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7809
March 15th, 2009 10:00
Windows not working + BIOS question
My computer was recently badly infected with a powerful virus that went about changing important settings, like disabling the Windows XP firewall. I nearly had it cleaned up, but I believe one of the anti-malware programs quarantined a few of the wrong files, because I tried repairing windows via the original CD, and that froze while asking for a file from another disc. Anyways, now my computer just loads to a black screen with a mouse after the dell + windows screens, and that's it, not even ctrl+alt+delete works here.
After trying different boot options and safe mode configs, I decided to "Restore to Defaults" from the startup menu, and now it looks for a floppy drive first. I don't have a floppy drive on this computer, and get the error "Diskette drive 0 seek failure" but cannot remove the option from the F12 boot sequence menu. Is there a way to correct this?
Because of this it seems that I can no longer get into Safe Mode either.
I'm not sure if this windows is even repairable anymore, but if I could get the bios start up back to normal and bought a new hard drive, would I be able to install windows on the new hard drive and read data off the old hard drive similar to a usb drive, regardless of it's windows problems?
Thanks,
Aaron
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Davet50
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14.4K Posts
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March 15th, 2009 15:00
Boot into the bio and make sure the option for the Floppy drive is set to off/disabled.
Try doing a Repair Reinstall and see if that works. You will need your OS disk.
Baring that you may be looking at a complet reinstall. If you had no chance to backup your files you could try pulling the drive and adding it to another system to access it.
AceE87
3 Posts
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March 15th, 2009 15:00
Nope, just a single non-raid drive in there.
I haven't done a whole lot with the hardware of computers, but I do remember a few years ago my hard drive stopped working properly and a Dell tech had to come and replace it, but I connected my old hard drive as a CD drive or something and was able to read off of it and recover my data. I have an older computer i've opened up to try this, but it's older technology and can't connect to the hard drive.
MrUser
24 Posts
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March 15th, 2009 15:00
Try a CMOS reset. You should have a description in the manual for your computer.
MrUser
24 Posts
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March 15th, 2009 15:00
Do you have a Raid setup for your HDDs?
MrUser
24 Posts
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March 15th, 2009 16:00
Here is a tutorial for a CMOS reset: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps720/en/OM_EN/appendix.htm#wp1054035
AceE87
3 Posts
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March 15th, 2009 16:00
Thanks, I found the floppy option in the CMOS Features setup, so the BIOS is fixed now.
I tried the windows repair again, and it didn't work.
I have Safe Mode back, but it's just a black screen with safe mode in each corner and a mouse pointer that works, and nothing else.
Davet50
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14.4K Posts
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March 15th, 2009 17:00
If you have no icons or task bar while you are in Safe mode and the Repair Reinstall did not work you ar looking at a complete reinstall of the OS. IF you did not have a backup of your drive you can pull it out and put into another system as a secondary drive and copy the files and such. IF not you will lose everything