Gaming Help with PC

[Hadrian]

Like a moron I compressed my hard drive, I've done this before with Windows XP and nothing bad happened but now I'm on Vista and something has. I get the "BOOTMGR IS COMPRESSED", "Press CTRL, ALT, DELETE". And well it goes around in circles doing the same damn thing.

I didn't get any disks at all with my PC, I just bought it off this guy and Vista was already on it. So yeah I googled and that for help. Tried pressing F8 at the start up but I get the same messages. I've downloaded these "Windows Vista x86 Recovery Disc" & "Windows Vista x64 Recovery Disc". One runs but tells me that my PC is too lame for it. The other does the "Windows is loading files" and then just hangs on a black screen for 10 or so minutes.

So what should this moron do? Obtain Vista? Any other Windows? I also really don't want to lose any info on my hard drive either, I'd rather buy a new PC than do that.

 

[arctic_flame]

Get a PE or liive linux CD to rescue your files. Then reinstall.

That is what I would do. It's a bit of a drag, but the computer always ends up running better than before...

 

[DarkRey]

this is a live cd of ubuntu(linux)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/

download it and then burn the files on a cd and after put it in the drive and restart the pc, now linux should start

an idea ( dunno if it does work):
1.first copy all the files that u want from the hard drive to another one.
2. run the cmd(look alike) program which is on ubuntu( dunno what is called)
and try typing this(this worked on windows but dunno about linux)

attrib bootmgr -s -r -h
del bootmgr
ren temp bootmgr
attrib bootmgr -a +s +r +h

3.and run it this should uncompress the hard drive

p.s
its been long time since i used ubuntu so i forgot what the programs are called.

 

[arctic_flame]

I don't recommend live ubuntu for a system rescue.

 

[KDH]

an idea ( dunno if it does work):
1.first copy all the files that u want from the hard drive to another one.
2. run the cmd(look alike) program which is on ubuntu( dunno what is called)
and try typing this(this worked on windows but dunno about linux)

attrib bootmgr -s -r -h
del bootmgr
ren temp bootmgr
attrib bootmgr -a +s +r +h

3.and run it this should uncompress the hard drive

It's called the Linux terminal, and it's NOT a look alike. It won't accept Windows commands, because they don't exist in Linux. And although they do have counterparts, those will only work on a file system that doesn't treat everything as though it's an executable (ie: NOT NTFS/FAT32). So in short, no it won't work; he's just going to have to use a live cd to save his files and reformat his drive.

 

[psycoblaster]

well is this a laptop or a desktop?

 

[DarkRey]

desktop, i think

wasnt there a free windows xp live cd? i remember some1 posting it on gbatemp
u could use that to open cmd and run that code that i posted before

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

"I just bought it off this guy and Vista was already on it."

That was your error

Even though I "could" launch into an anti Vista comment, I won't. But I will say, I never buy a machine without getting physical OS original media copies with it.

Did you have original OS disks prior to Vista? You could always use that.
Failing that, you could always do the obvious and download a copy of Vista.

Hope you can UN compress the drive though, hope no valuable data was lost or might be lost.

 

[laminaatplaat]

is there a silver/white/blue looking sticker on your pc from microsoft. Thats your cd key to reactivating what ever OS was on there first. Unless someone took it off or it is a self made system.

if you wanna have more space on your pc, stick to the get a bigger hdd plan.

 

[sean0007]

Not sure what your PC Hardware installation skill level is but if pretty good and if you have another working machine just remove the harddrive (carefully) and put it in the working machine and then backup the files from the working machine. (If the working machine is a laptop put the drive in a USB enclosure)

If you need more space next time just buy an external drive (very cheap --- $50 at Walmart) for files not used regularly, games, and large videos/images.

 

[arctic_flame]

is there a silver/white/blue looking sticker on your pc from microsoft. Thats your cd key to reactivating what ever OS was on there first. Unless someone took it off or it is a self made system.

if you wanna have more space on your pc, stick to the get a bigger hdd plan.

That will only activate a specific copy of windows, not any copy.

 

[JKR Firefox]

is there a silver/white/blue looking sticker on your pc from microsoft. Thats your cd key to reactivating what ever OS was on there first. Unless someone took it off or it is a self made system.

if you wanna have more space on your pc, stick to the get a bigger hdd plan.

That will only activate a specific copy of windows, not any copy.

Yes, but he could get a copy of whatever version of Windows that was installed on his PC and then use the serial number on his PC to install it.

I've done it with my two PC's multiple times as I didn't wish to use the OEM disks.

 

[Hadrian]

There is no sticker no, basically I bought it for £50 and added more memory. It did seem to be a bargain as the graphics card lets me run any game I've wanted and the harddrive was huge.

Anyway I'm goign to my parents and gonna stick it into my dads machine, he said hes solved this before from someone else and can rescue the data. The only data I need is the October/November release threads (there is no way I'm wirting them up again) everything else has been backed up.

Burning anything on this laptop is a joke, whatever I try to burn goes tits up as for some reason if the USB port is being used for 3 mins straight it suddenly decides that nothing is plugged in.

But whatever hopefully it'll be solved, if not its an great excuse to get a new PC.