Strange problem in Windows XP

[Carrot44]

Have a friend whos computers power strip smoked and after that it comes up with a unmountable boot device. Does the windows splash screen then this stop error.

Any grand ideas?
She bought the computer used and does not have the XP media disk. Wondering if I could use a Regular XP disk to get into recovery mode? And maybe fix what ever got toasted.
The coputer is a Dell with 1 SATA drive.

Ken

 

[blackangst1]

Willing to bet either 1. it toasted his BIOS, or 2. toasted his HD. Depending on damage to the motherboard you may or may not be able to fix either.

Im willing to bet time for a new PC.

 

[Carrot44]

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Willing to bet either 1. it toasted his BIOS, or 2. toasted his HD. Depending on damage to the motherboard you may or may not be able to fix either.

Im willing to bet time for a new PC.

SHE paid 186 for a computer got a good deal. 3gig Intel CPU with 1 gig of memory and
160 gig HD.
The computer posts with not errors and I can get into the Bios and change all the settings. And save them.

I am thinking a toasted HD or corrupted its boot sector. Like I said it does go to the Windows XP flash screen and the little bar rolls across on the bottom then the error of unmountable boot device.

I have been thinking of getting one of those Linux live DVD's and booting it to get her family photos off of it. Then format see what happens.



Ken

 

[jonmcc33]

Have him upgrade to Vista. It's flawless. /sarcasm

 

[Nothinman]

Wow the reading comprehension in this thread is awesome, so far no one even noticed that the OP's friend is female.

But I agree with blackangst1 that the drive is likely dying so you should start looking for ways to backup the data before you do any real tests on it.

 

[nerp]

You can enter the recovery console with a basic XP disc. Just make sure if your friend is using XP home you use a home disc. Repairing a corrputed MBR or boot sector is pretty easy and you might luck out and find that is the only real issue. Let us know how it works out.

Have him upgrade to Vista. It's flawless. /sarcasm

^ unhelpful, immature and irrelevant to the thread. Stop being a crybaby.

 

[Carrot44]

Thanks folks will give that a try next time I see her.

Ken

 

[Nothinman]

Repairing a corrputed MBR or boot sector is pretty easy and you might luck out and find that is the only real issue. Let us know how it works out.

Except if that were the case she wouldn't even be getting as far as she is in the boot process.

 

[Carrot44]

Yea I was thinking the same thing. Should not even begin to boot into Windows.

See if I can boot from another disk? Maybe it has a hard ware problem as mentioned before.

Ken

 

[redbeard1]

You can use any version of XP cd to boot from to get into the recovery console and run chkdsk /f /r. Though with the error you are seeing this might not be enough. It is easy enough to try anyways.