Pc Help Needed!

[phenline]

Ok my computer is F'cked atm and to fix it i want to reinstall windows but i dont have a copy and i dont want to lose all my information. So i was wondering if any people that are in the trade or just boffins of computers (iam pretty sure i have seen a few on here in wa) could give me some help or even a quote to - Copy/save all my documents of my harddrive - then reinstall a copy of XP- and then transfer my old doc's back to the fresh install. Before you say Do It Yourself i would but iam quite sure it has a virus / hardware problem that only allows the computer to be on for say 1 min before it shuts down / loses power to the GFX, and i also dont have an external HDD.

so yer annnyyyone *_*

[madbung]

Nope, unless you have another drive or partitions setup it can't be done.

The info on your hdd is written within the structure of your o/s, so you cant save it if you're doing a format and fresh install.

If you can borrow a windows xp disk you could try the repair o/s option...if it's not to farked you might get away with it.

[madbung]

Also have you checked your cpu and fans...you might just be over heating the cpu = shutdown

They could be clogged with dust or not working at all.

[Stinky Rooster]

Check out your graphics card

Mine did this a year ago, and when I put my head inside to see what was going on, the fan from my graphics card landed on my head. It had melted off and the mobo was shutting down due to the heat.

[Marco-R34GTT]

Hmmmm...

Could be a number of things...

Your graphics card could be on it's way out, your motherboard could be toast, or else you could have a virus/trojan/worm that is corrupting your computer.. Your best investment at this point is to buy an external HDD, get a Maxtor/Seagate, they are very good, whether you've got a problem or not, get one asap.. Depending on how much stuff you've got/space you need... I have a 250GB external and now I'm feeling the squeeze myself...

[infamous_t]

Ross, download/borrow a LIVE cd, preferably of WinXP, but Linux with NTFS drivers will do the trick.

Then borrow a spare computer and network it and transfer, or use an external hard drive.

If it still does it it probably best of to remove/disconnect graphics card and run off the motherboards onboard graphics, and then boot up in safe mode.

Otherwise its probably your power supply that bitten the dust.

Give Storm Computers a call, they helped me out when my PS died, and they're quite cheap (and close to you)

[phenline]

downloading / using my pc is not going to happen as it doesnt turn on for longer than 1 minute and even my mirco cannot work that quick.

madbung i know how the os works iam not copyin a whole os just my files i want i.e music word documents and what have you. I also cleaned the gfx but not the psu a month ago helped but then it developed this problem.

Yer Tris storm are pretty good maybe i will take it there or to the other forum guy... just sucks, havent played pc for lik 3 weeks now >.< haha

[madbung]

It's going to make it very hard to get any data over in 1min....see if you can eliminate all the suggested possible h/ware issues first.

If you can get access to another pc, you could install your hdd then transfer across to the existing hdd. Or if it is a small amount of data you're after try a flash drive.

Do you get the same issue when booting in safe mode?

As said before definately, inspect & clean all fans, cpu, gpu, psu, case just to eliminate the obvious.

Edited June 12, 2008 by madbung

[Marco-R34GTT]

Your best be for retrieving your data is to put your hard drive into another computer and get it back up through a system that is actually stable...

You have no alternative considering your predicament... After all this, I really do reccommend purchasing an external, they are utterly invaluable...

[bubba]

Do you know how to get into Safe Mode? if it's not hardware related then Safe Mode *should* allow you to do what you need to do. If it still resets after a minute while in Safe Mode then it's pointing more towards hardware.

I've got enough computer dramas of my own at the moment otherwise I'd take a look. But now, it's time to put my replacement video card back in.. it's been away for warranty for 4 weeks > <

[Mayuri Krab]

Press F8 during POST to go into safe mode

[Crans]

Or drop it off to me and ill reinstall for a carton of Pure Blonde

[niran]

hey man. quick question..Does it start counting down?? as in does a little message box pop up and then say you have 59 seconds and so on?? .also download something called MINIPE. after that burn it onto a disc . what it does is if you can’t access windows you can choose the option so that you can boot minipe onto the ram. and minipe will then run as a small OS. on it, it has some virus scan programs, ad aware and some more neat tools.

let me know how it goes. Niran