now my desktop wont boot!!!!!

Hi chaps. all was fine last night.

try to turn on this morn i get the acer logo and a beep, i can get into bios and boot order but it wont boot.

all i get is a flashing _ in the bottom left corner.

i put my vista restore disk in and it boots to that but wants to wipe c: and do a fresh install, which i dont want as its full of info.pics etc.

my restore disk doesnt offer a repair function unlike on my xp systems.

to add to my misery the hdd is of a newer design than i have saved before, i have a usb to hdd disk cable thats helped before but i dont have the correct interface to try and tap into the disk withouyt booting.


HELP ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

edit, i left in on last night when i went to bed according to her in doors,

hope my disk aint fried

 

had a look at some sata drive interface images i think its one of those rather than the ide connector i have

 

thanks cerips i will try rhat

done a bitt of googling f2 and turn on the machine apparently gives some sort of log, will have a look at that.

 

what machine is it dell?

 

acer aspire 3200

 

whats the chance my mobo will have ide input i have a spare ide hdd?

 

had a look no good. the drive is sata 3gbs.

 

Other option is one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-0-IDE-SATA-Adaptor-Kit-2-5-3-5-Hard-Drive-HDD-/350453525713

Transfer your data on to another machine. Then format your drive and reload windows.

 

OK, Lets start with a few basics.
Does it beep once and is it a normal beep?
Once in the Bios, Can it see the HDD?

Boot into Bios and load the defaults, Save it and try again.

 

yes beeps once. normal beep.

how do i see the hdd in bios please.?

Resaved the standard settings bt no change

Thanks Pete

 

fletch i have one but its only ie looks like i will be buying another

 

Should be on the first page. "HDD 0 " And then the model number.

Also in boot order you should be able to see it.

 

it shows in boot order i think.

will check

 

been and got a ne 500gb hard disk.

currently running he vista system restore disk.

the connections for my dvd rom are the same as my hdd i think, is it possible to plug my old drive into this when i am up an running again to try and get my files ff?


Thanks Pete

 

f8 when booting should bring up all the restore options

 

up and running with new hdd.
thanks for your input chaps

 

so just to add i rescued my files now. by reinstalling on the new disc. Then plugging my bad drive into the dvd sata conector. this allowed me to acces the files. God knows why the drive wouldnt boot.

 

I always have an Ubuntu distro on a 2GB USB key for any of these such situations.

I know... it's Linux and scary, well actually it's not. The front end is very similar to windows (point and click) It'll run OFF the key, so no need to install anything, you can use your PC's normal hardware, so connect to the net, etc...

It also means you can basically interrogate the PC hardware to find potential fixes - particularly handy with HDD failure.

The thing with hard drives is that they sometimes don't completely fail. There might just be a few bad sectors in one particular area that prevents it booting up, but still allow access to the rest of your shizzle on the drive. Ideal for saving stuff off the drive.

 

So what happened? My daughters Advent wont bring up the desktop, if you press F2 fast enough you get a screen up with options, if you leave it to run the screen stays on but is black.

Is that the same thing?