Vista will not boot! is it my HD?

Humveeluvr

Humveeluvr

New Member
Ok this is my moms computer that I am trying to repair the specs are: P4 2.5 Ghz, 1 GB ram 160 HD, dvd rom and dvd writer windows xp pro, 128 graphics ati, avg 7 free.
First she was having issues with connecting to the internet and she could only connect after conducting system restore this had to be done on several osscasions but instead of correcting the problem she just kept doing a system restore, the other day system restore froze and 10 hrs later it still would not respond, shut the computer down and of corse it was done, will not load window. To make things worse all of her system disks are up at the cottage being: XP, ms word, and various other items, you get the point. As she will not be going up anytime soon I talked her into getting a OEM copy of vista ultimate, so I tried to instaled Vista and was suprised when it saved all the old files to windows.old but after installing it said there is only 38.5 gb of 160 gb left I know Vista takes up about 25-30 gb and actual files on the computer is about 25 gb so i am missing 75 gb. the HD is not partioned.

later after leaving my mom installed Java and she shut the computer off the next day she turned it on and it would not boot the bios screen would run then restart over and over again. I tried all basic problem solving like I cant boot into any of the safe modes, can't start with last successful config settings, I tried the vista repair and that didn't work, I checked all of the connections inside the computer and all appeared to be fine, finally I reinstalled windows and got to the first time log in, I logged in then the system started and that is where it finished back to trying to boot!

Help please!:mad: :confused:
Jason
 
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The most common items to go flaky on an older system are surprisingly the Lithium batteries on the boards! When a battery gets weak you will see all kinds of startup and unexpected restarts as the cmos information is no longer being maintained. The battery is the low cost option of $2-$3 over a hardware issue.

Due to age along with wear + tear the cpu, memory, board, hard drive, and even any addon devices like a printer as well as video and sound cards are the hardwares to suspect. One or more start to cost enough where it's time for a new system. Or you could be simply in need of a bios update if the battery is still strong.

When was the last time the case was blown out with a can of air cleaner? Probably never! Fans gets clogged or simply quit leaving you with higher then normal temps. For testing memory to see if that is the problem memtest and other tools are available free of charge. A can of air cleaner goes for $3-$4 retail plus the time it takes.
 
Thank you for your response, I was beginning to think that I was out of luck! Ok the first thing I did was actually opening up the case and never been cleaned your right i cleaned out all the dust then checked all the connections. when i first installed Vista after cleaning it worked, but the next day I get the call that It is doing the same thing just restarting the Bois.

Ok I will try a new MB battery can someone tell me how to flash the bois or is it just as simple as downloading onto cd and pressing the power and following the prompts? Please advise. [edit]Actually I will research this!

would it be better if I install vista without having my devices connected like the printer/scanner?

so I will give this a shot and if needed I will return! thanks
 
The first step taken in cleaning the case will make a large difference as you are already starting to notice. That's the one thing most people who never build but bought and ran pcs never thinks of.

You can assume the battery if not weak now will go soon enough being that old. It never hurts having one or two spares onhand once you get into building your own.

As for the bios the user manual or support site's instructions need to be followed. On older systems a boot floppy was made up with a dos flash tool where the update was copied onto that as well as the root of the hard drive. Once booting from the floppy the dos tool either provided with the mother board or recovery disks or downloaded from the support site would be used at that time.

With the dos method you had to type everything precisely to see a good flash. If the current bios version was... let's use the example 1023 and the update was 1074 you would type in something like "ren 1024 1074" followed by pressing the enter/return key. Some tools also included a progress indicator.

The newer systems and separate boards first started seeing Winflash updates you simply ran while in Windows. The newer and now latest see an EZ Flash option at post time to see an update automatically downloaded. But you still have to follow the manufacturer's instructions for each model system or board.

For printers and any other additional devices hardwares it generally goes faster leaving those unplugged until you know Windows is up and running the way it should plus the mountain of updates...:eek: I think you get the drift on that whenever performing a full reinstall. :P

That will make the detection process a little easier too when Windows prompts with the new hardware found or drivers needed. When first going to install as you know you already are fiddling around with all software disks for everything you putting on anyways so either then or simply waiting until later is your choice for the most part.
 
Please someone tell me look at my orginal post these are my problems, I am going to try replacing the battery NOW but before I do, will removing the battery totally erase my BIOS or just restore to factory settings because I don't have any BIOS software and not too sure how to update/flash and I cant do it through windows because I aint got any!

Help!!!!!
 
i agree with the changing the battery and blowjob.
flash can be risky business. never the less you can goto the manufacture and query your model and see what the flash does. its usually associated with hardware. sometime speed. read what the flash will do. it might not help you.
then again it can be risky business. it could shut you down if it can't be erased. (like if corruption occurs).
read what the flash will do.
cheers......
 
as for the BIOS there is several updates for It however at this point I am not gonna even attempt it but am I risking anything by changing the battery I searched google and and got a 50\50 advice some not knowing and other saying it may erase my HD (I know that wont happen) so does any one here know?
 
it won't do nothing to the hd. its just the bios. its stupid stuff mostly. your clock is not working properly and not up to date. thats a good indication. i personally would do a low level format at this point and be done with it.
want to flash......i have but take the updates i want. some won't help me. others will.
 
The battery or commonly referred to as the cmos battery simply maintains the correct time and date as well as any changes in bios settings you made from the factory defaults. In Windows you can even assign a wav file to alert you to a weak battery.

An update is simply programming for the bios not a hard drive tool like Partition Magic where you could lose everything. Someone told you something way off on that apparently.

As far as a bios update the support site may likely see a Winflash update being the board isn't that old where a dos tool was your only option. Those are simply run while you are booted in Windows without fuss and worry. But you can always backup your current bios by following the information in the user manual or support site before going for one.
 
Okay, time for review!
After I made my post lastnight I rechecked all my connections and tried to restart the computer, then I get several stop errors! again restart and same thing. I did not change the battery, but I disconnected Printer Scanner and the web cam, then I went into the BIOS settings and selected "Load Fail Safe Default settings" and restarted, no luck. I then went back into BIOS and selected "Load Optmized Default Setting" and restarted! Guess what it worked.

First thing I do is back up all the data and tried to restart it booted straight into windows, with only windows on the computer there is 90GB being used! Anyways I download all the windows updates including the drivers and patches for some of the hardware, and once installed it restarted with no problems and running smoth. I then install AVG 8.0 and AD-Aware, Java, FireFox, Flock, Adobe. I then restarted and it booted, then I shut it down and left it off for and hour. Started it again an hour later and it loaded so I continued with setting up the computer with personal setting and additional users and booted one last time! Finally at 2 Am problem solved time to go home!

Oh and I think I have found out where this problem came from just be for the computer crashed for the first time my mom opened an E-mail from UPS services s.. (subject was something like) tracking #9878897979! checked it on the web last night turns out that there is a virus going around! And now I just found out that my stepfathers laptop crashed lastnight after opening the same E-mail while up at the cottage! Yeah I know these people quailfied to operate computers! LOL don't worry I would be bugging for answeres about that one as he was smart there and bought the extended service protection!

8 Am I get a call the computer is doing the same thing wont reboot!
WTF :mad:

Why has this computer decided to toy with me and crush all hopes of fixing this problem!

Soooo any Ideas now?:confused::confused:
 
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First go online to access the main server and see that bug deleted there before it can be downloaded again. When loading the optimized defaults you enabled PnP support allowing a normal install to proceed apparently.

Evidently after getting things going someone redownloaded the same virus once Windows Mail was set up again seeing the virus attack. If you can get into Windows and online some sites like Symantec have online scanners as well as special removers for certain viruses. Grisoft also has a set of free AVG type tools for this as well.

If you have a floppy drive which many newer systems no longer see one site provides a dos type special remover for the list of bugs seen at http://www.f-secure.com/download-purchase/tools.shtml

The AVG VCleaner is seen at the link here as well as explaining how to remove a list of known bugs. http://www.avg.com/virus-removal
 
Well Thanks for the feedback, I wasn't able to get back into Windows for a third time so I reformatted and added a second partition and its running like new (2 years ago)! But I do have one more question, Somehow I installed Windows on D drive instead of C drive is there any way to change this as explaining this to my mom makes her confused, if not and she still doesn't get it I will reformat and make it right, but I really don't feel like spending another 4+ hours setting up her computer.

Thanks again
 
Apparently you goofed when selecting the correct primary during the installation. Note that the installer may decide to reformat the C primary once you go to make the correction and yes the time needed.

The one other option would be involved and take far longer while not needing you present all the way through. It works in a 3 step process of first: 1)deletion of the proceeding partition whether anything is on it or not.

2)here's the real time eater! moving the partition that Vista is now on back to the beginning of the drive itself which "takes forever and ever and ever" plus you could go on vacation or simply fall asleep waiting. :P

3)This is the use of the BCD editing tool included with Vista to change the partition information in the boot loader from (1) to (0) since that would now be the first primary on the drive.

All the above is pointless however if Windows is seeing itself as D not C where you would need to perform a full reinstall to correct that. OUCH! :eek:

I had that happen while dual booting and simply installing XP without first unplugging the Vista drive to see it as a stand alone later to be added into the Vista boot loader being lazy at the time and expecting at some point to be reinstalling either version without warning due to beta testing.
 
PC eye said:
2)here's the real time eater! moving the partition that Vista is now on back to the beginning of the drive itself which "takes forever and ever and ever" plus you could go on vacation or simply fall asleep waiting. :P
Click to expand...

I need a vacation now after the time and frustration spent over that computer!! I think I will tell her to live with it.

Thanks for the advice
 
If Windows is seeing itself as being on C then yes you can more or less "slide by unnoticed" I suppose. But if it assigned itself as D or another drive letter that will tend to gum up the works a bit.

When seeing XP as D on that occasion I referred to an MS article on a registry edit that was supposed to change the D to C to no avail with Vista being the newer version that simply prevented that from happening. Later a quick reinstall with the Vista drive unplugged settled that fast since I no longer put any large number of items on the older version since Vista is now the primary OS.

Still nothing feels better then getting that done and seeing a fresh copy of Window to work with once you have everything reinstalled. As far as moving the primary back you would simply leave the system running overnight or when you are going to be away for a few hours and later simply expand it to fill in the unallocated space then following it rather then proceeding it or create a second storage partition.

Once moved either a BCD edit or use the automatic fix startup problems tool now seen on the Vista dvd repair tools section should see it load up for you saving reinstallation time. But just remember if Windows is seeing itself on D not C... :eek: ! "aw crap got to do it all over again!" :(
 
PC eye said:
Once moved either a BCD edit or use the automatic fix startup problems tool now seen on the Vista dvd repair tools section should see it load up for you saving reinstallation time. But just remember if Windows is seeing itself on D not C... :eek: ! "aw crap got to do it all over again!" :(
Click to expand...

Well I just reformatted since it was still pretty bare took the easy route. By the way what is BCD? Again thanks for the help!

Cheers :)
 
The BCD editor is for the new Vista boot loader since you no longer see the boot.ini file at the root of the drive. The Vista installer now creates a new folder called boot also seen now. That will contain several sub folders each containing the bootmgr.exe and memtest.exe files for various languages.

If you had plans to dual boot an older version of Windows like XP/2000/ME/9X/NT 3.1 or 4.0 you would need to add the entry for that into the boot options menu that would then be seen default as "previous version of Windows" at startup. Besides the BCD editor included with the new version someone developed an effective 3rd party tool for custom dual or multi booting different versions as well as different OSs along with Vista called EasyBCD.

For some time now I've been working with a prebeta tool that not only offers the option for other OSs but it's primary intent is to protect Vista's own system restore points when dual booting with XP or 2000 where those will get canceled out by the older version when booting into that. It's getting close to a general first beta release once a few things are fixed there.
 
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