Member Avatar for mizztah

Hi all

My son ran a repair instal on his pc because it was bluescreening rather too much. His machine runs an up-to-date genuine XP with a Norton AV/internet security suite installed. Like a typical teen it was used for gaming and college work.

When he ran the repair instal option the machine loaded file to the machine, restarted and began the instal. About 10 minutes into the instal the machine froze he left it for a while and repeated the steps, noting that the instal now detected an earlier incomplete instal.

Eventually it started but all he has is a black background with a moveable cursor. Alt+ctr+del does nothing and safe mode does basically the same bar the blurb that tells you it's safe mode.

I ran the recovery console and tried to use bootcfg to see if we could find a way of firing to a more workable windows but to no avail. I tried running the instal again using the XP based drivers for the SATA drive and also using the F6 to use the Promise driver supplied with the MB.

The machine laods files to the drive to start the instal, resarts but then attempts to load Windows, bypassing the installation process.

How can I either

1 Complete the instal without destroying his data. He has a backup device but neglected to keep it up to date. He is 12 weeks out of date, with important(college) work on there which could lead him to failing his college course.

2 Remove the data safely to do a format/instal?

any help gratefully received

cheers


MizztAH

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Suspishio

Dani AI

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Putting data safety first is the right call — and it’s what was steering toward. The immediate goal is to get a reliable copy of the user profile off the problem disk before any more attempts at repair or install. Avoid further writes to the disk if the data is important: every write reduces chances of recovering corrupted files.

A practical, low-cost way without buying anything special is to boot the machine from a bootable recovery environment (a WinPE/BartPE disk or a Linux live USB) created on another PC. From that environment mount the internal drive read-only and copy the entire user profile to a safe target (external USB drive or a network share). Priorities to copy: the user folder (Documents and Settings\<username>), Desktop, My Documents, Favorites, browser profiles, any mail store or PST/DBX files, and game saves (often in My Documents\My Games or under Application Data). Verify a few documents open before proceeding.

If the disk shows read errors or the file system won’t mount reliably, make a bit-for-bit image first and work from the image. Using GNU ddrescue preserves as much as possible; an example workflow (run from a Linux live session, with the destination drive already mounted) is:

ddrescue -f -n /dev/sda /mnt/backup/disk-image.img /mnt/backup/ddrescue.log
ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sda /mnt/backup/disk-image.img /mnt/backup/ddrescue.log

The first pass copies usable data quickly; the second pass retries bad areas. Always image to a drive at least as large as the source, and keep the ddrescue log so recovery can be resumed.

Once files are safely backed up and verified, a clean install is the least risky way forward: delete/recreate or format the Windows partition during setup, reinstall drivers and updates, then restore the saved data. If the drive makes clicking noises, stop and consult a professional data recovery service — DIY attempts risk permanent loss.

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Member Avatar for Suspishio

The current HDD can be placed into an external USB enclosure, attached to a second PC and the data you need can be streamed off by normal windows copy means.

Then you can format the drive on the second PC and do the clean install from the Windows CD in the PC concerned.

Member Avatar for mizztah

thanks

It is an option as you rightly point out, i'd need to pick up an external enclosure(not a problem).

Still curious why it wont restart the repair instal option though. I wonder if there is a file or folder I can delete to allow the process to restart?

cheers

MizztaH

Member Avatar for Suspishio

This is the big problem di\gnosing at a distance. We don't have the PC in our hands.

Blue screens occur for a variety of reasons, including:

- Kernel Memory clashes with a device driver
- Damaged software like due to a virus/trojan
- Damaged boot sector for any reason

You could spend the rest of this month sorting it out. So You were on the right track; get the data off, wipe the disk properly and rebuild your software environment.

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