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Oh dear..what's happened here then?

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Imonster
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Joined: 18 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: 21:15 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Oh dear..what's happened here then? Reply with quote
The lady friends laptop has seemingly packed up horribly after transferring a film onto a USB stick. Following the transfer it froze, she couldn't get into task manager and so did a hard shut down (with the USB still in it) after a couple of minutes as it was being entirely unresponsive.

On restart, it seems to be stuck on a DOS (? perhaps, bear with me I'm a computer numpty) screen stating "no disk found or error on disk. Please replace or repair and press any key to continue" (paraphrased)

She can't get past this, nor will it boot in safe mode.

WTF just happened please BCF?
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jeddy11
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Joined: 06 Jul 2012
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PostPosted: 21:21 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hopefully she has left a disk in the A drive (not likely unless the computer is old) or a disc in the disc drive (cd) and boot up sequence is wrong...

Or it sounds like the hard drive has gone corrupt / kapoot
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Burnside
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Joined: 29 Sep 2007
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PostPosted: 21:23 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Is the USB stick still plugged in? Sounds like the laptop is trying to boot from it. Unplug USB stick and reboot Thumbs Up
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Imonster
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Joined: 18 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: 21:29 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
"Non system disk or disk error. Replace and strike any key when ready" is the exact message with a prior message along the lines of "can't find media cable."

Luckily we're both pretty anal about periodically backing up our info onto an external disk so lost data isn't an issue, but it would be nice to not have to bin it. Would replacing the hard drive sort it?
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Imonster
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Joined: 18 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: 21:30 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Burnside wrote:
Is the USB stick still plugged in? Sounds like the laptop is trying to boot from it. Unplug USB stick and reboot Thumbs Up


Tried that. Removed it, and it wouldn't boot. Stuck it back in and it wouldn't boot. Thanks though Thumbs Up
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LockyUK
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Joined: 22 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: 21:34 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
before you buy anything might i suggest trying a FULL format, never know software could just have corrupted, good luck
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LockyUK
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Joined: 22 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: 21:35 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Burnside wrote:
Is the USB stick still plugged in? Sounds like the laptop is trying to boot from it. Unplug USB stick and reboot Thumbs Up


you can also go into the bios and set boot priority to not boot off any external media
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Casper
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Joined: 12 Jul 2010
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PostPosted: 21:41 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
PeteLockwood wrote:
Burnside wrote:
Is the USB stick still plugged in? Sounds like the laptop is trying to boot from it. Unplug USB stick and reboot Thumbs Up


you can also go into the bios and set boot priority to not boot off any external media


That or check the CDROM is empty as it could be set to boot from CD.
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Imonster
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Joined: 18 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: 21:45 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
CD-ROM empty, and nothing in the USB ports. I can't see how I could get into the BIOS if it won't go into safe mode - anyone fancy giving me an idiots guide please?

It has transpired that it's been freezing quite regularly recently which suggests to me that something was on the way out anyway; the question is what?
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Redoko
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PostPosted: 21:47 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Don't suppose it was a VAIO?
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Imonster
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PostPosted: 21:49 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
No, HP something or other.
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mistergixer
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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: 21:58 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Imonster wrote:
CD-ROM empty, and nothing in the USB ports. I can't see how I could get into the BIOS if it won't go into safe mode - anyone fancy giving me an idiots guide please?



You should still be able to get into the bios.

When it first boots, look for a prompt saying 'press F2 for setup' or similar. The actual key might be different (e.g. on my desktop it's 'delete' on my laptop it's 'F2'), but it should tell you.

Keep tapping the key until you see 'Entering Bios' (or similar) displayed.

When you're in, check that the hard disk is detected and displayed - if it isn't try removing and reseating it.

After that, check the boot priority, it should be set to the correct hard disk.

If all looks ok, my next step would be to try to boot from a Windows disk and try to do a repair.
I always keep a W7 installation disk handy on a USB key, just in case.

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Casper
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Joined: 12 Jul 2010
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PostPosted: 22:30 - 12 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yeah F2 on my dell. F11 For boot order.
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Imonster
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Joined: 18 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: 19:55 - 16 Mar 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, had a look in the BIOS and there was no hard drive to be found. Before trying a format, we whipped the back off it and the drive had somehow become completely unattached Confused

Weird, but it's working again. Hoorah. Thanks for the suggestions Thumbs Up
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Old Thread Alert!

The last post was made 12 years, 359 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful?
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