step to take would be to run a chkdsk/scandisk. But that'd need you to boot from something like a Windows XP CD or other recovery disc like BartPE.

Metric Tensor

Hi OP.

Firstly - what part of rural Galway? Someone from here might be able to help you. I'm not around that area at the moment but maybe some of the frequent posters here are.

Secondly I think there's a better than average chance the files can be saved but don't do anything you are not comfortable with for fear of doing more damage.

Thirdly - what sort of time pressure are you going under to get it back online. There are specialist data recovery companies that you can send the hard disk to. They are expensive and I actually think with appropriate help you may not need them - but it is definitely an option.

Once you have the files recovered you can be a lot more ambitious and daring in your attempts to get the computer going again - which I'd say is also possible given time and help.

Spear

To support what Metric Tensor stated, my instinct is that this is probably something fairly minor with the filesystem, and most likely easily fixed without spending money, either to fix, or even to just recover the files.

Skyknight

Hey pjohnson,
Not sure it has been mentioned, but what about booting the system from the/a Win XP disk. From the recovery control panel try a system restore from a previous point . If you don't have the original look for an ISO from a reliable source. Just my five cents.

pjohnson

I seem to have put the original disk "safe" somewhere other than where I put the office/nero/lexmark installation files.


Is this the point where I panic? XP isn't sold anymore and I need a disk.

Skyknight

No.......panic is the last thing to do...just PM'ed. hopefully that will be of some assistance.

fxotoole

Metric Tensor wrote: »

Hi OP.

Firstly - what part of rural Galway? Someone from here might be able to help you. I'm not around that area at the moment but maybe some of the frequent posters here are.

Secondly I think there's a better than average chance the files can be saved but don't do anything you are not comfortable with for fear of doing more damage.

Thirdly - what sort of time pressure are you going under to get it back online. There are specialist data recovery companies that you can send the hard disk to. They are expensive and I actually think with appropriate help you may not need them - but it is definitely an option.

Once you have the files recovered you can be a lot more ambitious and daring in your attempts to get the computer going again - which I'd say is also possible given time and help.

I would try Spinrite before going down the road of a specialist data recovery crowd. Although that said, if the drive is teetering on the point of no return, running spinrite could push it past the point of no return

pjohnson

I still cant run anything an have no disk an no PM. This is a stressful nightmare with no solution.

Skyknight

You've checked you (personal mail) on boards right? Just wondering do you have access to a machine with a DVD writer. If necessary use http://www.freeisoburner.com/ to burn the disk.
https://pcriver.com/operating-systems/windows-xp-professional-iso-download.html

degsie

Most of the solutions suggested here assumes the op has access to another pc, is this the case?

pjohnson

degsie wrote: »

Most of the solutions suggested here assumes the op has access to another pc, is this the case?

Laptop for college with Windows 10. Oldest and Newest Possible system.

pjohnson

Skyknight wrote: »

You've checked you (personal mail) on boards right? Just wondering do you have access to a machine with a DVD writer. If necessary use http://www.freeisoburner.com/ to burn the disk.
https://pcriver.com/operating-systems/windows-xp-professional-iso-download.html

Still no PM (oddly) but this will create me the cd I'm missing yeah?

I've made mix music CD's before so this is within my skills