Boots in Safe Mode but not Normal Mode

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by TexasDolly

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't have a CD,there is an option to restore the oringinal factory system,however. I am running 4 virtuals and if I can I would really like to save them,plus all the other stuff.
TD

can you further explain this........ I think I know what you mean by virtuals, but I want to make sure..........

[TexasDolly]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

can you further explain this........ I think I know what you mean by virtuals, but I want to make sure..........

Ralph , They are virtual machines running various operating systems . It is a little easier for me to keep things separated that way.
TD

[jerry-g]

Originally Posted by TexasDolly

Ralph, There were no unusual entries in the boot log ,some were loaded
and some were not loaded . None they couldn't load they just said they didn't load. Since I ran Chkdsk I can no longer boot in the safe mode.

Jerry, no option comes up. When I pressed f8 it took me to the safe mode boot. It still tries and loads a lot of stuff and then stops with the items loaded still displayed.

DJ, I will try to burn the cd tool you mentioned and check it out.. I also ordered the book you referenced in one of your posts.

HH Thanks for the MBR tip. Maybe the tool/tools will answer your question about the soundness of the hard drive.

TD

The last line where it stops should be the culprit. That's why it can't go
farther.

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by TexasDolly

Ralph , They are virtual machines running various operating systems . It is a little easier for me to keep things separated that way.
TD

before the problems, did you have a menu that asked what machine you wanted to boot to? or did you boot into Winxp and then start your VM's ?

[TexasDolly]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

before the problems, did you have a menu that asked what machine you wanted to boot to? or did you boot into Winxp and then start your VM's ?

Yes, I booted in xp and then accessed the others from there. I didn't see anything strange on the last entry (boot log) and thought that was the legitimate end of it as I best remember. That was the log in the safe mode
so it's possible the normal boot attempt was listed in the body of it. I did look at pretty much all of it though.
TD

[JustRalph]

damn, I am stuck........ you can back it up from command prompt if you have to, but accessing your VM's from command prompt is something I have never done.

How about this, if you really have to save the data.

go buy a new hard drive. make it the master. Reinstall windows to that drive and then after it's up and running, your data should still be on the other drive, and accessible. as long as that drive is not corrupted etc.

if the data is critical, I might go that route

[Longshot6977]

Just saw this thread and thought I'd chime in.

Try opening the PC and disconnecting the network card/modem/sound card etc; anything that isn't required to run the OS. Reboot and see what happens. Connect one card at a time and reboot. If still NG, try this inexpensive but nifty device to get your data off the HDD.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-to-I...-/300945727065

I have a similar one I bought for $9 and it has saved my data several times. It lets you hook up your internal drive as an external drive on another PC to access the data. As long as the drive isn't hosed, you will get your data. Let us know. Good luck.

[TexasDolly]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to post and offer suggestions. The desktop is an HP and they have a backup and recovery manager ,accessed by
pressing f11. It reads like it might back up most of the data etc I would like to save. It takes a good bit of time to backup and then recover so I'll probably be at it for 2 or 3 days. It seems at this point the best way to proceed. We'll see.
I really appreciated the help from everyone.

TD

[DJofSD]

TD, I'm familiar with HP's packaging a recovery tool but not one that is a back up too. Maybe I just never saw it but I did purchase numerous HP desktops and laptops and those all had a recovery tool which basically rebuilt the boot partition to a factory state, i.e. fresh and new but you would lose anything you had installed yourself.

So, if you would, post a link here from the HP site that describes what you are going to use. I'd like to read it before you take that path.

[TexasDolly]

Originally Posted by DJofSD

TD, I'm familiar with HP's packaging a recovery tool but not one that is a back up too. Maybe I just never saw it but I did purchase numerous HP desktops and laptops and those all had a recovery tool which basically rebuilt the boot partition to a factory state, i.e. fresh and new but you would lose anything you had installed yourself.

So, if you would, post a link here from the HP site that describes what you are going to use. I'd like to read it before you take that path.

Hi DJ,
The manager has a separate option to backup any number of common directories as well as an option to specify any other files(takes wildcards if needed) you might like to include .In addition to the more common ones I elected to back up a number of others . I will look at that backup (used the option to not compress) and see if they appear to be okay. If there is a question about them I will try and check them on another computer. Assuming I eventually get most of what I want then I will try to restore the original factory setup and go from there. I didn't find a link as such ,this is what I gleaned from the procedure . It is currently preparing the backup files . There is an option to see what is being done and I have seen a number of the things I was hoping to save.
I had the same impression about f11 as you, only the factory restore available, however , this backup option wizard may save the day. It can be run separately and as often as you desire it looks like, so if I miss something I can try again.
I had recovered an HP laptop a few years ago(xp home ver.) and no backup was available.
TD

[DJofSD]

OK, it does sound like a different tool(s).

Best of luck getting things back to normal.

[Dave Schwartz]

Tex,

I would be very careful. A friend did this a couple of years ago on an HP laptop and when all was said and done it backed up on the "public" folders, along with "my documents," and software data that was under "Program Data."

IOW, if you have (say) data in a c:\ root folder it might not get backed up.

This COULD mean that your horse racing data could be lost!

The idea to "buy a hard drive" is a really good one. Besides, this drive could eventually be external and become your back up drive so you do not face this problem in the future.

[HUSKER55]

FWIW, I called my repair guy and his contention is that if you can't use sytem restore and get it to work then it is most likly some equipment problems, maybe a virus, but he was not sold on that.

Sorry, wish I could have been more help.

[Segwin]

As Dave said take it to the geek squad or buy a new hd to install windows or the os of your choice. Your data is safe on the old hd as long as you don't try anything above your skill set.

Who remembers Windows ME? What a pos - hoo-fah.

[TexasDolly]

Update on computer .
The horse data has been saved and verified as well as one other fairly important set of data . There are still a few more things I need to save and then the recovery step. The hard drive may well fail soon . I read somewhere that running CHKDSK puts a big strain on them and it was after running CHKDSK that it would no longer boot into the safe mode. The only hard drive I've had fail exhibited a number of things before failing while this one hasn't done anything similar in that sense.
It was good of you guys to help out,thank you.
TD