Computer issues again
 

Couldn't boot Windows XP this morning.

"NTLDR" is missing.

Tried it several times with the same result.

Shut the machine off for three hours and attempted to boot again.

Successful.

Any ideas what the issue is and whether the drive is the problem (it's 4.5 years old).

It might be time...........??

Well, I'm an idiot.:o

I had a floppy disc sitting in the floppy drive and, by sheer coincidence, removed that disc prior to the attempted restart two hours later.

Thanks for the links. Apparently, it's quite a common issue.

Some programs allow you to back up your hard disk. I bought a Seagate drive and the programs supplied allowed me to copy the boot disk to this new disk. Of course, I formatted the old disk once things were up and running. However, I use this program to duplicate my hard drive every so often. That way, if I had your problem, I would at worst disconnect my "new" drive and boot up the "old" one with a minimum of fuss.

Yep, that's a good idea. I've been running this machine with just the typical backups to an external drive. Doesn't do me much good, however, the capability to boot up if the current drive won't start.

I do believe it's possible to create a boot disk to work in the CD-ROM drive to get the machine up and running. Then, access to the external drive would allow continued operation if the main drive won't run.

yes, having a bootable cd with recovery software on it is handy. I use them often. symantec ghost is perfect for this.

I've recommended this before, and I recommend it now.

A disk imaging utility such as Acronis TrueImage Home can save one a lot of time and misery if things ever go seriously wrong on a PC.

If you have to use it only once, it's paid for itself - unless your time is really, really cheap to you.

John,

Is it required that you have a separate drive with the image of the first drive ready to go at all times?

Do you make one image of the entire drive whenever a program change occurs? Is this image separate from any weekly backups that are performed on the data files?

How does it help to have the disc imaging utility on the bootable CD if the main drive won't start?

I really need to get this done.

well, it's not required, but it makes it much simpler.
on my systems, I either make a DVD image of the system and update it as I install new software/data etc, or I just have a bootable cd and an external drive to set the image on. the new ghost even maintains the image in real time while widows is running. it should be a part of norton systemworks premium... but if not, ghost 9.0 and above have that feature, the freely available 2003 edition is fine for me though. it makes a nice boot image and makes it pretty simple to image a drive.

Install a bootable primary slave to boot the puter in the event of a crash. You can use an old 10gb HD to accomplish this, all you have to do is adjust your BIOS settings.

the only drawback to this, is modern operating systems are unforgiving of motherboard failures. most customers have two or more year old systems, and when they come in with a system in need of data recovery or just a failed system, the backup is useless except for file transfer to a new system.
if a motherboard or cpu fails, there is no way to build a replacement system that will work with the image. unless it's a VERY similar chipset (unlikely with the way system manufacturers update their designs.) so you end up reinstalling software, programs and then just using the backup for file transfer... so keep the systems clean, change the surge strips every spring, and pay attention to fans that make noise and change them! prolong the life of that system as much as possible.

Thanks...........that's what I'm going to do. I already have an 80Gb external drive for backup. I can easily ghost the main drive on that external drive.

I realize that it's probably useless if the CPU or the motherboard fails.

I have changed the motherboard to one of the same manufacturer and it won't work as well as if I flush the system. The chipset seems to be an issue. I give a computer a 3 yr lifespan. Usually, I upgrade after 1.5 yrs. That way it is done at a time of my choosing. I had to upgrade the wife's computer because the MB was flakey and it was having problems coming up. You should have see the wife worry. Of course, it was during a very critical time and her papers were on that machine. Sitting around trying to get things going while she is breathing down my neck is difficult. My fantasy is to be a porno star but my problem is that I cannot perform when people are watching me. Same with computers. I can't rebuild it while she is breathing down my neck. I had to get her out of the house so I could work in peace with a nice bottle of Eiswein.

Can your MB boot from this external drive? If so, you are golden.

Well, it can serve as data recovery.

I got a call from a RN that was writing up a huge document for the last 6 hrs and this was at 2100 hrs. There was no way in hell the computer would be unlocked. Not even the "3 finger salute" would work. Told her she had to reboot and hard. "Would I lose everything?" she says? "Only what you were working on since the last save". You could have heard a pin drop. This was something that was needed for a lawsuit the next morning and she hasn't saved it at all. She wanted another opinion. We called 3 other techs and none of them could help.

Moral of the story. Backup 1 min less than what you can spare time redoing. If you can spare 15 minutes to redo your work, back up every 14

I have personally never used Acronis TrueImage for incremental backups, but I think it can be used in that way, too. I should probably look into that as part of a more comprehensive disaster recovery plan.

My primary use of it has been to save entire images of the system drive (operating system, applications, etc.). These images can be saved to another hard drive (either internal or external) or burned to DVD. It can also be used to back up selected files as opposed to a disk image.

It also allows one to mount an image as a logical drive - very handy if one only wants to recover a file that was accidentally deleted, or to compare current files with ones from a "previous state" to see if a change has taken place since that image was saved.

After Acronis TrueImage is installed on the machine, it can be used to create a bootable Acronis CD. One can even remove the application from the machine after this, and then run it exclusively from the bootable CD if that's what suits one's fancy.

I really appreciated it after a failed attempt at a Win 2K to Win XP upgrade left me with an unusable machine. Booted the Acronis CD, pointed it to the image I wanted, and 20 minutes later, all was as it had been a couple of days before. (Succeeded with the upgrade shortly after that, too.)