boot from start-up disk failed

Hmm .. "Sealed-for-life" eh? Now that's novel, perhaps you'd better let us
know the make and model - so we can all avoid it for future g Seriously
though, someone here *may* know the way in.

.. Regretably my back-up
is a few months old. ..

In spite of good intentions, I guess we are all guilty of that.

But thanks for the update. I'm sure all will go well and I hope you can at
least retrieve the more important data. Good luck and keep us posted.

Mart



"Chesapeake Chum" wrote in
message ...
Unfortunately my external hard drive does not have screws or another way
to
open it without breaking the case. I decided to get someone who has the
needed equipment and has done something like this before to help me with
the
task. Many thanks to all of you who have given me advice in this
situation.
I'll let you know whether we are able to save the data. Regretably my
back-up
is a few months old. Lesson learned.

"Mart" wrote:

NOT UNTIL critical (personal) data has been salvaged - the /all switch
may
attempt to write to the 'faulty' drive and make things worse. Hence my
suggestion not to do a surface scan in my first reply, thus preventing
any
attempt (at this stage) to write to the disk. Alternatively use the
/checkonly switch.

Repairs should only be attempted if/when data is no longer critical.

Mart



"Corday" wrote in message
...
One more shot. try scandisk /all from boot disc. Make sure you leave a
space
before slash.
--
I mastered Wordstar graphics!


"Chesapeake Chum" wrote:

Thanks Mart! I'll see what I can do, probably tomorrow.

"Mart" wrote:

Two (possibly three) options - both along the lines that RTS
alluded,
in
that you make your old drive a 'slave' or more accurately an extra
drive off
your new computer.

All options entail removing the bad disk from your old machine and
one
messy
option involves poking about in your new PC and connecting your old
drive as
a slave (assuming you have an IDE controller in your new computer) -
not
really recommended.

The other easier option(s) *may* cost a few bucks and only entails
removing
your old disk from your old computer of course and connecting it to
a
USB to
IDE adapter - e.g.
http://www.byterunner.com/byterunner...o+IDE+C ables

However, you already have one of these devices - your external hard
drive!!

Just open-up the external HD box, remove the existing drive and
substitute
the old drive and voila, you've done it for free. You can now read
(and
ultimately test) your old drive and recover whatever undamaged files
are
still there.

You may find that there are some instructions for
replacing/substituting
hard drives in the user manual which came with the external hard
drive.

Good luck

Mart



"Chesapeake Chum" wrote
in
message ...
Thanks guys! I recently got a new computer so would be content
just
to
salvage my personal data off of this one rather than spending
money
on a
new
hard drive. Any help on how to salvage the data? I do have an
external
hard
drive but it has never been used with this computer before. I also
have a
thumb drive with lots of capacity.

"Mart" wrote:

Thanks for chipping-in RTS, indeed, I quite agree - subject to CC
having
fully satisfied (convinced) himself that he has got a failing
HDD.
The
important object is to NOT write to, or to read from as little as
possible,
the failing disk BEFORE salvaging his (personal) data. Hence my
'Surface
Scan' warning.

However, I suspect that CC may need further advice on (clean)
installing
WinMe onto a new HDD.

Mart


"RockyTSquirrel" wrote in message
...
Mart,
my tried and true fix for that kinda failure has always been
to
get a
new
HD and reinstall ME then use the old drive as a slave,
transfer
all
"need
to save" data to the new drive then take the old HD and throw
it
as
far
as
I can into the lake...

) its worked everytime I've tried it over the last 10
years...


"Mart" wrote in message
...
From here, your problem would seem to be far more likely
associated
with
a
'failing hard drive' than with memory issues. WinMe (in both
Normal
and
Safe
Mode) is trying to load corrupted or damaged files from your
hard
drive
(HDD) and consequently, failing to boot.

I would suggest you run scandisk c: from your (emergency)
startup
floppy
disk, but beware!! DO NOT let it do a surface scan (at this
stage)
Instead,
just take a note of any/all error reports and report back
here.
If
your
HDD
is failing, you may wish to try to recover your (personal)
data
before
you
try booting into WinMe again. Somebody will advise you of the
next
steps.

BTW - You cannot boot into WinMe directly from the startup
floppy
disk,
it
can only be done from the main system (failing?) HDD (Probably
your C:
drive).

Mart



"Chesapeake Chum" Chesapeake
wrote in
message
...
I decided to boot my Windows Me from the start-up disk
because
it
would
not
boot normally or in Safe Mode but instead displayed the
error
message:"An
I/O
subsystem driver failed to load. Either a file in the
.\iosubsystem
subdirectory is corrupt or the system is low on memory.
Replace
the
disk
and
then press any key." The system has lots of memory available
so
I
decided
to
boot from the start up disk and select the option to boot
with
access
to
the
CD drive where I had my Windows ME CD. I thought the
corrupted
file
could
be
replaced from the original Windows ME CD. Instead, I got
another
error
message saying cannot find sector Drive C. The option to
Retry
didn't
work
so
I selected Abort and after that didn't work I selected Fail
which,
of
course,
didn't help. Any suggestions for what I might do next to get
my
system
to
boot up? When I try to boot normally it often gets as far as
press
F3
for
the
configuration utility. But when I press F3 nothing happens.

a few of the "sealed for life" boxes really have screws under the rubber
feet on the bottom..
might be worth a look see....



"Mart" wrote in message
...
Hmm .. "Sealed-for-life" eh? Now that's novel, perhaps you'd better let
us
know the make and model - so we can all avoid it for future g Seriously
though, someone here *may* know the way in.

.. Regretably my back-up
is a few months old. ..

In spite of good intentions, I guess we are all guilty of that.

But thanks for the update. I'm sure all will go well and I hope you can at
least retrieve the more important data. Good luck and keep us posted.

Mart



"Chesapeake Chum" wrote in
message ...
Unfortunately my external hard drive does not have screws or another way
to
open it without breaking the case. I decided to get someone who has the
needed equipment and has done something like this before to help me with
the
task. Many thanks to all of you who have given me advice in this
situation.
I'll let you know whether we are able to save the data. Regretably my
back-up
is a few months old. Lesson learned.

"Mart" wrote:

NOT UNTIL critical (personal) data has been salvaged - the /all switch
may
attempt to write to the 'faulty' drive and make things worse. Hence my
suggestion not to do a surface scan in my first reply, thus preventing
any
attempt (at this stage) to write to the disk. Alternatively use the
/checkonly switch.

Repairs should only be attempted if/when data is no longer critical.

Mart



"Corday" wrote in message
...
One more shot. try scandisk /all from boot disc. Make sure you leave
a
space
before slash.
--
I mastered Wordstar graphics!


"Chesapeake Chum" wrote:

Thanks Mart! I'll see what I can do, probably tomorrow.

"Mart" wrote:

Two (possibly three) options - both along the lines that RTS
alluded,
in
that you make your old drive a 'slave' or more accurately an extra
drive off
your new computer.

All options entail removing the bad disk from your old machine and
one
messy
option involves poking about in your new PC and connecting your
old
drive as
a slave (assuming you have an IDE controller in your new
computer) -
not
really recommended.

The other easier option(s) *may* cost a few bucks and only entails
removing
your old disk from your old computer of course and connecting it
to
a
USB to
IDE adapter - e.g.

http://www.byterunner.com/byterunner...o+IDE+C ables

However, you already have one of these devices - your external
hard
drive!!

Just open-up the external HD box, remove the existing drive and
substitute
the old drive and voila, you've done it for free. You can now read
(and
ultimately test) your old drive and recover whatever undamaged
files
are
still there.

You may find that there are some instructions for
replacing/substituting
hard drives in the user manual which came with the external hard
drive.

Good luck

Mart



"Chesapeake Chum" wrote
in
message ...
Thanks guys! I recently got a new computer so would be content
just
to
salvage my personal data off of this one rather than spending
money
on a
new
hard drive. Any help on how to salvage the data? I do have an
external
hard
drive but it has never been used with this computer before. I
also
have a
thumb drive with lots of capacity.

"Mart" wrote:

Thanks for chipping-in RTS, indeed, I quite agree - subject to
CC
having
fully satisfied (convinced) himself that he has got a failing
HDD.
The
important object is to NOT write to, or to read from as little
as
possible,
the failing disk BEFORE salvaging his (personal) data. Hence my
'Surface
Scan' warning.

However, I suspect that CC may need further advice on (clean)
installing
WinMe onto a new HDD.

Mart


"RockyTSquirrel" wrote in message
...
Mart,
my tried and true fix for that kinda failure has always
been
to
get a
new
HD and reinstall ME then use the old drive as a slave,
transfer
all
"need
to save" data to the new drive then take the old HD and
throw
it
as
far
as
I can into the lake...

) its worked everytime I've tried it over the last 10
years...


"Mart" wrote in message
...
From here, your problem would seem to be far more likely
associated
with
a
'failing hard drive' than with memory issues. WinMe (in both
Normal
and
Safe
Mode) is trying to load corrupted or damaged files from your
hard
drive
(HDD) and consequently, failing to boot.

I would suggest you run scandisk c: from your (emergency)
startup
floppy
disk, but beware!! DO NOT let it do a surface scan (at this
stage)
Instead,
just take a note of any/all error reports and report back
here.
If
your
HDD
is failing, you may wish to try to recover your (personal)
data
before
you
try booting into WinMe again. Somebody will advise you of
the
next
steps.

BTW - You cannot boot into WinMe directly from the startup
floppy
disk,
it
can only be done from the main system (failing?) HDD
(Probably
your C:
drive).

Mart



"Chesapeake Chum" Chesapeake

wrote in
message
...
I decided to boot my Windows Me from the start-up disk
because
it
would
not
boot normally or in Safe Mode but instead displayed the
error
message:"An
I/O
subsystem driver failed to load. Either a file in the
.\iosubsystem
subdirectory is corrupt or the system is low on memory.
Replace
the
disk
and
then press any key." The system has lots of memory
available
so
I
decided
to
boot from the start up disk and select the option to boot
with
access
to
the
CD drive where I had my Windows ME CD. I thought the
corrupted
file
could
be
replaced from the original Windows ME CD. Instead, I got
another
error
message saying cannot find sector Drive C. The option to
Retry
didn't
work
so
I selected Abort and after that didn't work I selected
Fail
which,
of
course,
didn't help. Any suggestions for what I might do next to
get
my
system
to
boot up? When I try to boot normally it often gets as far
as
press
F3
for
the
configuration utility. But when I press F3 nothing
happens.

I had a similar problem recently Mart when I was asked to see if I could
recover data from a dead 2½" LaCie external drive. Short of using a hammer
I couldn't see a way in including looking under pads/feet etc.
--
Mike M


Mart wrote:

Hmm .. "Sealed-for-life" eh? Now that's novel, perhaps you'd better
let us know the make and model - so we can all avoid it for future
g Seriously though, someone here *may* know the way in.

.. Regretably my back-up
is a few months old. ..

In spite of good intentions, I guess we are all guilty of that.

But thanks for the update. I'm sure all will go well and I hope you
can at least retrieve the more important data. Good luck and keep us
posted.

Well, subject to RTS's foot transplant option then I suppose a few dots of
super-glue vs. 4 screws might just save a few pence in production costs,
Mike g But it sounds like you would still have to resort to destructive
brute force if the data recovery was so important. Just proves how useful a
stand-alone IDE - USB adapter tool can be and may well be the simplest
solution at this time to CC's original problem.

Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
I had a similar problem recently Mart when I was asked to see if I could
recover data from a dead 2½" LaCie external drive. Short of using a hammer
I couldn't see a way in including looking under pads/feet etc.
--
Mike M


Mart wrote:

Hmm .. "Sealed-for-life" eh? Now that's novel, perhaps you'd better
let us know the make and model - so we can all avoid it for future
g Seriously though, someone here *may* know the way in.

.. Regretably my back-up
is a few months old. ..

In spite of good intentions, I guess we are all guilty of that.

But thanks for the update. I'm sure all will go well and I hope you
can at least retrieve the more important data. Good luck and keep us
posted.

Mart, I've got the tools required including the hammer however I'm not sure
that LaCie would be happy about replacing a defective drive under warranty
if it were to have been returned with the case smashed! vbg What I was
trying to do for my friend was to recover data from the disk before he
returned the drive as being defective.
--
Mike


Mart wrote:

Well, subject to RTS's foot transplant option then I suppose a few
dots of super-glue vs. 4 screws might just save a few pence in
production costs, Mike g But it sounds like you would still have
to resort to destructive brute force if the data recovery was so
important. Just proves how useful a stand-alone IDE - USB adapter
tool can be and may well be the simplest solution at this time to
CC's original problem.

Mike, not sure that I would be happy sending a 'faulty' drive back, even
under warranty, if it contained personal data no matter how damaged it was.
I'd be happier destroying it beyond all recognition and write it off than
trusting it to some spotty kid in a 'Returns Department' after reading the
numerous scare stories.

Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Mart, I've got the tools required including the hammer however I'm not
sure that LaCie would be happy about replacing a defective drive under
warranty if it were to have been returned with the case smashed! vbg
What I was trying to do for my friend was to recover data from the disk
before he returned the drive as being defective.
--
Mike

"Mart" wrote in message
...
Mike, not sure that I would be happy sending a 'faulty' drive back, even
under warranty, if it contained personal data no matter how damaged it
was. I'd be happier destroying it beyond all recognition and write it off
than trusting it to some spotty kid in a 'Returns Department' after
reading the numerous scare stories.

A sledge hammer is the only effective tool I can think of to accomplish
that, Mart, besides machinery or high intensity fire.
Unless you know one of the astronauts to take it along into space -
no, bad idea too g. H.


Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Mart, I've got the tools required including the hammer however I'm not
sure that LaCie would be happy about replacing a defective drive under
warranty if it were to have been returned with the case smashed! vbg
What I was trying to do for my friend was to recover data from the disk
before he returned the drive as being defective.
--
Mike

Harry wrote :-

Unless you know one of the astronauts to take it along into space -

Jeepers Harry, we're bad enough at controlling our own pollution here on
earth without dumping it into outer space and inflicting it on to some other
life form. I think the sledge hammer followed by the recycle bin is a better
course of action.

Mart


"webster72n" wrote in message
...


"Mart" wrote in message
...
Mike, not sure that I would be happy sending a 'faulty' drive back, even
under warranty, if it contained personal data no matter how damaged it
was. I'd be happier destroying it beyond all recognition and write it off
than trusting it to some spotty kid in a 'Returns Department' after
reading the numerous scare stories.

A sledge hammer is the only effective tool I can think of to accomplish
that, Mart, besides machinery or high intensity fire.
Unless you know one of the astronauts to take it along into space -
no, bad idea too g. H.


Mart


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Mart, I've got the tools required including the hammer however I'm not
sure that LaCie would be happy about replacing a defective drive under
warranty if it were to have been returned with the case smashed! vbg
What I was trying to do for my friend was to recover data from the disk
before he returned the drive as being defective.
--
Mike

Mart,

Which is what happened. That is, since I was unable to recover the data and
then clean the drive, the owner chose to destroy it himself rather than
return it with the data quite possibly intact. Shame really because it
looked to be a nice bit of kit but with the drive having failed after less
than six months I know I won't be buying a LaCie.
--
Mike


Mart wrote:

Mike, not sure that I would be happy sending a 'faulty' drive back,
even under warranty, if it contained personal data no matter how
damaged it was. I'd be happier destroying it beyond all recognition
and write it off than trusting it to some spotty kid in a 'Returns
Department' after reading the numerous scare stories.

Glad I didn't buy one of those then g my new drive arrived today and is
sitting here with it's little green light showing me it's on at least g

--
Joan Archer
http://www.freewebs.com/crossstitcher
http://lachsoft.com/photogallery

"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Mart,

Which is what happened. That is, since I was unable to recover the data
and then clean the drive, the owner chose to destroy it himself rather
than return it with the data quite possibly intact. Shame really because
it looked to be a nice bit of kit but with the drive having failed after
less than six months I know I won't be buying a LaCie.
--
Mike


Mart wrote:

Mike, not sure that I would be happy sending a 'faulty' drive back,
even under warranty, if it contained personal data no matter how
damaged it was. I'd be happier destroying it beyond all recognition
and write it off than trusting it to some spotty kid in a 'Returns
Department' after reading the numerous scare stories.


__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
signature database 4392 (20090903) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com




__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4392 (20090903) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com