Computer won't boot...

[blue banana]

i wont be on battlezone for a while because my computer wont boot up. it takes me to where it's loading, then I see a mouse arrow, and it stops. eventually i am gonna have to do restore computer, and after that reinstall vista. ive already tried fixing the kernel, which isnt the problem. as i said a while ago: i got windows vista service pack 1. i suspect a virus or hard drive failure, or maybe the battery. can anyone help me?

[General BlackDragon]

reinstall vista.

I think I found your problem

Get windows 7

[Semaphore]

Vista runs fine once you strip it down to the bare essentials and get rid of the ridiculous file security overhead. I can protect my system just fine on my own.

My suggestion: forget about repairing the system directory with the installation disc, it has never done anyone any good. Set the drive up as a slave for a second computer and back up your things. Alternatively, if you don't have a 2nd computer at hand, use an Ubuntu Live CD or Live USB stick if your motherboard supports booting from USB. After backing up your files, format and re-install. Then treat yourself to one hundred and one guides on how to turn Vista into a workable OS.

[Warfreak]

use an Ubuntu Live CD or Live USB stick.

This is sound advice.

Exact same thing happened to my brother's laptop. Turns out a simple error that Win7 and WinXP could handle (power outage) could not be resolved by Vista and as such ONLY the OS corrupted. Every other file was fine and could be read perfectly on Ubuntu (he only has media files on it, no programs of worth). You are better off using a Unix Distro or Upgrading/Downgrading Windows. Vista is just too stupid to work properly/at all without either removing everything that makes it Microsoft or holding its hand every moment.

[Zero Angel]

Linux is fine if you're not much of a gamer. Certain games will work fine on linux (BZ2 included) if you are willing to jump through a few hoops. Its just that the most recent, high-end stuff won't work well or at all.

But yeah, Win7 pwns Vista. If you do get Vista up and running and get quite a few hours in on it and can rule out that it's a hardware problem the best thing you can do (assuming you can afford it) is get Windows 7. It's better than Vista in every way.

[Axeminister]

stick your norton anit-virus cd in when you boot up. Should have a helpful utility come up.

[ADMIRAL MANSON]

stick your norton anit-virus cd in when you boot up. Should have a helpful utility come up.

lol. I dont think any utility from a norton cd would help but I have had it help windows boot up once just have to try it at least 4 times.

If you havent tried try going to recovery console or with command prompt on boot up and do a chkdsk/ r /x

x=letter of drive

With the os cd in of course.

[blue banana]

i did a chkdsk on c:

[ADMIRAL MANSON]

i did a chkdsk on c:

Ok. How were the results? They should be listed under event log so look under date and time under even name Winlogon.

[GSH]

Chkdsk merely checks that the files on disk are where the table of contents say they are, and that the files don't overlap, and a few other basic sanity checks of the table of contents. It doesn't dig into the files to make sure they have valid contents at all. In other words, if bzone.exe was replaced by 'AAAAA' enough times to fill up the size it had last week, chkdsk wouldn't complain one word. Also, even if chkdsk notices problems where some files got 'parked' into the same sectors on disk, it'll fix it by separating them -- but one or both are likely corrupted. And they'll still be corrupted after chkdsk is done.

If things still aren't booting, it's possibly corrupted files. Main way to fix that is (1) restore from backup, or (2) reinstall Windows if you don't have #1.

-- GSH

[Semaphore]

How about you give us any indication you have at all read anything we said so far? Your previous post - all four words - hasn't exactly encouraged me to help you any further.

[Ded10c]

I have always been instructed to follow chkdsk with fixboot.

[OvermindDL1]

Linux is fine if you're not much of a gamer. Certain games will work fine on linux (BZ2 included) if you are willing to jump through a few hoops. Its just that the most recent, high-end stuff won't work well or at all.

Wine 1.3 (once properly configured, why it does not 'come' properly configured I have no clue) has been able to munch on everything I have thrown at it so far.

And yes, BZ2 1.3 does work quite well on Linux.

[PowerB]

i wont be on battlezone for a while because my computer wont boot up. it takes me to where it's loading, then I see a mouse arrow, and it stops. eventually i am gonna have to do restore computer, and after that reinstall vista. ive already tried fixing the kernel, which isnt the problem. as i said a while ago: i got windows vista service pack 1. i suspect a virus or hard drive failure, or maybe the battery. can anyone help me?

I had the exact same problem as you! Except, It wasn't SP1 that stuffed up windows, it was those monkeys in uniform that call themselves the 'Symantec Remote Support Team' (I got a virus that stuffed Norton 360 up, and so I got them to do a remote desktop thing on my computer. The blamed an "error in the registry", but you could see it wasn't when they were digging through the computer. They eventually restarted the computer and it wouldn't boot -.- They couldn't fix it.).

Fix:
1. Buy an external hard drive
2. Download Ubuntu
3. Boot on Ubuntu Live Disk and copy hard drive contents onto external hard drive
4. Buy Windows 7

[OvermindDL1]

I just run (K)Ubuntu as primary, BZ2 seems to work quite fine on it. And it can be fun playing on a rotated window so it lines up with my eyes when I am sideways. :p