Windows Vista, not booting, no safe mode, no repair, help appreicated

[Josh]

Alright, first off I'll explain the situation.

A bit before my system started failing, I was having issues with windows
explorer, basically, it was a normal day like any other, all of a sudden
while browsing the internet, boom, windows explorer has crashed etc, and I
restarted it, crash again, and so on for about 15 times before I restarted
the PC, when I restarted I came to my desktop, and boom, explorer.exe has
crashed again...

I haven't installed any updates, driver, software, hardware, none at all, it
was just a normal day, browsing the internet, it's not a virus issue, it's
not malware, spyware or any other issue like that, I know for a fact it's not
that.

What happens when I boot up my PC?

First it starts up like any regular vista pc, shows the black screen with
white words, then it goes to the vista is loading screen, and after that...
it goes black, it goes black and stays like that for as long a sthe
computer's on, I've left it there for a whole entire day without touching it,
tried multiple times to repair it in startup and repair, it fails every
single time, system restore, failed every single time, tried multiple restore
points, failed every single time.

Safe mode, it doesn't work, neither does safe mode with networking etc.
Windows memory diagnostics etc, no help at all either.

Honestly, I've sick of vista, which is why I may sound a bit annoyed in this
post, sorry if that's the situation, it's just that Microsoft windows in
general, not just vista, windows in general has just been a complete and
utter useless pain in the neck.

At the moment, I'm using Linux Ubuntu, the most reliable operating system I
have ever used in my entire life, it's fast, and it doesn't take a whole
gigabyte to start up.

I cannot access my vista pc at all, I'm out of ideas, usually, I'm the
person everybody comes to when they need help with their computers, but this
is just baffling, I don't know what's wrong with it at all.

Getting rid of my data is not an option, I have important things that my
life actually depends on in that hard drive.

I cannot use my vista dvd, it's gone somewhere, I don't know where, I've
looked high and low.

Any and all suggestion are accepted, please help me.

[kevpan815@noreply.com]

I Like To Capitalize The First Letter Of Each Word Because Of My Mental
State. Just FYI. I Need Medical Care. Just FYI

Just FYI

For Your Information. Just FYI. Isn't Posting For Your Information? I
Thought So But My Tiny Brain Tells Me To Say Just FYI Because I Don't
Realize That. Just FYI

[Nonny]

And you have NO backups of either your system OR your data... right?

[kevpan815@noreply.com]

So You Are Saying That You Nonny Doesn't Backup Your Computer Either? Bad.
Bad. That Is Bad. But Since You Don't Generate Any Useful Data It Doesn't
Really Matter In Your Case. Just FYI

Did I Say Just FYI? If Not, Just FYI

[Malke]

While the issue certainly could have been caused by software (Vista or
something you installed), it sounds far more like hardware failure. Your
hard drive may have died.

You should have had backups. There's no way to say that nicely. When this is
over, create and implement a backup strategy.

See if you can get data off the drive. Some data retrieval suggestions are
at the end of this post. If the drive is unresponsive and you can't
retrieve the data, the only way to get the data will be to send the drive
to a professional data recovery company. My preference is Drive Savers
(www.drivesavers.com). This is quite expensive but effective. If your life
does indeed depend on the data and the drive is bad, you should not take
any chances and I'm sure the high expense will be worth it to you.

If you can get data off the drive, then test the drive with a diagnostic
utility from the drive mftr. If the drive tests good, test other hardware
components. In all the long story you wrote, you forgot to tell us anything
about your computer's specs so all I can do is offer you general hardware
troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot

If you have a laptop and there are bad components other than the hard drive
or RAM, you'll need to contact the laptop mftr. for repair/replacement.
Certainly if the computer is OEM and under warranty, contact the OEM first.

If all components test good, you'll need to do a clean install of Vista. As
for your Vista DVD, you will need it if this is not an OEM machine so
either find it, buy a new one (yes, because you lost the first one!), or
try this:

How to Replace Lost, Broken, or Missing Microsoft Software or Hardware -
http://support.microsoft.com/default...B;en-us;326246

If this is an OEM machine, contact the OEM for a replacement Vista DVD or
recovery disk, whichever they gave you.

So, here are some things to try to recover your data:

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install of
XP/Vista. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the working
Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and
then burn the data to cd or dvd.

2. Often XP/Vista will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a
Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Since you
apparently have an Ubuntu install disk, you can use that as a Live CD.

[Josh]

@Malke

Umm, I am sure it's not hardware failure, believe me on that one xD

I am able to put the Ubuntu Linux CD in the drive and use the "try for free"
feature or install it too amd oy works fine in try for free mode, no hardware
failures >.<

And I am not installing Ubuntu because of several reasons why, and because I
am stuck when doing it at the partitioning, I've never partitioned in Ubuntu
and I don't wanna risk anything.

I'll thank you very much for the reply and for the help, I am using an OEM
machine, I'll contact the provider I got it off and see if I can get a
replacement disc, I'll see how that goes.

The reason I do not have a backup of anything is because it's fairly new,
and I don't have the money to store 500GB worth of backup on discs/Portable
Hard Drives etc, I'm poor, and I would never find the money unless I begged
for it, believe me.

The Data I need, is mostly personal stuff, that has sentimental value to me,
so basically I'd rather have al the Data than ten more computers each with
500GB of HDD space.

Backing up that much, is quite hard when you have absolutely no money at all
lol.



I don't have the tools necessary, the equipment and any other sort of thing
I could use to get my Hard Drive into a different computer, I don't have
another computer to put it in either, My laptop's definitely too small, plus
that's basically a piece of junk at the moment.

And my younger brother has no space in his computer.

Sorry if I sound really hard to explain things to, or if I sound ungreatful
etc, I'm actually very happy that I've gotten replies and help from people.

[Malke]

Josh wrote:

Comments inline:

> Umm, I am sure it's not hardware failure, believe me on that one xD

Tested extensively already? You left that part out so naturally I couldn't
guess.

> I am able to put the Ubuntu Linux CD in the drive and use the "try for
> free" feature or install it too amd oy works fine in try for free mode, no
> hardware failures.

That's a good indication. Wish you had told me that before.

> And I am not installing Ubuntu because of several reasons why, and because
> I am stuck when doing it at the partitioning, I've never partitioned in
> Ubuntu and I don't wanna risk anything.

I certainly didn't suggest you install Ubuntu! Installing another operating
system will get rid of all your data!

> I'll thank you very much for the reply and for the help, I am using an OEM
> machine, I'll contact the provider I got it off and see if I can get a
> replacement disc, I'll see how that goes.

That's the right decision.

> The reason I do not have a backup of anything is because it's fairly new,
> and I don't have the money to store 500GB worth of backup on
> discs/Portable Hard Drives etc, I'm poor, and I would never find the money
> unless I begged for it, believe me.

Sorry, that's just an excuse. A stack of DVD-Rs costs around $25 for 100 of
them. The same amount of CD-Rs costs around $15. It is a matter of
priorities and you made your choice.

> The Data I need, is mostly personal stuff, that has sentimental value to
> me, so basically I'd rather have al the Data than ten more computers each
> with 500GB of HDD space.

This is why you should have taken the time to burn CDs. Oh well. As I said,
you made the choice.

> Backing up that much, is quite hard when you have absolutely no money at
> all lol.

See my above comments. Get a friend to give you two DVDs or help you. There
really is nothing else people in a newsgroup can do for you. There is no
magical fix. If you don't have the resources, put the computer in the
closet until you do.

I'm sorry I was unable to help you.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ