BleepingComputer.com: Startup Recovery / Can't boot

Hello everyone,

I will give as much back story as I can leading up to the problem. Hope somebody can help me.

This morning I was working on a project right before work. Remembering I had to walk the dog, I closed the laptop assuming I'd be right back, but then had second thoughts because it had gotten so late and I had to immediately leave after the walk.I reopened it almost as soon as I had closed it because I wanted to shut it down completely. Well the screen was black but the pc was still on as if in sleep mode, but it was completely locked up. This has happened before so I just pressed the power button to shut it off, closed it and when about my day. I was only at work for a couple of hours to help with some things so I returned home fairly quickly.

To my amazement the pc had still been running in this locked-up sleep state the whole time I was gone and had gotten pretty warm/hot. I tried the power switch again with no luck. So I popped the battery out, put it back and restarted.

I got an error message, which I expected, but I thought it would ask to start in safe mode. It was a completely new message about doing a Start-up Recovery or starting normally. I hit enter out of habit and it went into the recovery. I let it try to recover itself atleast 20 times now. It can't find the problem and it won't boot.

I cannot get it to boot into safemode either. I can get to the screen but it automatically restarts after I try to boot in safemode. I've tried disabling the restart, but then it just stays on a black screen as if its still sleeping.

I tried a restore to two different dates. I'm not sure if the first one was successful... but the second one was. It still won't boot.

I do not have the windows vista cd... it't came with it on the laptop already. It's a HP Pavilion dv5-1150us
Entertainment Notebook PC

I understand that I may be totally screwed here and might have to wipe my whole system. If it can't be fixed can someone please help me back-up my work files??? There's only a few Open Word documents, GIMP files, and pictures that truly can't be replaced. And they all happen to be related to my work and are very important. I can deal with losing bookmarks and other junk I've collected through the years.

I did run chkdsk on the two options available.... still won't boot.


I did have a problem with a rogue virus about a week prior. One of those ones that pretends to be an anti-virus program from windows. It had shut off my maleaware bytes and I had to download something to be able to run my antivirus. To my knowledge I was able to remove it.

I did a Windows update a couple of days prior.... and I noticed a legit Microsoft Security thing kept popping up here or there.

Would appreciate some help, if anyone has the time.


EDIT to add:

The "something" I downloaded to fix the virus was rkill

This post has been edited by nsayn723: 04 February 2012 - 12:50 AM

First for the documents or files on the hard drive is by physically removing and connecting it by enclosures or adapter to USB. Then with a working PC, you could open then copy/paste them to the internal drive. Any unsaved files from the previous working session is gone.

I saved everything I was working on before the crash. I always do.


Does it matter what kind of enclosure I buy, do you have any recommendations?

I wouldnt be able to copy them to a usb or cd from the command prompt?

If you refer to documents that are unsaved when the problem occured, then they are most likely lost. I cannot be sure if this problem is caused by a rogue or rootkit virus which you mentioned that causes the system to become unbootable since it was just recent. You would need another working PC to hook up the laptop. Check the hard drive on the number of pins if its SATA or IDE.

Im afraid you've lost me there, my friend. SATA? Pins? IDE?

Can thr pc be another laptop or does it have to be a tower? I have both. not sure exactly how to hook pc's to each other....But I guess I can google.

Going to have to wait til tomorroe to try anything.
4am here and I have a massive headache.

Typing on phone now is not helping . Lol

Hope to talk to you again . Sometime tomorrow.

Thank you

Hello nsayn723,

You might want to try this before purchasing anything.

Recover your Documents from an unbootable Windows System:
If your computer is non-bootable and has a CD\DVDROM drive, you can problably access and copy your documents using an "alternative" operating system "Live CD."

While there are many ways to accomplish this, one of the fastest and easiest is using a Puppy Linux live CD.

What you will need:
Another computer with internet connection and a CD burner, software capable for "burning an "iso" image to CD", a blank recordable CD disc, and a USB Flash drive or external USB drive large enough to rescue all of your documents.

Start by downloading Lucid Puppy Linux (129 MB) from here or here.

• Burn the iso file to CD.
• Don't have the appropriate software or don't know how to burn the iso file to make the CD bootable. (See how to).
• Make sure your computer is set to boot from CD/DVD drive first. (See how to)
• Boot the computer with the newly created CD.
• Puppy Linux is a "Live CD" which means that it runs outside of the windows operating system that is on your computer.
• Puppy should progress and run automatically. When the desktop loads, click "OK" at the Personal Settings screen.
• Note the icons, bottom left, above the Menu button. They represent each drive on your computer. Plug in your USB Flash drive if you haven't already. The flash drive icon will soon appear.
  
  

• Unlike Windows, in Puppy you only have to mouse click once on an icon to open it.
• Find your system hard drive by exploring the hard drive icons ("hda" or "sda").
• Note: use the green arrow (top left) on screen to go back up a directory.
• WINDOWS Vista and 7 - Go to "My Documents" folder by clicking "Users," then "<YourUserName>." You will see the "My Documents" folder.
• Click once on your Flash drive. Now arrange the two screens by dragging them if necessary using the top, title bar so that both are visible; one on top of the other.
• Drag the "My Documents" folder into the flash drive and release. Click "Copy." Do the same for any other folders or files that are important.
• To "Exit" Puppy Linux, click "Menu," "Shutdown," and "Reboot." You will be presented with a screen asking to save any personal settings. Arrow over to "Do Not Save" and press <Enter>. The system will reboot. Remove the CD.

Thank you Artrooks !

I'm attempting this now. Got ImageBurn downloaded already and waiting for the PuppyLinux to finish. Once I burn the program I will pray and try to get my important files.

Thank you so much! Will post results.

Edit to add:

Most of my important work documents are located in one folder. Then the important GIMP files are in another. I get these and I am golden. I will then do a quick search for anything else that is important. After that I don't care if the damned computer explodes. lol

We will see.

This post has been edited by nsayn723: 04 February 2012 - 10:39 AM

Okay....

It looks like I got what I needed by using the Puppy Linux. I want to test the files out on a couple of different pc's before I jump up and down and praise the Gods.

I went in for the important stuff first and it all seems to be in working order. I don't have the cash to get an external hard drive right now.... but a few more flash drives should give me the space I need to get anything else I may have missed.

I seem to have the bulk of what I was worried about... I ran out of space before I could copy some of the image files I needed, but I will try again as soon as I pick up another flash drive/s.


This is a huge relief and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me. Thank you all sooo much!!!!

I will continue to save what I can over the next few hours.

I will come back to this thread later for advice on how to fix the laptop itself. Once I'm sure I have all of my work stuff I have no problem wiping the whole freaking thing and starting from scratch.

Thanks again