Help! my computer crashed!
 

My computer crashed on me last night. I am running Windows Vista. It keeps going in circles, and says it wont load windows. So to protect the computer. I am really stumped right now. Also it wont boot my Windows recovery cd. Also it all started after I did a Windows update. And I think somehow the registry got messed up.
I really need help. I need this computer running. If i can't get it going. I am tempted to go back to XP pro again.

Just to let you know. I am using my wife's laptop. And it is hard to use. Anyway any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

Well from what feedback I have got. My hard drive went to crap. I'm starting to take my computer apart right now. And then I will take the drive to a store. And have them check it out. If it's dead, I will convert to a 1 terabyte or even a 2. Depends on price, my original is a 500 gb.

I had my 250GB music harddrive die on me a couple months ago... I just about went insane thinking I just lost 10 years of music. After researching, I found that the harddrive company has "emergency recovery program" that will spin up the harddrive and let you back up everything. It's a free trial, but you are supposed to pay $150 to allow it to transfer files... or you can just torrent the full version. :D

So before you pay someone tons of money to diagnose it for ya, put the harddrive in another computer as a slave, and check the harddrive manufactures website for recovery programs.

If it's by chance a Seagate or Maxtor harddrive, let me know... I've got the program. :D

On a side note, you should consider one of these... Network RAID setup... yummah!

http://www.adorama.com/BUTSXE20TLR5....m_source=gbase

http://www.adorama.com/images/large/BUTSXE20TLR5.jpg

It's a Seagate 500gb. It was pretty easy to remove. I don't have another computer to put it in. So there is a way to get all stuff off of it? Because a lot ofn pictures will be lost.:(

I called Best Buy. I can bring my computer in, and get a free diagnostic. Then depending on what the problem is. They will tell me the cost. So I will probably bring it in tomorrow.

I've been building computers since before hard drives existed, as a hobbiest.

To answer your last basic question, buy a new drive, stick it in and install your operating system (Vista). After the computer is stable, install the old HD as a second drive. If there is enough of it left, you will be able to access it and copy out what you want. MAYBE!

What I generally do is this: I have two drives in my machine. The first drive (HD) is where I install the OS (operating system) and all my programs. The second drive is where I store all my personal data, pictures, documents, ect. Generally, it is the boot drive that fails because it does the most work. This method will leave your personal data intact and safe.

If you want to truly back up your personal data, copy it onto DVD disks. I would NEVER use an online storage. There is nothing private or secure about the internet.

I currently have 6 2TB external HD's set up for external storage and one of them is specifically for computer, phone and email backups. I would highly recommend getting a little external hard drive and completely backing up the system automatically once a week.

Thanks guys for the tips and feedback. I will let you know how it goes. And I do have a 1tb external drive. Which has my music, tv, and movies on it. Hopefully if I can save my pictures and such. I will put them on a disc, and my external drive. And do that from now on. I'll keep you all posted. And thanks again. :)

Good news!
 

My computer is up and running again. I am now running on Windows 7. It's pretty cool so far. I am so stoked. :D

And the problem was? Did you save the harddrive??? Don't leave us hangin here... :D

I second the nomination. Tell all.

The hard drive was okay. It was a Windows update that crashed my computer. And because it crashed on Vista. Neither mine nor my friend's Vista would boot and reinstall. So he let me borrow his Windows 7 upgrade. And everything went well. Since yesterday morning, my computer has been running strong. I do sometime here soon, need to get my own Windows 7 program.

So how is that guys, does that explain things? :D

Works for me. Thanks for the happy ending.:038:

I used Vista once... and couldn't stand it. I'm still running XP on all my comps. I've heard that Win 7 is very efficient on resources. Maybe one day I'll upgrade.

windows 7 is like vista layout, but done right. It's pretty nice for the most part.

You ever look at all of the processes running in task manager when nothing is open? now cut that list down to about 20. 7 is probably one of the fastest off the shelf OS's I have seen/used. I love it and won't go back.:023:

^ Yeah what hoov said. It rocks, and now I am running Windows 7 Ultimate! :D

SeaGate HD are very good WildMan have you tried to boot in safe mode ? an then re run the last known recovery ?

Thanks man, but you are a little late. ;) I was able to get my computer working again. By running Windows 7. I have a Seagate 500gb internal hard drive. And a Seagate 1tb external hard drive.:D

My computer is 3 years old and I recently got rid of XP and installed win7. It works great. Plus now that I have a 64bit OS I can go beyond 4gb memory.

Yeah, my computer is over 3 years old. And has 3gb of memory, with 4ghz of speed. Still can hold it's own pretty well.