Member Avatar for rga2k5

I have a Medion PC with Windows XP running on it. Recently the machine would bootup, show the WINDOWS logo screen then start Windows. However when it starts it simply shows a black screen with the mouse cursor. I can move the cursor left and right and up and down and what not. Pressing anything on the keyboard including CTRL-ALT-DEL does nothing.

I assumed something was hanging at startup so I go to safe mode. Same thing except with the SAFE MODE words in the corners.

Very frustrated and with critical data on the drive I can not format. So I start the XP CD in the drive and boot to setup.

I choose recovery and get the dos prompt. The moment I select the OS and type anything.... nothing will show on the screen!!!! It wont restart, I cant start any commands. I can't do anything. It simply "freezes". I have to restart the machine using the power button.

Is doing a REPAIR install my best bet? I want to retain all my applications, and documents. They are mission critical to me. I'm at a total loss. I tried different keyboards to make sure it wasn't the keyboard causing the problem with no luck.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jaishankar
Member Avatar for chrisbliss18

If you simply must recover files from that drive, remove it from the machine, attach it as additional storage to another machine (either by putting it in an external drive enclosure or connecting it to the machine internally) and copy the files over to the other machine. Doing this will ensure that your files will not be damaged or lost during the repair process.

Once you have salvaged your needed files, you can format and reinstall without fear of losing anything. The main reason I recommend that you do this is that it seems that you may have major problems with your drive. It's even possible that it is "dying", so salvage those files as soon as possible.

Member Avatar for rga2k5

If you simply must recover files from that drive, remove it from the machine, attach it as additional storage to another machine (either by putting it in an external drive enclosure or connecting it to the machine internally) and copy the files over to the other machine. Doing this will ensure that your files will not be damaged or lost during the repair process.

Once you have salvaged your needed files, you can format and reinstall without fear of losing anything. The main reason I recommend that you do this is that it seems that you may have major problems with your drive. It's even possible that it is "dying", so salvage those files as soon as possible.

That might be what I'll be doing. Do you think a dying hard drive would have anything to do with the fact that the keyboard stops responding? I started the XP CD to try and do an install and when I go to hit ENTER it won't do anything. Or when I goto the RECOVERY prompt I can type a few letters and then nothing will show up?

Member Avatar for chrisbliss18

It's very hard to say, but since we can't rule out harddrive complications and the value of your data is high, don't risk losing the data by trying to fix the problem before backing it up. Once you have backed up your data, we can take some more aggressive steps to fixing your machine since we don't have to worry about data loss.

Member Avatar for rga2k5

I'm going to start backing up the data right away. You bring up a valid point about potentially loosing the data.

Member Avatar for jaishankar

I'm going to start backing up the data right away. You bring up a valid point about potentially loosing the data.

Try changing the Data cable, it works many times, i had a booting problem, whenever i started the computer it showed ntldir file missing, config file missing and disk error, i just simply changed the IDE Bus and it worked fine

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