Booting your hardrive..

when i started my computer this morning i notice that i couldnt open any media files nor launch the iexplorer. i tried to re-launch these application and it eventually led to my computer being completly frozen. Thus i manually turned off my computer by holding down the power button for few seconds. when i rebooted the computer i got a blue screen error message saying something down the lines of "booting failed. it might be because of an addition of a new hardware. start computer over in safemode." so i did reboot again in safemode however the same bluescreen error message showed up. i rebooted the computer once more and this time all i got was a blank monitor. it was as if the monitor wasnt receiving any signals from the computer. it was just blank and idle. the computer's fans were running but i didnt hear any beeps nor see any light on the fron of the computer blink as it should. can this mean that i've lost all the things in my harddrive? if so, i have an extra harddrive which just contained various media files and does that mean i've lost that harddrive too? i seriously hope that thats not the case. can you help me out?

This question was answered on November 4, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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You need to boot off the Windows XP/2000 CD If your computer won't boot off the CD, you'll need to enter your system BIOS setup and make your CD drive a higher boot priority than your hard disk

Then, you'll need to start the Recovery Console The Recovery Console looks like DOS, but it isn't DOS You can copy, delete, and rename files, but you won't be able to start any programs Type HELP at the prompt to see all your options Windows XP in a Nutshell, the book, has full documentation on the Recovery Console and some emergency recovery procedures

If that doesn't work, you'll have to reinstall Windows

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Posted by Christopher of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on November 4, 2004

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