My computer has a blue screen

[Jaki]

Hi

When i start my computer now it goes straight to a blue screen with an error message about an unmountable boot volume. Have tried to boot from a cd but it asks for a floppy which i dont have.

What i would like to know is does this mean a new hard drive or do i just need to take it somewhere to someone with more knowledge to fix any corrupted files.

I am using the computer at work at the moment .... and work is really cutting into my time on rootschat .... lol ..... 

Jaki

[Little Nell]

  That's what is known as the blue screen of death in our house, but we don't usually get it on boot-up.  I reckon this is one for Trystan and some serious fixer-up in Oz.

Nell

[earley-bird]

Sorry to hear you have problems with your PC Jaki
If you have important files on your hard drive that have not been backed up recently then I would advise most strongly that you do not try to fix or restart your computer again. You will possibly cause more damage and make it even more difficult for a PC techie to recover your data.
Chances are that it is your boot data on your hard drive that is corrupted . This will prevent your PC booting to Windows
This should be recoverable by using your Windows XP CD install disk
take a look here
http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/158032510.shtml

[trystan]

I agree with earley on this one - it's probably just the boot sector (the very first tiny little part part of your hard disk) that is corrupted in some way, and the rest of the data on your hard disk will be all there and recoverable. Take it to your friendly techie.

[earley-bird]

Thanks for the confirmation Trystan. Hope I'm not treading on any toes here in responding to this post!? Its just one way I can perhaps offer a little back to the community who have already given me so much in just a few weeks.

My guess is it might  be a virus problem I wonder how many on this forum use good anti virus/ trogan software like AVG  Zonealarm  and Spysweeper  all free to download!

[Kazza]

Earley,

We welcome advice from all members.  You don't have to be part of any club,  except RootsChat,  to offer advice on our boards.  If techie matters are your forte,  jump in whenever you can. 

And your point about protection is a good one.  For a novice it can be difficult to understand why you would need software of these 3 types to provide the fullest protection.  A lot of our users are genealogy experts,  and came to computers later.

Glad you could give something back.

Kazza.

[Fifer]

Hi Jaki

When this has happened to us before hubby has just reinstalled over the top of your existing operating system.
to boot from cd you will have to go into the bios system of your pc to change it to boot from cd.

or you could go to the following website and dowload the boot disk
http://www.bootdisk.com/

and put it onto disk but remember it may take a few floppys

but it is easier to boot from cd if you need further advice on how to do this send me a private message and we will take you through it.



Fifer

[Jaki]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

After going through withdrawals all weekend i rang my friendly computer shop and took it to be looked at. They have fixed it ... good news no bad sectors ... so will now be able to surf at home and have a proper look at everything without having to keep a lookout for the boss.

Thanks for the website Fifer ... will have a look at it for next time ... did i just say that ... lol ... hopefully wont be a next time for a long time ...

Jaki

[Keith Bateman]

Hi Jaki,

Welcome back - much better at home - with no one looking over your shoulder!! 


As earley says make sure you have upto date protection from the 3 things.


Happy hunting

Keith