When your computer will not start, the first thing a computer tech will ask is, “What do you mean by ‘it won’t start’?” Most of the time the problem is simply that the user does not have their monitor turned on or that they received the “Invalid system disk” message because they left a floppy in the drive. The question could even be, “Do you mean WINDOWS won’t start?”.

A problem can occur in the boot sequence even before the hard disk comes into play. When a computer first starts, its Basic Input/Out System (BIOS) performs a Power On Self Test (POST). Before the computer is ready to use the display, it communicates using beep codes. After the display is initialized, it sends codes to the screen.

To check a boot error, right down the error code on the screen, then you need to find out who made your computers BIOS and check the website of the BIOS manufacturer for the meaning of the error code.

When your computer boots, the BIOS reads the hard disk’s partition table in order to find the boot record. Only if the partition table is damaged, will you get the message “Invalid drive or drive specification” displayed on your screen. The partition table does not change after the drive is partitioned and formatted unless it has been damaged, possibly by a virus. Do not worry, once you got rid of the virus data file recovery can easily be done.

If the boot record is damaged, you will receive the message “Invalid system disk”. If both the partition table and boot record are good, the computer will read the hard disk’s File Allocation Table (FAT) in order to start loading Windows operating system files. If the FAT is damaged, you will receive the message “Sector not found reading drive C”.

If you do not receive any beeps, error codes or messages and your computer still will not boot, then the problem is Windows will not start. Just understand that the the POST makes a single beep to test your speakers, so this is not an error beep.

If you have a damaged partition table, boot record, or FAT, and you know what you are doing you can use Nuts & Bolts Disk Minder or Norton Disk Doctor to make a repair. You must have the utility on a bootable floppy disk and execute it from the floppy. Otherwise, you can install a new hard drive and load Windows and one of the above utility suites on the new hard drive. Then configure the old drive as slave and repair it from the new drive.

Now if the hard drive is making a loud whining noise when you first start your computer, you better run out and get that new hard drive now! Otherwise, you may need hard disk data recovery solve the problem.

The first step to repair a computer that will not boot you need to determine what is causing the problems is that the computer or Windows that will not start. Just remember, if you do not know much about the operation of a computer’s electronic systems, call a computer technician. It will save you a lot of money in the long run.

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Tags: data file recovery, disk data recovery, hard disk data recovery

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 5:08 am and is filed under Information Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.