Hello, i realllly reallly need some help, my laptop has jsut died and its got a huge essay on it that i have to hand in tomorrow that count for a big part of my degree.... :s no the up to date version wasnt saved elsewhere as i pretty much rewrote it in a few hours, and was going to save it then it crashed...

basically when u turn the computer on it bring up the start up screen then stays blank then comes up with a message saying windows file /windows/setup32/config/setup is corrupt or missing, press r to repair using first screen and windows setup cd.. but u cant do anything with it bar turn it off and going onto setup doesnt do anything...

im desperate here, please help if u can or know anywhere open on a sunday

thank you very much

katie

 

please please please any advice or suggestions...

anything...

.... anyone!!

 

sorry, windows is corrupt

if you can get yourself a USB adapter to plug a laptop HDD into a PC then you should be able to copy your homework onto another PC. Your uni's IT dept should have one (they're about 3quid on ebay)

have you tried running repair option from windows setup?

 

i honestly know nothing about computers, ive rung everywhere in bromley tunbridge wells etc... theyre all shut...

how do u run the repair option from setup?

i actually hate computers

going to pc world when it opens... at least being around computer i can feel like im doing something productive :s

 

i dont think there is anything you can do to get your wrk back coz once it crashed everything goes as far as im aware. when my partner is wrkin she saves every so many paragraphs so if anything does happen you only have to re right a part of in and not it all.

Try pc world they have a repair section in there store well they in middlesbrough,they might be able to give you some advice or even ahve a look at it for you!!!!

good luck anyway

 

pleaseee dont say 'you should have saved it as u go along.....' hindsight is a great thing, it was saved, just on the computer not externally, but even if i was saving it, u wouldnt generally think to save it elsewhere halfway through doing something, and as i said i changed it loads in an afternoon and then i turned it off, turned it back on and it came up with that....

....

 

im not havin go!!!!!!!!!! its like evrythin in this world you always say i wish i had dun it that or this way.lol

No you wouldnt think to save it coz you always think it will be safe on ya pc,not like a peice of paper where you uld lose it..

i Fink going to pc world is your best bet.. or even give maplins a ring they might no of summit to do??

doest it save automaticaly when you turn your pc of?? i know my lap top gives a pop up reminder when im closing down to save any changes to documents..

 

Windows recovery console short that problem out. You will need an XP disk and go through the motions of reloading it back on to laptop but where it says "R" to repair hit it. (Not sure what the command is from there)

Alternativly if your PC is branded IE HP/Packard Hell it may have its own recovery options which could help.

 

I'd try what Jim says first before you start trying to fix/reinstall

Your files should still be there.

Neil.

 

unfortunately i've left my USB adapter thingie at home, otherwise i'd be happy to get the files off for you i can do it for you on monday if thats not too late?

 

Guys, couldnt she do a system restore back to when her computer was fine?

 

I'd say the machine isn't bootable atm full stop so...no But as mentioned, the files will still be there, it's just the o/s that's gone tits. As Lee mentioned i'd use the recovery console and try and replace the missing files(s)

 

King Of Bling - yes saving every few mins is all well and good, but from what she has said, even if she saved it 58 times into different folders on the laptop it wouldn't matter - the OS is corrupted and the work will still be lost!

jamieslittleracer - What Jim says is the best way. You need a cable that you can plug into the hard drive of your dead laptop, and connect it to the USB slot on a PC. Then you should be able to access the data on the HDD, find your essay (and anything else you want to save) and retrive it, and save it on the PC.

If you simply re-install Window's onto your laptop hard drive, you will lose EVERYTHING you had on there. As far as "repair the problem" - to be honest I have never done it, so I don't know if it will save your stuff or if you will lose it....

This is the sort of thing you need;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-0-TO-DUA...QQcmdZViewItem

You might aswell buy one at some point, but I realise that time is a facotr here so buying one now won't sort your current problem. But if you pop into a Maplins or similar, you might be able to get one today - at a push, you could buy this from Maplin;

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...verter&doy=5m3

You should be able to stick your laptop hdd in there and plug it into your PC with the USB cable....

 

matt, you dont lose everyonething on your HDD when you install windows unless you elete and recreate your partition :P

she can reinstall windows and all the work will still be there!

 

Good point Jim! I never thought of that! Probably cos when I reinstall I just wipe the drive and start again - forgot you could partition, install on that partition, and boot on it.... But how do you access info from the original partion?

 

you dont delet the partion, when you install you just overwrite the files in the windows folder (or install to "windows2" etc. )

nothing will be delted unless you delete the patition at the beginning of the setup

 

hi guys, thanks for all your advice, just went to pc world to see what was wrong.... the hard drive is broken and beyond repair, they removed it but couldnt recover the files, apparently i could take it to some data recovery place but that costs hundreds... my laptop is now useless....

and i think im going to cry

 

 

Oh crap that seriously sucks ass

My mate had a similar problem with her laptop, she would save stuff and things would randomly dissapear like her uni work etc! turned out she needed a new hard drive aswell

P.s if its just your hard drive thats buggered all you need to do is buy a new one, only cost about 40-50 quid depending on the size you want

 

apparenlty the computer is damaged as well, dont really understand but bottom line kaput computer, kaput hard drive, no essays....

 

bloody pc world.... have you got the laptop and everything back?

 

I would definately get a second opinion!!

 

I would definately get a second opinion if PCW say it is stuffed.

I recovered sisters from a similar error last weekend and hers is now running as normal. Well as normal as a HP PC will run

I used a piece of software called ERD from a company called Winternals.

If Jamz reads this he can confirm the software, as we both use it at work.

 

I dout very much the actual laptop is broken

As all the others said get a second opinion, dont just throw it away just cos pcworld said its knackered!

 

dont believe a word PC world say!

drop it round mine today (bromley) and i'll have a look at work tomorrow

i doubt its broken beyond repair!

 

Don't know about Sundays, but speak to your IT team at Uni. They must have a copy of Norton Ghost they can use to back up your drive. You can get your data off it then and at least hand your work in. Failing that, go to PC World and buy an IDE connector to allow you to slave your laptop drive off another PC and copy the data that way. Or give it to PC World and ask them to do it. Ask for the fattest techie to do it, he's the geeky one, the rest just work there cos it thinks it makes them sound flash

Cheers

Matt

 

Righto, I'm sorry I was away this weekend and unable to help.

Basically it's saying there's a corruption in the window's startup. For those saying plug another hard drive in via usb ? If the machine doesn't boot into windows, how can you access the drive ?? You won't be able to access the drive now will you ? And, unless the drive is formatted in fat32, dos is pretty much out of the question

Give me 5 mins or so and I will provide you 1 of the 2 available options to you

 

Cancel that, virtual pc doesn't seem to want to work.

Basically, you need to get a copy of win xp pro, load it into your hard drive, switch the laptop on, it should boot off the cd. It will check the system settings, then ask you to proceed installing windows. It will ask if you want to install windows, or repair it, choose install, agree to the license agreement, etc, etc. It will then come up saying that is has found an already installed version of windows, and there is an option to repair it, or install a new copy. If that option is not there (which sometimes it isn't) then you will have to take the laptop har drive out, and give it to someone either with a laptop capable of having 2 drives in it, or tom someone who has the facility to install it on a desktop pc. Unless someone else has a better idea, that's it I'm afraid

 

i am going to perservere, but the guy that helped me was really nice and didnt charge me when they usually charge Ł50 and he was doing it for 2 hours, he did all the different routes and set ups and scans and it came up with an error on that on the doc something. the old style screen thing... anyway... it came up with an error and was really slow to do anything and bring this up, and the computer wouldnt start as there was a problem with accessing anything... so he took the hard drive out and tried to get the info off there but it wouldnt let u access it, and apparently the harddrive is physically damaged, and the needle is broken... they said there is a possibility i could get a new hard drive but theres no guarentee that the computer inside hasnt been damaged too, as apparently the fact it got very hot signified a problem, which to the untrained eye i overloooked as just being a laptop...

anyway, im going to ring some data recovery places tomorrow and see what they say, but at the end of the day my essays r in for tomorrow and ive got no computer... not having a good day still not sunk in

thanks for all the advice tho i appreciate it.. if anyone can recommend anywhere in kent/birmingham id appreciate it

katie xx

 

youre looking at about 1K to get the HDD data recovered!

i can put another HDD in the laptop for you to see if it works or not, no point throwing it away if its ok. (ive got about 4 in my draw )

also its physically impossible for he guy to detect a physical fault with the drive like that unless he takes it apart.

the fact that its giving you the error message its giving you mean the FAT is fine on the drive, which means the data WILL be accessible. i really dont know what hes talking about saying its completely a no-go

 

he said that, he said becuse it was able to run a check some information was accessible, but what he said was the hard drive makes a rattling noise, and you cant access anything from it, and he did say the computer may be ok, but there was no guarentee that that was damaged too.... basically, it would cost me a lot to get it looked at and i need these essays now...

...thanks for your help jim, ive got to go back to birmingham tomorrow so i think ill have to get it fixed there.

 

Have some one else look at it. It could be something silly like faulty RAM which corrupts your Data on your HD hence the error you get.

Seriously

 

ERD is a bootable CD that will fix any registry corruption on startup. Recovered many machines with a similar error to what JLR is getting.

 

Sorry but after reading that unless your very unlucky it is just your HDD at fault. The noises is probably the heads crashing together.

 

Adrian is correct, you should be able to get your data back with ERD.

 

jamieslittleracer, i'm happy to post the laptop back to you in brum if you really want, i wont want any money etc.

 

Even if it's hardware fault the data schould be racoverable. I don't know the prices in UK but here you could probably do it for 100-200 quid...

 

If it's making a clicking noise, it's probably getting stuck on one part of the disk, possibly a damaged cluster or sector. Throw it in the freezer, in a sandwhich bag, or another form of plastic bag that can be opened. Leave it in there for a good few hours, then put it back in the laptop. I've done this many a time with failed hard drives, can often get up to an hours use

 

Norton Ghost would be my chosen route. With work PC's as everything is backed up on the server, I used to just do the clean install each time that message came up. I now use it to learn more about Norton Ghost as I figure some role in the future will require data recovery.

PC hard drives I piggy back off a working PC which works fine most of the time however I havent tried it with a laptop.

If you cant get your IT team at uni, go to a software engineering course or the IT school. I had mates at uni on those courses who taught me so much as they are emersed in it all day.

Hope you get it back. Nothing worse at uni

BTW - the freezer idea, as crazy as it sounds actually does work. Used it on a server about 3 weeks ago.