Help - Any idea how to fix a Windows lappie??

[j26]

I've been handed a pc laptop to have a look at coz I "know stuff about computers"

When I start it up, it tells me Windows didn't start successfully and gives me the option to start in safe mode or normally, but when I pick either it gives me a message that the configuration file is corrupt absent or not writable.

When I pop in the Recovery CD (It's a Packard Bell) it asks for a 12 digit system serial number (which I don't have, needless to say). there's a very worn barcode on the back, but I can't read the numbers.

Does anyone have any idea how to help me? It's my nieces laptop and I presume all her college notes are on it.



(This is the sort of reason I changed to macs a year and a half ago)

 

[funkychunkz]

I think you can repair the disk from the bios, or at least reformat so that you can save the files from another computer...

 

[CNU182]

ERD Commander is a pretty good program to use. I use it all the time to recover files and such before a format.

 

[j26]

Cheeers, but I can't find anything to repair the drive. I had a look in fdisk, but couldn't see anything there either.

I'm going to try a Live CD of Ubuntu to see if I can get into the files. If I can they will be fine, if not, then I might just reformat and try reinstalling afresh

The ERD Commander is not cheap, so I'll only use that if my sister's husband buys it.



Edit: Okay the Live CD won't work. I just have some garbage on screen. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[SC68Cal]

Take the hard drive out of the laptop and try it in an external enclosure, see if another machine can mount the drive.