Hi,
I have a laptop that runs Vista. Once in a while for no apparent reason my computer crashes (when I boot it I get an error message that says that Windows failed to start and no matter what option I try - start windows normally, safe mode, etc. - it just goes to a black screen and nothing happens). The only way I've found to fix it is to use the Windows recovery cd that came with my computer and using System Restore to recover to a previous restore point. I have Windows updates disabled so that's not the problem. Any ideas anyone has to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated, though this is actually not the reason that I'm here.
So my computer decided to crash again but this time my CD drive is broken (actually to be more specific it's a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive) . I've tried everything to try to run the recovery disc. I tried copying the files to a USB flash drive and adjusting the BIOS to boot from the USB first but all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor. I also tried an external CD drive that connects to my laptop using the USB (again I adjusted the BIOS) but all I get is an error message that says "reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key". I am out of ideas and the thing is my laptop is still under warranty so I want to send it in to get the CD drive replaced (it's not a pop-out so I wouldn't be able to just buy a new one and install it myself) but I don't want to send it to them without it working because I'm afraid they'll just wipe the hard drive and there is stuff on there that I don't have backed up (when I recover to previous restore point it doesn't wipe out the hard drive). Anyone have any ideas? Also I don't have access to a full version of Vista so I can't try that - all I have is the recovery cd.
I have a laptop that runs Vista. Once in a while for no apparent reason my computer crashes (when I boot it I get an error message that says that Windows failed to start and no matter what option I try - start windows normally, safe mode, etc. - it just goes to a black screen and nothing happens). The only way I've found to fix it is to use the Windows recovery cd that came with my computer and using System Restore to recover to a previous restore point. I have Windows updates disabled so that's not the problem. Any ideas anyone has to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated, though this is actually not the reason that I'm here.
So my computer decided to crash again but this time my CD drive is broken (actually to be more specific it's a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive) . I've tried everything to try to run the recovery disc. I tried copying the files to a USB flash drive and adjusting the BIOS to boot from the USB first but all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor. I also tried an external CD drive that connects to my laptop using the USB (again I adjusted the BIOS) but all I get is an error message that says "reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key". I am out of ideas and the thing is my laptop is still under warranty so I want to send it in to get the CD drive replaced (it's not a pop-out so I wouldn't be able to just buy a new one and install it myself) but I don't want to send it to them without it working because I'm afraid they'll just wipe the hard drive and there is stuff on there that I don't have backed up (when I recover to previous restore point it doesn't wipe out the hard drive). Anyone have any ideas? Also I don't have access to a full version of Vista so I can't try that - all I have is the recovery cd.