Solve : win xp problem v. hard drive or other?

1.	Solve : win xp problem v. hard drive or other?
Answer» I have been working on a problem for about a week and making very little progress. I have a desktop pc that I bought used about a year ago. Processor is Celeron 2G; running winxp sp2 and I have no current windows disk w/sp2. To be honest, I mainly use this computer as a sort of "hub" that I plug my printer and wireless into or use when I have a problem with my laptop. Anyway, last week it quit booting windows. Could not go back to "last known good configuration". When I tried to run in "safe mode", I get a screen that has these three lines" "multidisk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)ntoskrnl.exe" " " " hal.dll " " " kdcom.dll I finally "bungled" my way into booting from a puppy linux cd. My main question is this: how can I determine whether the problem is with winxp or the hard drive (or some other possibility). What other trouble-shooting should I do? When I boot up w/puppy, I can mount the "c" drive but do very little with the files. I'd appreciate any help. As you can probably tell, I not a real novice, but not really experienced with this aspect of comuters. Quote from: kayl on September 12, 2010, 06:52:56 AM When I boot up w/puppy, I can mount the "c" drive but do very little with the files. You can "do very little with the files" because the hard drive is not responsive or because you're not very familiar with Linux? If you can mount the drive and see files on it, that's indicates the hard drive is apparently OK. You could contact HP and see whether they have a system restore disc for that model computer. If they have it, they'll charge a fee for it, which, I believe, would be around $16-$18, depending on shipping cost to your address. And, if get Windows XP working again, I suggest you download and install SP3. Support for Windows XP SP2 ended July 10, 2010. SP3 will be supported with security patches "and other critical updates" for Windows XP until April, 2014.What I meant about doing very little with the files is that I cannot run .exe files. I installed "wine" and tried to run "chkdsk" but it did not respond. Now I don't know if I an not using wine right or what. I am a total novice with linux; I had never used it before I used puppy. I am able to navigate to and find files and open up some documents. So you're saying that my hard drive should be OK if I can mount the drive and open documents? That's good. I guess my next step is to try to repair windows or change os to puppy or ubuntu. I'd have to seek help with that, but I'm pretty sure that I could do it. One possibly important thing that I left out is that my AVG flagged me a day or two before about a "serious" threat. The message said that the threat was blocked, so I did nothing else. Could I possibly have gotten a virus? Thanks, KayHi KAY, I'm not sure we can be absolutely sure that your hard drive is not SHOWING signs of failure. So, I suggest you copy your important documents and files to a flash drive or burn them to a CD or DVD if possible. I haven't used the Linux Puppy OS so I'm not sure whether you could burn to disc, assuming you have a CD or DVD drive with burning capability, If you're not familiar with the TERM, "burn", it means to record files to a CD or DVD and requires a CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW drive, the letter R meaning Recordable and RW meaning Re-writable. But, you should be able to copy files to a flash drive by using the file browser in Puppy in the manner Windows Explorer can be used to copy or move files. I have used an Ubuntu live CD to do this but I have never used Puppy. I'm assuming it can be done with Puppy. You could try installing a Linux OS on the hard drive in a dual-boot configuration. In other words, if Win XP is on drive C, leave it there and use the Linux OS disc to create a new partition for the Linux OS. This way, you can continue to work on solving the problem with Windows but also be able to run the computer under the Linux OS. Of course, as you know, you can run some Linux OS off the CD but this is usually a short-term solution to allow a prospective Linux user a chance to get familiar with Linux before deciding to install it on the hard drive. If you decide you want to install Linux Puppy, I suggest searching for references on the Internet. Here's one: http://www.ph-islands.net/pupinstall/ Again, regarding Windows, a system disc that would restore the system to it's original configuration can probably be obtained from HP. Thanks a lot for your help, Soybean. My computer (desktop) is a dell optiplex. Now here's ANOTHER question and I hope it's not too stupid. I have a friend with another Dell running win xp sp2. It's a different model of dell computer, but could I use his recovery/setup cd? Or am I asking for trouble? That could present some problems due to differences in internal components. Sorry I mentioned HP since you have a Dell. But, you can probably obtain a recovery disc(s) from Dell for your specific model. That's probably the better approach to dealing with this than trying to use a recovery/setup cd from a different model Dell.

Answer»

I have been working on a problem for about a week and making very little progress. I have a desktop pc that I bought used about a year ago. Processor is Celeron 2G; running winxp sp2 and I have no current windows disk w/sp2. To be honest, I mainly use this computer as a sort of "hub" that I plug my printer and wireless into or use when I have a problem with my laptop. Anyway, last week it quit booting windows. Could not go back to "last known good configuration". When I tried to run in "safe mode", I get a screen that has these three lines"

"multidisk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)ntoskrnl.exe"
" " " hal.dll
" " " kdcom.dll

I finally "bungled" my way into booting from a puppy linux cd. My main question is this: how can I determine whether the problem is with winxp or the hard drive (or some other possibility). What other trouble-shooting should I do? When I boot up w/puppy, I can mount the "c" drive but do very little with the files.

I'd appreciate any help. As you can probably tell, I not a real novice, but not really experienced with this aspect of comuters. Quote from: kayl on September 12, 2010, 06:52:56 AM

When I boot up w/puppy, I can mount the "c" drive but do very little with the files.

You can "do very little with the files" because the hard drive is not responsive or because you're not very familiar with Linux? If you can mount the drive and see files on it, that's indicates the hard drive is apparently OK.

You could contact HP and see whether they have a system restore disc for that model computer. If they have it, they'll charge a fee for it, which, I believe, would be around $16-$18, depending on shipping cost to your address.

And, if get Windows XP working again, I suggest you download and install SP3. Support for Windows XP SP2 ended July 10, 2010. SP3 will be supported with security patches "and other critical updates" for Windows XP until April, 2014.What I meant about doing very little with the files is that I cannot run .exe files. I installed "wine" and tried to run "chkdsk" but it did not respond. Now I don't know if I an not using wine right or what. I am a total novice with linux; I had never used it before I used puppy. I am able to navigate to and find files and open up some documents.

So you're saying that my hard drive should be OK if I can mount the drive and open documents? That's good. I guess my next step is to try to repair windows or change os to puppy or ubuntu. I'd have to seek help with that, but I'm pretty sure that I could do it.

One possibly important thing that I left out is that my AVG flagged me a day or two before about a "serious" threat. The message said that the threat was blocked, so I did nothing else. Could I possibly have gotten a virus?

Thanks,
KayHi KAY, I'm not sure we can be absolutely sure that your hard drive is not SHOWING signs of failure. So, I suggest you copy your important documents and files to a flash drive or burn them to a CD or DVD if possible. I haven't used the Linux Puppy OS so I'm not sure whether you could burn to disc, assuming you have a CD or DVD drive with burning capability, If you're not familiar with the TERM, "burn", it means to record files to a CD or DVD and requires a CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW drive, the letter R meaning Recordable and RW meaning Re-writable.

But, you should be able to copy files to a flash drive by using the file browser in Puppy in the manner Windows Explorer can be used to copy or move files. I have used an Ubuntu live CD to do this but I have never used Puppy. I'm assuming it can be done with Puppy.

You could try installing a Linux OS on the hard drive in a dual-boot configuration. In other words, if Win XP is on drive C, leave it there and use the Linux OS disc to create a new partition for the Linux OS. This way, you can continue to work on solving the problem with Windows but also be able to run the computer under the Linux OS. Of course, as you know, you can run some Linux OS off the CD but this is usually a short-term solution to allow a prospective Linux user a chance to get familiar with Linux before deciding to install it on the hard drive.

If you decide you want to install Linux Puppy, I suggest searching for references on the Internet. Here's one: http://www.ph-islands.net/pupinstall/

Again, regarding Windows, a system disc that would restore the system to it's original configuration can probably be obtained from HP.
Thanks a lot for your help, Soybean. My computer (desktop) is a dell optiplex. Now here's ANOTHER question and I hope it's not too stupid. I have a friend with another Dell running win xp sp2. It's a different model of dell computer, but could I use his recovery/setup cd? Or am I asking for trouble?

That could present some problems due to differences in internal components.

Sorry I mentioned HP since you have a Dell. But, you can probably obtain a recovery disc(s) from Dell for your specific model. That's probably the better approach to dealing with this than trying to use a recovery/setup cd from a different model Dell.

Solve : win xp problem v. hard drive or other?

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