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out of nowhere, my computer no longer gets past the Windows XP loading screen, with the green/blue thing scrolling back and forth. i've tried starting it in safe mode and the last known good configuration, but nothing works. it'll sit there trying to load for several minutes, and then the computer will restart. when trying safe mode, it's lists a bunch of files but stops at a file called mup, i think?
is there any way to start it up? can i write some program to a disc and use it? maybe there's a button combination that i don't know of? i'll die if my data is lost. help, pls?
a windows installation cd would help a great deal ... if eMachines ever shipped this disk.
Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'
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emachines does ship these disks. I have an emachines computer also. As soon as you turn on the computer start pressing F11. If emachines did what they did on my computer, they partioned the harddrive and made part of it a recovery partian. You can then wipe the hard drive and it will also backup the documents and settings folder before it wipes the hard drive. It will put the backup to C:/BACKUP. Otherwise insert the disk and boot up from that. I hope ypu backed up your files to another device such as a CD. Good Luck!
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do you mean the 'restore cd'? i hope not! i really need to be able to access all my files again. i'm confused about what you mean when you say it'll back up the documents and whatnot. am i seriously not able to start the computer without losing everything? i have 40,000 music files on there! most of which are too obscure to ever find again.
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The same thing happened to me and I'm not usually good with computers but searching around I found out a few things. First, there is a differnce between restore and repair. If you use the installation disk and repair it Windows (i think this installs it again) you won't lose any data, just some settings. But if you stick the restore disk in the CD drive then it will delete all of your file. So don't.
So I think what you need to do is repair Windows or possibly burn a bootable CD and boot the computer off that. Although that didn't work for me.
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did you end up losing all your data? google finds basically nothing when searching for 'emachines installation disc', so any idea on where i could find this? anything possible to get this fixed without losing my data. i'm poor, but money isn't a problem! this is far more important.
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Try ebay for an installation disk maybe?
And I haven't actually been able to fix my laptop yet because my boot CD didn't work.
I'm in the process of creating an OS Live CD which I have been told will allow me to back up my data before I completely reinstall everything. Will let you know if it works.
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the installation/repair disc is essentially a disc that installs windows xp, right? when restoring my computer, it's so old that it's not even SP1, so if i 'find' windows xp on the internet, would it have to be pre-SP1 to repair properly? i am upgraded to SP1 on my dead hard drive. confusing, augh! i think i know somebody that can get me a copy of windows xp, but i don't know which to get? so, any help?
my computer never came with one, so it's only fair.
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to the first question = yes
to the second = if you have SP1 on your computer then I think you should use a post-SP1 version. Or whatever it's called.
But whatever you do, don't repair Windows using a recovery console. That would be bad.
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eep! what's a recovery console? i'd like to not install SP2 if possible, seeing as i hated all the changes they made. :/
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I don't know much about all the different service packs but I'm guessing recovering your files is top of your list so I say stick whichever installation CD works in.
By the way, if repairing Windows doesn't work (like it didn't for me) then I have just successfully retrieved all of my files by installing a OS Live ontop of Windows. So if you need to I will do my best to explain that (it took me about four hours but I think I'm getting the hang of it now :P)
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yes, explain everything if you can!
i'm uh, downloading the windows xp sp2 installation disc right now, but i'll probably have no idea what to do with the files or how to write them properly to disc to boot up.
thanks for all the help, too. ;x
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i created the 6 floppy disks and everything went as it seemed like it was supposed to. then it finished and told me to insert the CD for Windows XP Home Edition, which i never got with this computer. i'm stuck.
what to do?
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Yeah the OS Live worked perfectly for me, though it did take me a while.
So, let's take it step by step -
1. Download this program called Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetU...
(Pick your country from the list and download the file)
It's quite big so it'l probably take a while - mine took about 3 hours i think.
Then burn the .iso file to a blank CD. Steps are here if you need them:https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
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i have ubuntu up and running on the defective hard drive, but how do i access my files? i don't see them anywhere. i'm sorry if i'm being a bother! i'm trying. :[
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No problemo,
Ok go to Applications, Accessories, Terminal
Then do this:
1. type: sudo fdisk -l
2. Look at column Boot and locate where the * is.
3. Look at column Device and locate which device it is next to *. (for instance it might look like this: /dev/hda1 )
4. Look at column System what does your * designated device say? It will either be
HPFS/NTFS or VFAT5. If it is VFAT then type as follows...
(hda1 might not be your designated device, you put whatever ID you got on step 3)sudo mkdir /media/windows
then:
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows/ -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8,umask=000
Or if it is NTFS then type:sudo mkdir /media/windows
then:
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows/ -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222
If you type all that in correctly you should see your hard drive in Places, ComputerNote: you may have to type the directory in if you can't see it. It's in Go, Location. The directory is /media/windows/
If you still can't see your hard drive then you may have to do this:
Go back to the terminal and type:sudo umount /media/windows/
And then do the 'sudo mount' code again for whichever device you have (NTFS or VFAT).
Hope that works.
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eep! i can see my files! you're my new hero. but, i can't run programs from my windows section? do you know of a cd/dvd writing program for ubuntu so i can spend forever backing up my 120gb of data? D:
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i think i need to use the cd/dvd creator? i can't put a dvd in though without ubuntu freezing, seeing as it's running from the cd. i tried to install ubuntu from the link on the desktop, but it won't do anything when i get to step five of six. it's like i'm being teased!
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erm...be careful about installing Ubuntu. I have a feeling you can easily lose your data if you don't do it properly.
Though I can't think of a way to burn CDs without taking the Ubuntu disk out. 120GB is a lot of data though, maybe you should think about getting an external hard drive. That way you can back your data up to prevent horrible scares like this again :P
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i tested on my safe hard drive trying to install it and failed miserably. i definitely won't be trying on the defective one, but i need to get those files off! what methods do you know of that involve a second hard drive/external hard drive to transfer the files? maybe something different?
if i could figure out how to execute an msi file, i'd be able to install a program called elephant something something, which allows unlimited upload storage. i could upload everything and i'm pretty sure download it on my safe hard drive. installing WINE didn't work for this. ;/
i've tried so much!
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Well what I did was buy an 80GB external hard drive off Amazon. Then I just plugged it in and Ubuntu automatically recognised and mounted it, so I just copied and pasted all of my files off my hard drive and on to it.
Or you could just use an ordinary USB pen stick though they're not very big and you'd have to have somewhere to transfer the files off it whilst copying all the other data.
ElephantDrive sounds like a good idea except I have no idea how to execute a .msi in Ubuntu. Though I did find this on the 'net:
Try typing: msiexec /i msifile.msi
into the terminal. I can't see why this would work myself, but you might as well give it a try.
Or maybe you could buy an external CD drive and hook it up to your computer. I reckon Ubuntu will automatically recognise it and you can burn your data onto CDs. Will take a while if you've got 120GB though!
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augh! this just happens to be when i'm at the poorest of my existence, too! i have a whopping total of three dollars after paying for the internet and whatnot. i guess i'll scratch the 4GB ms pro duo off my christmas list. gr.
i did find that msi command, but it didn't work. i spent foreverrrr looking all over the internet for anything i could find, and nothing helped me. what a waste of a weekend!
i suppose this case is closed, yes?
thanks for the continous help. :[
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If you don't want to buy a whole load of new hardware (tis very expensive I know, I'm officially broke too :P) then you could just install Ubuntu and then back everything up using CDs. I know it is possible to have both Windows and Ubuntu installed at the same time, and you can switch between the two each time you start up, but all the guides say it is better to have your data backed up first.
Still, if you follow the steps to the letter I don't see why you shouldn't be able to install Ubuntu without losing your data.
This is the guide to installing Ubuntu:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/in...
I'm not going to pretend I know anything about installing Ubuntu but if you have any problems I will try to help.
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