Hello,
My pc will not boot. On the black screen with the windows xp logo the band moves endlessly across for about 2 minutes and then just locks. If I start in safe mode and try system restore despite going back about 6 weeks The messge is restoration not possible try an earlier restore point. I have a restoration disc which gives me an option to re-install application, does this mean i can re-install my operating system without formatting the hard drive and losing all my files.
Any help much appreciated, thank you.
Ian
Acer Windows XP family
AMD athlon 63200+
2.01 Ghz 512 Mb Ram

your will find that your system restore disc is actaully a factory restore which take off everything that the computer has had put on it.. inc your files.

SOME offer you a back up option which will store your documents in a folder on the hard drive, it sometimes also keeps the users accounts.

One of the probelms I have come across, is that the security key changes and the files cannot be accessed in normal mode from the restored /backup folder.
There is a way around by going into safemode and then changing the users/priv's on the folders and files to again gain access to them.

You will ahve to check the disc to see what it actually does, try calling the company that made the computer and they will be able to tell you.

http://www.gtwcmt.co.uk/Computer-repairs/data%20backup.htm

If it's a fairly new Acer system, you may even have to buy a set of restore discs for the system if it didn't come with them. Their website has a place for support and ordering or discs appropriate for a given system.

As Rory said, some retail computer restore discs have no intelligence, and all they can do is over-write everything on the HDD and 'restore' the system to its original on-the-shelf state. That not only includes wiping out user data, but it means restoring all the crapware you have spent time eliminating.

If a "repair" install option is provided on your system restore discs, that might preserve your data, however nothing is a given when something goes wrong.

You should backup your personal data before you make any more attempts to repair your system HDD.

There are a number of ways you can try to backup data on a corrupted disk which involve using either a "rescue/repair" CD/DVD such as Knoppix, or connecting your HDD to another PC. If you need help with that, let us know, although such information is readily available in posts on HWA and other websites on the internet.

In general, it's a good idea to backup regularly anyway in case of problems just like this.

Following our telephone conversation.

I recommend that you:

Take a back up of all your files on to a external hard drive ( amazon france is pretty good on price).

Next open "my computer" and right click on your C hard drive (main disc drive) selecting properties.

On the 2nd tab (tools) select Error checking (de contrôle d'erreurs) - picture of disc "check now" (contrôle maintenant) Check both of the boxes and click OK


You should be prompted for a system reboot, or notice that it will do it the next time the system boots.

When the system reboots, it will scan for disc errors and provide you with a report.
If it say that it cannot fix errors, then it would seem that there is a fault with the harddrive

This would mean that you should be considering replacing the hard drive, one snag is that the discs that comes with the computer I doubt will install XP on a new drive, it is possible though!!

I do recomend backing up and carrying out a fresh installation of XP on your computer. as I have said you can write to Microsoft for the SP2 disc. if you find you are stuck, I have copies of the disc's that you will require for a full installation to SP2. (in English)

Another possible performance enchancement would be to add 512Mb of DDR RAM, its not costly. You system is preforming with minimal memory for the default windows install, SP1 and SP2 bulked up the system loads and there for the system comes slightly under resourced. The ram that you may consider installing is the Corsair DDR 400 512MB RAM. this should work with the 256Mb that is installed.






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