Try booting into safe mode first to let it autodetect your devices again. I'm not sure why this works, but I've seen it work a couple times. It can take a few minutes sometimes.
That may work--I tried to boot into safe mode but I received the same message about missing or corrupt file. I will try now since it is at least able to get to the Windows desktop. As a prcaution I am going to crate an image of the drive with acronis TI, at least saving the data.
I tried to boot into safe mode but the usb ports seem to freeze just like normal mode.This is the biggest obstacle to any progress with this thing. If I can get the USBb ports functioning from within Windows I may be able to fix the rest.
I have another question, it concerns reinstallation of the OS. I have the original disk that came with the PC but I am wondering if when I boot with it, does it provide the option to do a repair install? Does it just reformat and reinstall the original configuration? It seems that Dell OS disks are more like Windows OS disks than say HP's restore disks'. With this option I could do a reinstall and not lose any data. This PC has Media Center Edition so I would like to keep it intact.
I am trying to do a backup of the HD, but it takes such a long time-12 hours remaining??-it seems there is not progress at all. This PC has the raid option setup as RAID1(mirror). Are there any issues with creating an image of the raid drives?
What is with Dell support anyway? I can still chat with HP people about my computer even though it is out of warranty but Dell won't even let me email them after the warranty expires unless I pay some money. What's up with that?
I have the exact same problem, and its not the first time I have had the problem. Recently occured after unsuccesfully trying to upgrade my XPS 710s RAM, I will link you the page which I am curently using just incase it gives you any extra info.
Last time I lost all the infomation on my hardrives as I had to reinstall XP, but the success rate seems quite high for most people, so although backing up your data wouldnt be a bad idea, you may get away without it. If you have Raid 1 I would imagine you would have a higher chance of recovering your data as it mirrors all you files (I have Raid 0).
You may already know this, just trying to get some extra infomation out.
Message Edited by Land_Mark on 10-29-2008 09:03 AM
Message Edited by Land_Mark on 10-29-2008 09:05 AM
Thanks, I will be checking out that link shortly. What I cannot figure is why I am not able to boot to the OS cd that came with the computer? If that would happen I could perform a restore installation, but when it gets to the point when it wants to start windows setup, I get a blue screen, and pci.sys is identified as the culprit. I suppose there could be a hardware failure happening.
I did get an image of the drive made so all the data is saved. I can recover it with Acronis True Image when I get the PC to boot. This thing was bought in 2006 so I think the cd that came with it should have SP2, correct? The OS is WinXP Pro Media Center Edition. I don't think that I could install XP pro seperately and then install Media Center since they are bundled together.
stefanrp97
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October 27th, 2008 23:00
PhilWard
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October 28th, 2008 03:00
Davet50
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October 28th, 2008 20:00
PhilWard
4 Posts
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October 28th, 2008 20:00
I tried to boot into safe mode but the usb ports seem to freeze just like normal mode.This is the biggest obstacle to any progress with this thing. If I can get the USBb ports functioning from within Windows I may be able to fix the rest.
I have another question, it concerns reinstallation of the OS. I have the original disk that came with the PC but I am wondering if when I boot with it, does it provide the option to do a repair install? Does it just reformat and reinstall the original configuration? It seems that Dell OS disks are more like Windows OS disks than say HP's restore disks'. With this option I could do a reinstall and not lose any data. This PC has Media Center Edition so I would like to keep it intact.
I am trying to do a backup of the HD, but it takes such a long time-12 hours remaining??-it seems there is not progress at all. This PC has the raid option setup as RAID1(mirror). Are there any issues with creating an image of the raid drives?
What is with Dell support anyway? I can still chat with HP people about my computer even though it is out of warranty but Dell won't even let me email them after the warranty expires unless I pay some money. What's up with that?
Land_Mark
16 Posts
1
October 29th, 2008 12:00
I have the exact same problem, and its not the first time I have had the problem. Recently occured after unsuccesfully trying to upgrade my XPS 710s RAM, I will link you the page which I am curently using just incase it gives you any extra info.
http://swatrant.blogspot.com/2005/11/windows-could-not-start-because_17.html
Good luck.
Last time I lost all the infomation on my hardrives as I had to reinstall XP, but the success rate seems quite high for most people, so although backing up your data wouldnt be a bad idea, you may get away without it. If you have Raid 1 I would imagine you would have a higher chance of recovering your data as it mirrors all you files (I have Raid 0).
You may already know this, just trying to get some extra infomation out.
PhilWard
4 Posts
1
October 29th, 2008 16:00
Thanks, I will be checking out that link shortly. What I cannot figure is why I am not able to boot to the OS cd that came with the computer? If that would happen I could perform a restore installation, but when it gets to the point when it wants to start windows setup, I get a blue screen, and pci.sys is identified as the culprit. I suppose there could be a hardware failure happening.
I did get an image of the drive made so all the data is saved. I can recover it with Acronis True Image when I get the PC to boot. This thing was bought in 2006 so I think the cd that came with it should have SP2, correct? The OS is WinXP Pro Media Center Edition. I don't think that I could install XP pro seperately and then install Media Center since they are bundled together.