Hey r3--
Thanks for the feedback letting me know you ran the bootrec commands
correctly. They are powerful when they work, and they have pulled me out
over the last 3 years with Vista and a couple times with builds of Win 7
recently very nicely. Sorry they didn't work.
I gave you a very simple way to test whether your hard drive is in the land
of the living and working in the post labled HP Hard Drive test. It isn't
100 percent perfect, but it's darn close.
I want you to do that simple test--click on the post labled HP Pavillion HD
Test, and I want you to follow these directions to use Seagate tools. Since
we're trying to diagnose something very important, whether we have a working
hard drive, I want you to run ***both tests.*** Seagate provides good
instructions at the link I'm going to give you, but if you have any
questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Seatools won't hurt your Windows installation at all. Scan the explanations
I provided in the tutorial, but don't spend a lot of time reading the
tutorial or the .pdf below it. The HP test is very reliable and takes just
seconds to start, so get that going. It takes 30-40 minutes to run.
Actually, if it says your HD passes, I'd go on and try the System Restores
and Last Known Good but to be sure Seagate is another test of your HD.
Seatools
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools
Seatools Tutorial
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=170511
Seatools Explanation
http://www.seagate.com/support/seato...or_Windows.pdf
Remember if your hard drive passes both the Seatools test, and the simple
one I gave you that HP Pavillion provides at the bios setup reached by
tapping the F10 key, then I want you to run System restore at 3 places on
the menu you reach from tapping the F8 key. If none of the 3 is successful,
and by that I mean
Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Command
Safe Mode with Networking
then I want you to be sure and try Last Known Good. LKG is a longer
shot--it's a registry snapshot, but like in a football game, when you throw
a "Hail Mary pass" and you win--the crowd cheers, and the babes follow.
***System Restore***
Why run at 3 locations? Because often one will work when the other don't.
The same for last known good configuration at that menu. Many a person has
lost their information because they were ignorant of the fact they need to
try SR at all 3 locations + Last Known Good Configuration.
I'm sure glad you asked. System restore is still a very useful tool even in
the age of electric cars, Apple touch tablets, and seals shooting pirates
out of the water from destroyers, and the first Argentinean to win the
Masters.
System restore will not lose anything significant whatsoever. It does not
even track or impact your documents which will come back if it is
successful. All your settings will be intact. The only thing that you may
lose, despite the literally hundreds of articles I've read on it including
several from the members of the MSFT team who writes System Restore, after
having done many of them myself and for other people are
1) Applications that you installed AFTER the restore point.
2) Shortcuts that you put on the desktop or somewhere else AFTER the restore
point.
Those are usually not too significant to most people, and they become
completely insignificant if you get back everything else including your
settings intact.
What is system restore and why when it works is it as good as you say it is?
In Vista and Windows 7, System Restore is a snapshot of your settings and
everything else using a system from the Windows server technology that
originated in Win Server 2003 called Volume Shadow copies which back up your
registry and system files. VSS operates at the block level. It takes
snapshots of a file or folder on a specific volume at a specific point in
time. There are a lot of nuances, and I can give you a bibliography when you
have the time and desire to read it. There are nuance differences between
Vista Home and the more expensive versions, but the bottom line is
***You won't lose anything significant and sometimes you don't even lose
shortcuts or apps installed SINCE THE RESTORE POINT. If the restore point
is very recent, there aren't many of those likely. You will not lose your
documents or your schoolwork related files. I repeat you will not lose your
documents or your schoolwork related files.***
How System Restore's VSS Works MSFT Technet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc785914.aspx
Good luck,
CH
"r3n3r4d3" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:63d7823208652725ecc789dc6dda2017@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Hi CH
>
> One Question before i do System restore.
>
> Does System Restore mean all my files are wiped and the whole system
> restores or..?
>
> For the command Prompt. I did exactly what you said. and each time it
> says successful. When i typed bootrec /rebuildbcd, it told me to wait
> for a bit, then the Successful message came on afterwards.
>
> I don't know how to do the Seagate hard drive test, do i use a USB
> stick? (sorry i'm not that good with computers when problems arise
> because i'm scared i'll do something wrong and completely destroy my
> computer)
>
> Thanks
> R3n
>
> Chad Harris;1017882 Wrote:
>> r3--
>>
>> Tell me exactly how you "did the command prompt thing" step by step and
>> type
>> the 3 commands for me. And when you did those commands if you did
>> them, did
>> you get a "successful" response after each one on the command
>> prompt--because I hear all the time things like "I did the command
>> prompt
>> thing" only to find out that someone didn't do it correctly.
>>
>> Further, besides wanting to know exactly what you did so I know if you
>> ran
>> the 3 commands correctly by getting you to type them and telling me
>> that you
>> accessed the command prompt in startup repair you make no mention at
>> all
>> about several other things I told you to do:
>>
>> I'll reiterate one more time. I told you:
>>
>> 1) Run the Seagate hard drive test
>> 2) Search the web using "the google" for any HP hard drive diagnostic
>> and
>> run it
>> 3) Assure me by showing me how you did it and typing the commands what
>> you
>> did at the command prompt if you were able to get there. The reason
>> I'm
>> insisting on this is that many people will say they did something, only
>> to
>> mean they couldn't get it done.
>> 4) You made no mention, and did not try I'll assume to use all of the
>> options available to you after restarting and tapping the F8 key once
>> per
>> second at the bios splash or HP firmware screen. I intend for you
>> specifically to get to the F8 screen that I've screenshot for you
>> already,
>> and run system restore at:
>>
>> 1) Safe Mode
>> 2) Safe Mode with Networking
>> 3) Safe Mode with Command typing
>> %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
>> at the command prompt.
>>
>> By my count, I'm asking you to do each and every one of these things
>> before
>> you book off to someone you're paying. My logic is that hundreds if
>> not
>> thousands of times, I've seen them work collectively. Further you
>> don't
>> know the exact status of your hard drive. Unless and until you do, you
>> can't
>> assume it's fried. If it isn't, then you have no reason in the world
>> not to
>> take the few minutes doing what I've asked you to do.
>>
>> That's:
>>
>> 1) Run a Seagate tool to assess the HD on your HP.
>> 2) Find or call HP for the tool that assess your HD.
>>
>> These assessment tools aren't perfect, but they're accurate about 90%
>> of the
>> time.
>>
>> 3) Show me how you did the 3 boot rec commands and tell me what the
>> command
>> prompt said after you ran each of them:
>>
>> bootrec /fixmbr
>> bootrec /fixboot
>> bootrec /rebuildbcd
>>
>> ***There is a space after the c and before the "/"
>>
>> 4) System Restore from Safe Mode by tapping F8
>> 5) System Restore from Safe Mode with Command by tapping F8 using the
>> command I gave you for that location.
>> 6) System Restore from Safe Mode with Networking
>> 7) Last Known Good Configuration which takes all of a nanosecond to
>> run.
>>
>> I've given you homework of 7 tasks before I'd encourage you to spend
>> your
>> money with a "professional" because most of us here have been students
>> at
>> some college, and beyond and most of us remember that we didn't have a
>> helluva lot of extra money to spend before we saw if we could get
>> something
>> done for free. I'm curious at this point while we have spent time
>> trying to
>> help you just how many of these 7 things you've checked off your list.
>>
>> I want to know exactly how you did the bootrec commands and what the
>> command
>> prompt told you after each one. Did it say "not recognized" in which
>> case
>> you didn't type them correctly, or did it tell you each one was
>> successful?
>>
>> If you haven't done the other 6 on the list, what are you waiting for?
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> CH
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> CH
>>
>> "r3n3r4d3" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
>> news:a813d4aaf9b45fedef3ee591196c8a1d@xxxxxx-gateway.com...> > >
>> > >
>> > > i did the startup repair, which didnt work. I also did the cmd prompt
>> > > thing and enter those 3 commands. but it doesnt work.
>> > >
>> > > Both resulted in 5 mins wait of the Vista Loading Bar Screen. Then
>> > the
>> > > Blue screen comes out. then restarts my computer.
>> > >
>> > > So i guess my only chance is to take it to a professional right?
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > r3n3r4d3 > >
>
>
> --
> r3n3r4d3
Linear Mode
