Windows does not load in safe mode or normal mode. Need to save work and format.

[Eddie31]

Hello.

I have reached the conclusion that I need to format my laptop: acer travelmate 2414wlmi.and reinstall windows xp, however I am not sure if this is possible as the os does not load in either normal mode or safe mode.

I picked up a virus a few days ago that redirected me repeatedly to *Blocked Russian URL*, a problem I've seen that others have had. But now that I have access to an external hard drive to save my work, windows does not get past the welcome screen in normal mode, and is only usable for about a second in safe mode. Is there anything I can do to save my work?

Any help would be great.
Thanks
Ed

[ale52]

Depending on the type of hard drive you have you can use one of these adapters to connect to a friends computer and get your data off.  If you do make sure your friend runs a scan on your drive before removing any data.

Good luck!

Alan <>< 

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[Eddie31]

Thanks Alan.
Will those adaptors work when the laptop is either restarting every 30 seconds, or when it is waiting in the f8 or f2 setup menus? Because these are currently the only 2 possible states for it to be in...
Thanks
Ed

[patio]

With those adapters the drive is removed from the laptop and hooked up to a working desktop machine to retrieve your data...
Windows does NOT need to be functioning on the laptop drive to do this.

[patio]

http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/

[Eddie31]

I see. Thank you. Thats very helpful. I will work out out what sort of adaptor I need, and get one ordered.
Thanks.
Ed

[patio]

                 

This one is actually the cheapest...'bout 8 Bucks...
Laptop 2.5" to IDE adapter.

Good Luck.

[dr_iton]

Or you can try to repair your Operating System. Start your PC from CD and after you see the Windows Setup page chose R (repair) than you are going to see a list of OS's on your PC, if you see the Windows XP with the number 1 press that number and you will need to give the administrator password or if you don't have a password just press Enter and after that just check if OS is corrupted with this command CHKDSK /P, after a while if you see that check disk found one or more error just write the next command CHKDSK/R, this will repair your OS , be patient to wait because this procedure is approximately sustained an hour. After The repair is done just write EXIT and press Enter.
Cheers. 

[evilfantasy]

If the drive boots then this might be less work...

Avira AntiVir Rescue System

* Download the Avira AntiVir Rescue System
* Place a blank CD in your burner and double-click on the downloaded file.
* The program will automatically burn the CD for you.
* Place the burned CD into the affected computer and start the computer with the CD in the CD tray.
* On the bottom left side of the screen there are 2 flags.  Using your mouse click on the British flag to use English.
* Click on the Configuration button.

- Select Scan all files
- Select Try to repair infected files and Rename files, if they cannot be removed
- Select Scan for dialers
- Select Scan for joke programs (Jokes)
- Select Scan for games
- Select Scan for spyware (SPR)

* Click on Virus scanner
* Click on Start scanner at the bottom of the screen.

[Eddie31]

Hazaa. My work has been recovered- now its just a matter of reinstalling windows. The program that saved the day was Ubuntu- http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download - which allowed me access to my files despite windows not loading. So thanks for your assistance one and all- and I recommend Ubuntu if you find yourself in a similar pickle/quandry.

[quaxo]

Hazaa. My work has been recovered- now its just a matter of reinstalling windows. The program that saved the day was Ubuntu- http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download - which allowed me access to my files despite windows not loading. So thanks for your assistance one and all- and I recommend Ubuntu if you find yourself in a similar pickle/quandry.

Ah, another Windows failure saved by Linux! 

[ale52]

Thanks for posting back and that you got your stuff.  As you can see, there is more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case, recover your data.  

Alan <><