This used to be as easy as pie, but it’s been so long I can’t recall how to do it.
There is a good reason to know. When I got top the PC this AM, it was frozen with the black pre-start screen where it identifies sectors and said that I needed to insert a bootable disc to get going.
Why it tried to restart overnight is a puzzle. The power didn’t go out.
Anyways I worked around things manually and into safe mode to get going again, but it was scary for a minute, traversing a narrow trail overhanging a great precipice…
But for the life of me, I can’t find the system tool for creating a bootable disc.
I also thought that it was possible to do from my AVG, but can’t find that….
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http://www.computerhope.com/boot.htm
The best things in life aren't things.
Thank you.Apparently MS is trying to make it hardeer to make your own boot floppy. Rec for my XP system is to use what comes with the macchine. I do have that, but past experiences with inserting the MS CD leaves me mistrustfull that I ccould lose everything in a total reformat. Glad I have the removeable HD backup just in case.But I will download some workaround info from that site tonite when I get home - am at the job on laptop now.That computerhope website is a good resource to know of.
One reason I placed this help request in the business folder is knowing here must be others with similar problems time to time.So - there's still somebody left standing in Detroit eh?
;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Paul, if you can find some of the old Partition Magic or Disk Copy by PowerQuest, even if you have to advertise it, they are excellent programs for pre-Vista machines.
I have also gotten some of the Paragon stuff for both XP Pro and Vista, drive back up software and rescue disk stuff that work like a charm.
Quite honestly, I f I were having that problem, I'd make a copy of everything like it appears you have, and format the C: drive from new. XP is not as stable as all that, and a re-install every 6-12 months can be beneficial.
'Course I'm partitioned like crazy, so my data is all on a different drive anyway.Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR ConstructionVancouver, Canada
Well, I had the machine doing a copy of itself to the Maxtor removable ( for seven hours) yesterday while I was at work.I now have in front of me a fresh boot floppy and am ready to re-boot.Always a possibility that you will only hear from me again on the laptop.....;)
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If you run into a snag, feel free to call my cell: (203) 500-2177
(I can't help ya, but my cell is very smart ;) )PaulB
http://www.makeabettertomorrow.com
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ThanksUp and running here. I did checkdisc after restart. Took a while, but no reported problems
I may still download another free utility later to check again this weekend and watch for those screens as I reboot each time.
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in win2k they renamed it ERD, emergency repair disk
go figger
SamT
A Pragmatic Classical Liberal, aka Libertarian.
I'm always right!
Except when I'm not.
To me the big issue is why did you get that menu in the first place?PaulB
http://www.makeabettertomorrow.com
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One of our boxes will often come up with a blue screen with a dire warning upon rebooting (never on cold booting). Just ignoring the warning and rebooting (via power off/on) seems to fix it.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
Geez, I've never gotten that unless there's a serious issue a comin'PaulB
http://www.makeabettertomorrow.com
http://www.finecontracting.com
You hadda go and remind me there is a dark storm cloud hanfing there....;)Windows has been sending out an awfull lot of automatic updates lately. I wounder if that has any thing to do with it.I have had several times in the last couple months where it would hang on boot and tell me hit F1 to continue. But that was always when I was rebooting myself. Why it went into reboot mode whilke I was asleep last night is strange question. it has happened before when we had storm and power out long enough that my APS didn't carry thru.My plan so far is to first - make a boot dois - or emergency repair kit - and then do a restart with me sitting in front of it to watch how it goes down.I'm thinking maybe a problem in my BIOS as a first suspect.Also scared of a bed sector in the HD. Is there a online test for those two?
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> Why it tried to restart overnight is a puzzle. The power didn't go out.
It was probably installing a "critical fix" from M$.
>>It was probably installing a "critical fix" from M$.Yeah, the "buy a boot cd from us" upgrade <G>
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurmanhttp://rjw-progressive.blogspot.com/
You touch on another concern I had bumping the back of my mind - whether MS might be sending out "upgrades" that are actually time bombs designed to push me to upgrading to Vista or Seven.
Which has me thinking I might disable my automatic upgrade option tonight as well. XP Pro has been VERY stable for me for a long time now.
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Nah... there are no updates that push you to Vista etc. I'm not sure about testing your BIOS, but Norton has a disk test as I recall. It sounds to me like a hard drive issue lurking.
FWIW, I'm on Vista and contrary to a lot of bad press, I like it very much although I turned the updates to manual only because it was bogging me down while I was working. Now I run them when I feel like it... PaulB
http://www.makeabettertomorrow.com
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All my other MS updates ask first before rebooting. Are critical fixes less polite?
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It seems to be random. I've had my Vista LT rebooted several times without asking.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
FWIW, sometimes a grid surge can make 'em reboot and we never would notice
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
http://rjw-progressive.blogspot.com/
Possible Dat.On this job I am doing, we are in the middle of changing service from 100 amps to a new 200 amp. Lost power on one leg last thursday or friday, and figured it was a minor error of some kind by sparky. Did not bother him yet tho, because his #1 man who was doing it just dioed of a heart attack on Monday a week ago.
So after funeral saturday, I called monday for a look see. Turned out to be a bad leg from the transformer on the pole. Voltage on that leg was varying from 20V to 208 V
Got lucky on the diagnosis timing, The poser guy who lives on island was starting his vacation Monday morn and was planning to leave the island in two hours. His wife was patient enough to let him clock some doubletime to get us fixed.
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I would back up all the data first, then look for the start up disk thingy.
Though, I suspect that you back up regularly.
Me, I need to not ignore the backup reminder.
I am bad about the backup habit, so I got a Maxtor portable hard drive and set the software that came with it to automatically every day at midnight.
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I bet you lost a hard drive. When it says "insert a bootable disk", it is saying "I can't find a boot sector" on the drive you have.
Do you have your Windoze CD? If so you can try the "repair" option. That is fairly non-disruptive.
That's more or less the message I get, but a reboot fixes it just fine.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
If you can get into the operating system you can try a restore point from back when it was OK. There is also a repair option on the CD that will refresh the files without killing anything. Just be careful. If you bought the OS in a box (not a preload) Microsoft will talk you through this on the phone. If you bought a preloaded system you can always call the manufacturer's help desk buy YMMV with Bob from Bombay. The last Dell guy I talked to wanted my FIL to reload his system for a problem that "repair" fixed.
thanks for that further suggestion
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Before I retired, we used a program called "Norton Ghost". It will make a copy of your hard drive on another drive. The other drive can be removed and stored for emergencies. - - - just go through the process every few months to keep the copy up to date. It's pretty easy to swap hard drives if disaster strikes.
Another good program is "Spinrite" from Gibson Research. It repairs damaged disk surfaces and recovers data.
These days you can get a free program from Western Digital or Maxtor to do this copy as long as it sees one of their drive somewhere in the system.