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humorist-workshop
Computer Not Working
So, there's this laptop that I have, which I have had for about 5 years or 6 years. It's a Compaq and it has Windows XP if that helps.
Well, this isn't the first time it has happened. At the beginning, my sister used it and it crashed on her about 2-3 times. And when I began to use it, it crashed once and we [my dad and I] had to manually crash the computer twice! And it was all going well until a few days ago. It shut down on me without warning and when I tried to start it up agian, it always stops on a black screen saying
Cannot restart because the following file is missing [or corrupt?]:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
And then it says that I'd have to restore the computer aka manually crash it. But I really cant because I have a whole bunch of school work saved on there that I need for the upcoming year [Latin, Science Projects, etc] and I have tons of pictures that I seriously can not lose. Well, when this happened the last time, my dad took it to some really obviously smart guy at his work =P and the guy was able to take out all the data saved onto my computer onto a disk [It held large amounts] and so that was that. Well...
1. Does anyone know how I can pull out my data on to a disk from my computer even though it won't start?
2. Can I do anything to get all my saved things on my computer so that I won't lose anything when we crash it?
3. Can I get it to start without crashing it??
I guess the end results would need to be with all my files safe and my computer working again. I can't get another one until I go to college [& I'm a rising 10th grader] and we're tight on money so we can't send it to some store or something. And I'm not sure if the guy at my dad's work will do that for me again. I've asked my dad and he seems reluctant to ask again. I don't know why, but he seems to be leaning towards the "no" side. Hmm, can anyone help me with my computer??? My e-mail is xchoke_on_dead_hopex@yahoo.com if anyone could give me detailed instructions =/
Sorry this was so long
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Want to answer more questions in the Technology category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Computers?
System restore does not mean manualy crash it, it basically rewinds your computer settings. If you do not have any restore points, or if you cannot boot up your computer it wont help you.
There is something called system recovery which will completely reset your computer programs back to what they were when you got the computer. I have seen this tool not delete anything in the my documents folder, but I wouldn't rely on that.
Here are two things you can try to get your computer to boot up.
Turn your computer on, and hold shift while it is booting. You have to hold the whole time, until it is finished, until you get the error, or you see the desktop.
Try booting your computer into safe mode. You get to the menu by turning your computer on, and then repeatdly pushing the F8 key as it is loading. You have to do it not too slowly and not too quickly. 1-2 times a second or so. You will see a menu, choose safe mode.
If either of those gets you to let you use the computer, get the files off of it, either onto a USB stick ($35 for 2 gigabytes) or if you have a CD-RW drive (something that can write to CDs) you can get a huge number of them for fairly cheap.
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