Cousin's Notebook Won't Boot Past Windows Startup Screen

[schazz1]

Hi Everyone,

My cousin just called me and told me that her Acer Travelmate C300 notebook won't boot past the startup screen. It will look like its loading windows but then loop back to the acer screen then the "windows did not start successfully" screen will come up and she is given the choice to bootup in regular/safe/last known good configuration/etc.

She says that she has tried to start up the computer in each different mode and the same thing happens.

I asked her if she had done anything different before she last shutdown her computer and she said that she did update windows but it had been a couple of days earlier and she wasn't sure if after the update she allowed the computer to reboot or clicked "reboot later" and left the computer on for the next 2 days before finally shutting it down.

I don't have access to the computer and this is all I really know at this point. She has things she needs on her HDD but it doesn't seem to me that the problem is with the HDD since it boots up to that point and gives that error message. Anyone have any advice as to steps to get the computer to boot?

Thanks a lot,
Will

 

[Holysky]

sounds like hardware faliure. maybe she had a virus and it deleted some windows files? tell her to try to reformat they have some programs that, as long as you dont install ANYTHING, you could get data back. I'd do that at your own risk though.

 

[shadygirl420]

yep gonna have to do a reformatt, should fix it though

 

[schazz1]

Okay so in that case, would it be possible to remove the HDD from the notebook, connect it to another comp which is running off a diff HDD and remove the stuff that she needs off this HDD or is it corrupted and needs to be reformatted before anything else can be done with it?

 

[cavemangrinder]

Okay so in that case, would it be possible to remove the HDD from the notebook, connect it to another comp which is running off a diff HDD and remove the stuff that she needs off this HDD or is it corrupted and needs to be reformatted before anything else can be done with it?

More than likely she should be able to get all those files copied over that way. Thats the easiest way to go about it, if you don't mind reformatting.

 

[schazz1]

k we'll go for that option first, thanks a lot guys.

 

[lhuser]

The laptop hard drive won't fit in your desktop. What you'd need is an external enclosure for laptop drives. Fixes the problem. By the way, you ought to get a drive for the external after you're done. It solves a lot of backup headaches!