What can the problem be?

[Respital]

Okay, i'll make it short.
(After writing it's not that short but i need to be thouro)
Also please exuse my bad grammar or spelling it wont spell check in english.

I got a phone call from my father a few days ago (i had to wait awhile it's hard to get internet access where i am) saying that something happend to the computer. I asked him what happend and he said that he was on a website which was the bridal registry for my cousin... said there was a blue screen with white writing (a BSOD) and told me the error code. I don't have the error code right now because i wasen't planning to get on the internet today. Yeah i know big mistake but i majorly need help here, i told him to restart the computer he did and then once it went past the boot screen it went to a black screen with white writing, i told him to read me whats on the screen and he said dadadadadadaddadadadada 'Please insert the windows disk into drive (;D) and press enter'. I told him where to find the disk once he insertted it into the drive the computer boot from CD and starting loading files (i didn't like this because i thought it might get reformatted and i didn't want to lose family photos and everything so i told him to restart the computer but take the disk out first) once he did that i told him to press 'F8' to get into safe mode but again it went to the black screen wanting the windows disk... erg this was making me mad, so i told him to restart it and press "Delete" to get into the bios. Once again it ignored the command and went to the black screen with white writing wanting the windows disk. I told him to turn off the computer and not to touch it until i get home (2 weeks) from my trip. I'm not sure what the problem is but i hope the hard drive is intact i asked him if he heard anything before the BSOD like griding or something he said no. I would greatly appreciated your help in this matter.

 

[DMGrier]

sounds like the hard drive took a crap. Is he running vista? I ask cause while I was on deployment a few buddies of mine there computers would blue screen if there were certain software they would run that vista didn't like.

 

[Respital]

sounds like the hard drive took a crap. Is he running vista? I ask cause while I was on deployment a few buddies of mine there computers would blue screen if there were certain software they would run that vista didn't like.

He's running Windows Xp Pro Service Pack 2.
As for security if anyone else wanted to know it has:

• Nod32 for Anti-Virus
• Comodo Pro for firewall
• Spybot search and destroy for Spyware

Also i hope the HD didn't take a crap because then i have to buy a new one.
Oh one more thing this isn't the computer in my signature this is my other computer. Hopefully someone else mite have an idea what happend i'll have to check back in a few days but until then chow.

 

[vix]

My initial diagnosis is also a dead HDD.

If it were me, I'd unplug the current drive, install a new drive, install windows onto the new drive, then once you're up and running add the old drive as a slave/backup and try to recover as much data from it as you can. (if possible)

It only took one catastrophic HDD failure (about 15 yrs ago) before I learned the importance of backing up my important files to an external source.

 

[DMGrier]

If your going to back up your files be careful. About 5 years ago my parents kept breaking hard drives and they kept transferring there important stuff over and they the hard drives kept breaking. come to find out that there was some file they kept transferring that kept crashing them.

 

[cohen]

Get a spare hard drive, install OS etc on that, back up the files on the other hard drive, before it completely dies! and then do a full reinstall or whatever he / you want to do.

 

[Respital]

My initial diagnosis is also a dead HDD.

If it were me, I'd unplug the current drive, install a new drive, install windows onto the new drive, then once you're up and running add the old drive as a slave/backup and try to recover as much data from it as you can. (if possible)

It only took one catastrophic HDD failure (about 15 yrs ago) before I learned the importance of backing up my important files to an external source.

Good idea but right now i'm thousands of KMs from home and that's impossible.

If your going to back up your files be careful. About 5 years ago my parents kept breaking hard drives and they kept transferring there important stuff over and they the hard drives kept breaking. come to find out that there was some file they kept transferring that kept crashing them.

Thanks for the tip.
But i'm certain it wasen't a file that caused the crash, it was a website bed bath and beyond i think but i'm not sure.

Get a spare hard drive, install OS etc on that, back up the files on the other hard drive, before it completely dies! and then do a full reinstall or whatever he / you want to do.

I think it mite already be completely dead...
Like i said i'm no where near home and i can't do anything but until then i told him not to power up the computer until i get home in about 2 weeks time.

Are they're any other possiblitys?
Again today i wasen't expecting to be on the internet so i don't have the error code but i'm going to try to get it as soon as possible.

I guess the hard drive is indeed dead but it's a pre-built computer too bad the warentee went out a year ago... maybe if imake a fuss they'll help out. Hard drives shouldn't crash from going on websites (from my knowledge)...