Help please.. problem with bro's laptop - startup repair fails..

2009-10-23 03:36:19

#1

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

Ok, so here is the deal. My bro has an old HP laptop.. a DV2600 or something like that. I'm not sure. I can find out more if you need. It is running Vista.

Now he's in his final year of high school, in the MIDDLE of his final exams. While he has notes backed up in other places, he mainly works off this laptop. As this is the case, any help will be much appreciated.

So he opens up the laptop, and it doesn't start correctly. I don't know. But it came to the following screen:

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2440/4037089304_f71a5e4bc0.jpg

If I select "Normal" mode, it loads a few things/does whatnot.. and ends up back at that screen. If I select Launch Startup Repair, it will do its thing and end up at a screen to tell me that it can't repair the system automatically. I get the following error message/report...

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4037068176_6bfeaecc84.jpg

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2507/4037068114_32a6866b0f.jpg

Soooo, what now? What does that actually mean, and whats something I can do to unfuck the whole thing? Also, remember that I've been using OS X for the last year and a half, so don't take any shortcuts in explaining steps etc.

Cheers,

2009-10-23 03:38:01

#2

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

Seems like your registry is fucked.

Do you have the Windows Vista disc? Or recovery disc?

2009-10-23 03:41:48

#3

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

Zimmer wrote:
Seems like your registry is fucked.

Do you have the Windows Vista disc? Or recovery disc?

Yeah, thought it might be that. Umm, the laptop is liek 3-4 years old. I don't have a frkn clue lol.. I KNOW my brother would have no idea. umm, I could have a look around for it..

Unless I can download something from the windows website, and make a recovery CD?

2009-10-23 03:44:11

#4

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

No, I don't think you can, you need the OEM recovery disk or the actual disk. I think HP supplies you with the recovery disk.

What I would do in this situation is grab GPARTED Live CD, make a partition from the free space you have avaialable, install Ubuntu on that partition, get all your important documents saved onto a USB or whatever, then clean the HDD and install Vista/7 clean.

I don't know if downloading another version of Vista and trying a repair system with that will work, but it's worth a shot.

2009-10-23 03:45:42

#5

Cheez: Herman is a warmaphrodite; +1,027|6699|King Of The Islands

Essentially you can proceed in Startup Repair to the Command Prompt.

But I'm having a mental blank as to where Vistas stores restore points. It's not in System Volume Information.

My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.

2009-10-23 03:53:53

#6

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

Zimmer wrote:
No, I don't think you can, you need the OEM recovery disk or the actual disk. I think HP supplies you with the recovery disk.

What I would do in this situation is grab GPARTED Live CD, make a partition from the free space you have avaialable, install Ubuntu on that partition, get all your important documents saved onto a USB or whatever, then clean the HDD and install Vista/7 clean.

I don't know if downloading another version of Vista and trying a repair system with that will work, but it's worth a shot.

That would be right.. >< And taking it back to the shop would require 2-3 weeks (which I remember the guy assuring us it was faster than Apple. I lolled).. so that's really out of the time frame.

Mm, yeah the Ubuntu thing would be waaaay beyond me XD. Luckily, I think that the major documents (ie. his entire Higher School Certificate folder) is backed up on USB drives and our PC. Heh, just last week I told him to be careful with it incase something like this were to happen.

I mentioned to him what little progress we've made.. to which he retorted "What the fuck does that mean?" and "Don't touch it, you might fuck it up more". Um... what actually HAS happened if the registry is messed up (just randomly as it seems).. and would I be right in saying you can't really get more fucked up?

Umm, can you also expand on that last point? As in with the downloading of another version of Vista..

2009-10-23 04:01:21

#7

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

Oh, and you can probably recover everything you need without doing the gparted shit and installing Ubuntu.

Just burn Ubuntu onto a CD, boot it up in LIVE mode (the option will appear when you put the CD in the laptop) and you will have a working operating system as long as the CD is in. Grab your files, drag them onto a USB or whatever and you're done.

2009-10-23 04:08:22

#8

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

Zimmer wrote:
Just burn Ubuntu onto a CD, boot it up in LIVE mode (the option will appear when you put the CD in the laptop) and you will have a working operating system as long as the CD is in. Grab your files, drag them onto a USB or whatever and you're done.

Sounds like the easier way to go with this.

He was going to get a macbook or something next year for uni (and good god.. be one of those that has it "just work".. instead of knowing a bit more about the OS ><).. so it's not like we need this thing to be alive for ages. It's just that it's occurred at a most inopportune time..

Ok, so I'm on my macbook pro at the moment. I assume I need to go somewhere, download a file/iso and burn a CD to put into his laptop? Guide me, oh Master Zimmer

2009-10-23 04:21:51

#9

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

Ok.
Go here
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Download the ISO, burn it to a CD (I'm sure there's a Mac tool for it )

And once you're done, just boot it up.

2009-10-23 04:25:08

#10

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

Zimmer wrote:
Ok.
Go here
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Download the ISO, burn it to a CD (I'm sure there's a Mac tool for it )

And once you're done, just boot it up.

Juuuust did that lol. Yeah, I looked up the mac way of burning the ISO. Rather simple. Currently downloading at ~720kb/s.. which is fucking fast for me. Yeah, go Australia's internet.. woo..

I've seen some screenshots of the OS. Looks pretty easy. What should I expect in terms of navigating to the right folders to get the documents?

2009-10-23 04:29:16

#11

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

On your desktop, most likely on your RHS, you'll have an HDD icon (usually only one, unless HP created a stupid recovery partition) double click on that and it's pretty close to Windows Explorer or Finder, quite straightforward from there. Navigate to the Windows Users folder and find his documents.

Users is usually located in the root of the HDD, there you will alos see Program Files folders, etc.

2009-10-23 04:31:01

#12

Catbox: forgiveness; +505|6976

have you tried booting in safemode... then system restore?

Love is the answer

2009-10-23 04:35:35

#13

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

[TUF]Catbox wrote:
have you tried booting in safemode... then system restore?

If I hit F8 while booting, and select Safe Mode, it just ends up restarting and leading to the screen I posted before (with the choices of running the useless recovery program, or to start in normal mode).

Anyway, I found some sort of system recovery options screen.. and it turns out my bro never made system restore points. Yeah, I know... /facepalm.

2009-10-23 04:39:49

#14

Cheez: Herman is a warmaphrodite; +1,027|6699|King Of The Islands

Vista makes its own system restore points. Just because you can't get into Vista or Startup Repair doesn't mean you can't do anything with them. You just need someone to chime in and tell you where they hide them in Vista as Scruffy's on break.

My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.

2009-10-23 04:40:27

#15

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

mcminty wrote:
[TUF]Catbox wrote:
have you tried booting in safemode... then system restore?
If I hit F8 while booting, and select Safe Mode, it just ends up restarting and leading to the screen I posted before (with the choices of running the useless recovery program, or to start in normal mode).

Anyway, I found some sort of system recovery options screen.. and it turns out my bro never made system restore points. Yeah, I know... /facepalm.

System restore points are almost always created when installing new Vista updates. Did he never install them, or what?

2009-10-23 04:54:39

#16

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

I dunno what he did. For being such a bright kid (like he will probs dux his grade.. he's 1st in half his subjects, and top 5 in the rest) he certainly knows fuck all about the nitty gritty of running a computer.

I'm currently burning the ISO onto a CD..

2009-10-23 05:32:48

#17

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6981|Sydney, Australia

Righty then, I've got Ubuntu running on his laptop. It took half an hour to find the frigging files.. cause they were saved under my old user account, not his..

Thanks a million to everyone that has helped out here.. <3

Now, the question still remains - what to do with the messed up Vista install?!

Ps. Ubuntu seems pretty cool

2009-10-23 05:44:32

#18

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

Well, as long as you have recovered all the files you care about, then you can start fresh.

Grab GPARTED live CD (do the same as you did with Ubuntu) and then once booted up into GPARTED (you might need to run Forcevideo - if the screen flickers and then goes back to the wall of text, type in "Forcevideo" and then "Vesa" and then "1024x768" when it asks about resolution, it will boot up into Gparted. Basically, from here you wipe your hard drive. Format it, and then grab either a copy of Windows 7 or Vista and install it. You can still find Windows 7 RC1 online, and the keys are still valid for it - this is legal, valid till next year. I don't know if Aus have the sutdent offers for Windows, but you can check.

2009-10-23 05:50:09

#19

Zimmer: Un Moderador; +1,688|7016|Scotland

I've already worked with an HP before and wiping everything with GPARTED, I had to use Forcevideo, so I'm guessing you will as well.

When typing it, make SURE that "Forcevideo" has a capital F, it wont recognise it otherwise.

And when typing "vesa" make sure it's all in small letters.

You could just install Ubuntu, but my guess is that your bro will probably not want that, as he's completely computer illiterate (when it comes to OS'es ).

I can give you advice on where to find some stuff. My guess is your internet connection is 8MB/S? Yes? Well, that should be cool. I'll PM you in a few.

BF2S Forums Help please.. problem with bro's laptop - startup repair fails..

Zimmer wrote:

Zimmer wrote:

Zimmer wrote:

Zimmer wrote:

[TUF]Catbox wrote:

mcminty wrote:

[TUF]Catbox wrote:

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