Computer cannot start

[dannysiu]

once i turn on my computer, the first screen that appears tells me that "ZUSMR is compressed", press ctrl alt delete to reset....how do i get past this?

[Allan]

I've never heard of that message or that file. You say you see that as soon as the system boots (before you see anything else)? Are you sure of the spelling?

[dannysiu]

Yeah it comes up right after the Dell loading screen, also I can only press f2 and f12

[asdfEliasdf]

Do you know what drives you have booted from recently?  If you check your settings to see what drive you are booting from you know what drive is being accessed first. 

Although, should you be able to access your physical boot settings before your operating system boots, you might be able find this information, like I have, it is important not to change anything or save anything unless you have a solution in mind by using those settings.

Those are settings that, at the very least, could keep you from booting your operating system.  F2 or F12 (both labelled hopefully) - one may allow you to access settings - have been my only hope of looking into my computer's operation before I even start an operating system.

[Allan]

Do you know what drives you have booted from recently?  If you check your settings to see what drive you are booting from you know what drive is being accessed first. 

Although, should you be able to access your physical boot settings before your operating system boots, you might be able find this information, like I have, it is important not to change anything or save anything unless you have a solution in mind by using those settings.

Those are settings that, at the very least, could keep you from booting your operating system.  F2 or F12 (both labelled hopefully) - one may allow you to access settings - have been my only hope of looking into my computer's operation before I even start an operating system.

What?

[asdfEliasdf]

If I couldn't boot my operating system but I could guess at what drive was causing the error, I would try.  Knowing that I wouldn't tamper with the boot order right off the bat would be a benefit.

dannysiu: if you don't have more than one hard drive, you don't have to take my commentary to heart.  I wouldn't want you to change anything that would make it harder to fix your problem, either.  Thanks for allowing me to explain myself, as vague as I might be, Allan.  The more the better, as long as there is no malice nor poor planning.

[Allan]

I don't mean to be rude, but your posts are not relevant to the question at hand. Anyway, the individual who asked the question hasn't returned for two weeks since posting.

[asdfEliasdf]

I'm just giving my input on something that doesn't have a check next to it.  I'm new to this place.  As long as it seems that something is unsolved, it feels like I am contributing to mention what's on my mind without, you know, showing malice.

Okay so: as you are the moderator I will respectfully pull back from this string.  Since you now know how unclear I have been today, please feel free to let me know when I should pull myself off of a string because I am new to this place and don't want to disrespect the process which leads to hardware solutions.

[hopingForAnswers]

You probably won't want to do this, if you have the disks (or probably CD's).  you can usually start from a cd then run diagnostics.  If the hard drive has a bad spot, some manufacturers (like Seagate)  provide free software to correct (mark them as bad sectors)  and move the files in those sectors to another location.   Sometimes they might tell you to do a low level reformat the hard drive drive.

This might work sometimes - but the part you won't like is that it might also destroy/corrupt the entire hard drive.

Before you start do a full backup

It can also be a host of other problems - but I would start by trying to boot from an CD and running diagnostics.  If you cant boot from the CD, Trying going into setup and write everything down.  If your can't get into setup (usually f2 when computer starts)  then count the beeps as it fails - oneone might be able to tell you what they mean.