System restore problems, and other questions about restore

[Cheesemaon]

Long story short, crappy 2009 asus crashes. Prior to crash screen constantly froze accompanied by a buzzing sound from the speakers. After crash laptop blackscreened, and after a second reboot met with screen with some americorp title an at the end reads cmos checking bad. I set time and date, and then upon third reboot am met with screen that read two options: run windows repair(recommended) or start windows normally. I try star windows normally and enter the login screen, but everything is enlarged, as if in safe-mode, login prompt never comes up. Reboot for 4th time, this time choosing run windows repair. Unfortunately i dont have any system images or restore discs or anything.
So my questions:
1. Is this fixable-as in can i restore the computer to where it was before the crash?
2. Can i recover the hard-drive info; i have lot's of music and stuff i would like to keep.
3. What the heck happened????

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Cheesemaon yes mate just go to safe mode then system restore and pick the date way back as you want see pic.

Plus you could check the CMOS battery volts too with HE Info HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download > pick the right bit version and see pic how it comes up.

 

[whs]

1, you should recover your data. Use this approach or any other live Linux distro.

2. To reinstall your system, see here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep I had only a little info to go on so suggested the restore a that what the OP was asking otherwise I might have suggested a factory restore and the CMOS was mentioned so suggested the battery.


My other thought was going to be to test the hard drive as it is getting a little long in the tooth and also look at the temps but no matter he can try those.

But personally I would be renewing the drive and installing as is suggested or just get another OEM.

Oh meant to mention too the Linux is a good way to go and I personally like the bootable Ubuntu as it unlocks most stuff for me when needed.

 

[Cheesemaon]

I tried going into safe-mode, but i ended up at the same zoomed in login screen that first asked what language i was going to use and then system recovery options-which were: "Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting windows. Select an operation system to repair. If you operating system isn't listed,click Load Drivers and the instal drivers for you hard disks." Or "restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier."

I have no system images that i created earlier and no OS appear for the first option.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well I can't advise any more than WHS did mate I would get a new drive install an OEM on it and just recover the data using what we suggested.

Apart from that - a new machine

 

[Cheesemaon]

ok so i downloaded mint mate as WHS suggested, but i don't know how to recover the files.... i was planning on tossing the computer anyway, i just really don't want to remake a whole itunes library, or lose all of the files important to my schoolwork... how do i make a virtual partition?

 

[whs]

1. Wait, if you want to recover files, do this.

2. If you want to install Mint in a virtual partition, do this.

3. To download the tutorial, go here.

But you cannot recover any files from a virtual partition. For that you need #1.

 

[Cheesemaon]

i need an external hard-drive to extract the files i want to restore to right? also how do i boot the computer using mint-mate? i always go back to the exact same screens every time try.

 

[whs]

I don't really know what you are doing. If you use the #1 tool above, you have a bootable USB stick and you have to boot with that.

If you want to run Mint in a virtual partition, you have to install it as explained in #2 and #3 (which is the same document). But that is not for data recovery.

And yes you need some external drive to store the recovered files. If it is only a few GBs, a USB stick may be enough. For a lot of data it may be cheaper to go with an external disk - unless you like this:

Newegg.com - PNY Attache Series 128GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model P-FD128ATT03-GE

 

[Cheesemaon]

My question is about #1. I don't know how to start my computer off the usb flash drive on mintmate. I understand that the stick is bootable, but how to??

 

[whs]

Shut the PC down. Put the stick into a USB port and when you power-on the PC, keep tapping F12 (ESC for HP and Asus and some other makes are F9). Then the temporary boot menu comes up. Highlight the USB stick navigating with the up/down keys. When the USB is highlighted, press Enter. Now Linux should boot. If that is a USB2, it may take a bit of time. USB3 is faster.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Sorry late reply if you cannot boot from the USB then I use this and I might add that WHS's stuff is really good but if for any reason it will not boot from a USB port then do the below.

BOOTABLE UBUNTU

Make a bootable Ubuntu disk http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Set the BIOS to boot from theoptical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL> select TRYnot INSTALL

When it is finished - it takes verylittle time you will get a screen like in the pic .

Open the drive you want > Userand dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy /paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doingthis.

I am not sure if it will but I haverecovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or justplain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.