Computer not booting

[DavidM1999]

Hi, my computer isn't booting, I, have had to fix it a couple of times before but this time there's something seriously wrong, all of a sudden one day it wouldn't boot, I now know the registry is corrupted and sadly I have no restore points, since nothing important was on I decided to re-install vista - but now I cannot because for some reason I cannot, it tries to fix the error but never does. Please help - urgent!!!

[Lisa_maree]

Hi David,

You say that there has been other times that the computer hasn't booted. All of what you say points me to a failing hard drive. Do you feel comfortable diagnosing that or should you have it checked by a tech.

As you don't need anything from the drive.

I would run Seagates disk diagnostics from here
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-master/

Even if the drive isn't a Seagate it will diagnose it just won't repair errors.

[DavidM1999]

That would explain a lot as the computer is almost seven years old, how can I run this from a computer that cannot boot though?

[DavidM1999]

I understand now, sadly I dont currently have a second pc to do this, could I use a large usb storage device as my new main hard drive?

[Lisa_maree]

The Seagate diagnostics is a self booting CD so doesn't need a computer to boot from the hard drive.

Windows won't boot from and run from a USB drive in the version supplied by Microsoft.

If you want to transfer files off the harddrive and use the computer on the internet then you could get a copy or download a copy of puppy linux.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm

Or if your local library subscribes to computer magazines often they have cover dvd's with bootable Linux versions.
   

[DavidM1999]

Thanks for your help, I have decided just to replace the hard drive and try and find some old vista installation disks!

[soybean]

If you can't find your installation discs, contact the manufacturer.  They may offer the discs and they won't cost nearly has much as buying Windows at retail price.  The manufacturer will need the model # and a serial # from your computer.