How can I boot my computer?
April 5, 2010 8:20 PM Subscribe
Help me boot my computer, please! I'm running XP and my computer will no longer boot even in Safe Mode, after a failed firewall installation. I don't have the XP installation CD (my Windows is definitely legitimate), and worse yet, my CD drive doesn't seem to work. Would booting Unbuntu from a flash drive be my best option? Where can I find non-technical instructions for how to do that?
I've downloaded Ubuntu, and burned it to CD, but my CD drive has been non-functional for a while. I do have a 3.5'' drive, but I have no idea how I could get boot disks onto 3.5" disks, because I don't know any other computers that still have 3.5 disks.
At this stage, I'd really like to be able to just boot the computer and backup the data.
Anything that you could recommend to help me boot my computer would be appreciated! Thanks!
I've downloaded Ubuntu, and burned it to CD, but my CD drive has been non-functional for a while. I do have a 3.5'' drive, but I have no idea how I could get boot disks onto 3.5" disks, because I don't know any other computers that still have 3.5 disks.
At this stage, I'd really like to be able to just boot the computer and backup the data.
Anything that you could recommend to help me boot my computer would be appreciated! Thanks!
If you still have the Ubuntu ISO, get it and a copy of UNetBootIn and it will make you a bootable flash drive to get into the machine. Back up to another flash drive / external hard drive, and move it to a new machine.
posted by deezil at 8:33 PM on April 5, 2010
posted by deezil at 8:33 PM on April 5, 2010
Some utility software packages allow you to boot from their disks. Norton comes to mind.
If you can boot this way, back up everything you need to, and re-install with an OEM copy of XP. It will probably cost you $50.
posted by noonknight at 8:42 PM on April 5, 2010
If you can boot this way, back up everything you need to, and re-install with an OEM copy of XP. It will probably cost you $50.
posted by noonknight at 8:42 PM on April 5, 2010
Look, as a guy who loves Ubuntu, who uses it every day and recommends it to everybody who I can and adores it like it were my girlfriend:
For the love of all that's holy, don't use Ubuntu for this. Ubuntu is not for fixing your Windows system. I don't know who's advertising it for that. There are much, much better tools for doing this - principally Knoppix - but even with those tools this will almost certainly be a daunting task unless you know a bit about Linux. Ubuntu is wonderful, helpful, friendly, and nice, but the nicest and most friendly operating system in the world won't be able to do much if you try to use it to restore an XP system that refuses to boot five minutes after you've met Ubuntu for the first time ever.
Second point, I hate to break it to you, but I'm almost certain that you will never be able to boot from your USB drive. Sorry to say it, but if you're computer has flipping 3.5" drives (!!) it sure as anything hasn't got a BIOS modern enough to allow that. I've met computers three years old that won't allow USB booting without flashing the BIOS; yours is not likely to be happy with the idea, unfortunately.
You have several options:
(1) Take it to a dude who knows what he's doing. Ask him to please, please make your computer work.
(2) Buy a new (internal) CD drive to replace the busted one. Put it in the computer yourself. On another computer, download and burn a copy of this alternate boot disk and use it to boot & restore your system.
(3) For the love of all that's holy, give it up and get yourself a computer that's not from the stone age. Seriously, check craigslist - I'll bet you can find something pretty cheap that still works.
Sorry, but I'm going to say the latter might be the best option. But of course I don't really even know what kind of computer you have; you should probably let us know what it is in case it's something special that really needs to be saved. But my hunch is that a computer that has a 3.5" drive and a broken CD drive is probably pretty damned old.
Oh, one last thing - is it just that there's something really precious on the hard drive? Because if that's it, then I recommend option 2 above, followed swiftly by option 3 once you've recovered your data.
posted by koeselitz at 9:33 PM on April 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
For the love of all that's holy, don't use Ubuntu for this. Ubuntu is not for fixing your Windows system. I don't know who's advertising it for that. There are much, much better tools for doing this - principally Knoppix - but even with those tools this will almost certainly be a daunting task unless you know a bit about Linux. Ubuntu is wonderful, helpful, friendly, and nice, but the nicest and most friendly operating system in the world won't be able to do much if you try to use it to restore an XP system that refuses to boot five minutes after you've met Ubuntu for the first time ever.
Second point, I hate to break it to you, but I'm almost certain that you will never be able to boot from your USB drive. Sorry to say it, but if you're computer has flipping 3.5" drives (!!) it sure as anything hasn't got a BIOS modern enough to allow that. I've met computers three years old that won't allow USB booting without flashing the BIOS; yours is not likely to be happy with the idea, unfortunately.
You have several options:
(1) Take it to a dude who knows what he's doing. Ask him to please, please make your computer work.
(2) Buy a new (internal) CD drive to replace the busted one. Put it in the computer yourself. On another computer, download and burn a copy of this alternate boot disk and use it to boot & restore your system.
(3) For the love of all that's holy, give it up and get yourself a computer that's not from the stone age. Seriously, check craigslist - I'll bet you can find something pretty cheap that still works.
Sorry, but I'm going to say the latter might be the best option. But of course I don't really even know what kind of computer you have; you should probably let us know what it is in case it's something special that really needs to be saved. But my hunch is that a computer that has a 3.5" drive and a broken CD drive is probably pretty damned old.
Oh, one last thing - is it just that there's something really precious on the hard drive? Because if that's it, then I recommend option 2 above, followed swiftly by option 3 once you've recovered your data.
posted by koeselitz at 9:33 PM on April 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
Just get a new CD/DVD drive. ($20 for DVD burner)
You mention downloading Ubuntu and burning it. Do you have a second computer? If so, you can simply mount your hard drive on the second computer over USB. You need to get something like this. It will take your IDE or SATA connection on the back of your HDD and convert it to USB. You will also need a power connection, which you can actually steal from the computer the drive is currently mounted in if you don't have another powersupply.
posted by defcom1 at 9:56 PM on April 5, 2010
You mention downloading Ubuntu and burning it. Do you have a second computer? If so, you can simply mount your hard drive on the second computer over USB. You need to get something like this. It will take your IDE or SATA connection on the back of your HDD and convert it to USB. You will also need a power connection, which you can actually steal from the computer the drive is currently mounted in if you don't have another powersupply.
posted by defcom1 at 9:56 PM on April 5, 2010
Don't know how much data your talking about, but you could boot Windows 98 from one floppy, google you'll find the download site. Back up to floppies, reformat your disk, buy a new CD as needed. Or just check the dumpsters, that's the a pretty good supplier for equipment of that era.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:00 PM on April 5, 2010
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:00 PM on April 5, 2010
I would cavil with my esteemed colleague koeselitz' response in that I'm less convinced a floppy drive is such a good predictor of inability to boot from USB. The last time I didn't build from parts (about 2004), I got a machine that came with a floppy drive and could boot from USB. It seems like there were a couple of years there where they were already obsolete but still standard equipment out of some combination of habit and motherboard makers being slow to break themselves of the habit of requiring a floppy drive for BIOS upgrades.
That you shouldn't count on being able to boot from USB without verifying it, and on everything else, I agree. CD drives are cheap, very easy to replace, and will make this an easier fix. If you have geek friends, they may have a small pile of spare CD drives lying around.
If you're contemplating replacing the computer, your task becomes easier still: along with the new computer, get a USB external IDE (you should check, but odds are good IDE's right) hard drive enclosure (which are cheap.) Then remove the hard drive from the old computer, put it in the enclosure, plug it into the new computer, and, if the filesystem's readable, you can just copy the data. (If the filesystem's not readable, you're not in any worse shape than you would have been if you tried booting a CD on the old computer.)
posted by Zed at 7:29 AM on April 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
That you shouldn't count on being able to boot from USB without verifying it, and on everything else, I agree. CD drives are cheap, very easy to replace, and will make this an easier fix. If you have geek friends, they may have a small pile of spare CD drives lying around.
If you're contemplating replacing the computer, your task becomes easier still: along with the new computer, get a USB external IDE (you should check, but odds are good IDE's right) hard drive enclosure (which are cheap.) Then remove the hard drive from the old computer, put it in the enclosure, plug it into the new computer, and, if the filesystem's readable, you can just copy the data. (If the filesystem's not readable, you're not in any worse shape than you would have been if you tried booting a CD on the old computer.)
posted by Zed at 7:29 AM on April 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:32 PM on April 5, 2010