Unable to boot new Dell Computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tres
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Tres

New to this group,and new to Windows XP,Media Center,2005.The OS is
on a month old Dell XPS 410.The isuue that I will try to describe has
not been able to be fixed by Dell on Call tech support nor by the XPS
hardware support people.We have been trying for the past three
week.May be someone on this forum will be able to help.I had been
having problems with Outlook Express.The last tech that I spoke with
ar Dell-On Call wanted to guide me through a process called PC
Restore.To this point I had not backed any of my data up,but have
loads of it going back to 1999 which was transfered form an older 98se
OS.When ithe data was transfer over the hard drive on the old computer
was erased as it was then my intention to donate the computer.I now
know that was a big mistake.At any rate,I informed the tech that I had
not backed my dated up on the new DEll.She said not to worry that she
would merely take me through a dry-run of doing the restore so that I
could do it after I had backed up the data.I agreed to allow her to
take me to the edge via the"dry-run".WE went through an initial
process out of the clear comes a message that said," Can Not
Restore".She asked that I shut the computer off,and do a restart
holding down the control-button and the F 11 keys which I did.I again
got the message,Can NOT Restore,but in a few seconds,a blue window
pops up with a "Stop:" message that indicated that windows has been
shut down.It mentioned to check for virsuses,and to remove any
recently installed hard drives and cotrollers.I had recently installed
an external 8.0BG removable drive that I was going to use to back up
my data.That drive was disconnected..it was a USB 2.0 drive..In
addition to the message stated above,the numbered message was
0*0000007B.Tech support from Dell said that they were aware of the
problem,but have had no fix as of this morning.The computer will not
boot.after doing numerous possible fixes as directed by Dell.As I
can't get into the computer I am unable to get to my data which at
this point is the most important issue for me.Can data such as in
Turbo-Tax,numerous years,and Quicken,2004 be recovered without a boot?
If so,how? Does anyone have a fix for the non boot ing computer? As I
am not of a tech nature I can't share with you all the fixes that were
tried by Dell,but they were many,and very time consuming one as long
as 3.5 hours.HELP,HELP,I'm going deep!!!Thank you in advance for your
kind suggestions.Tres
 
Tres said:
New to this group,and new to Windows XP,Media Center,2005.The OS is
on a month old Dell XPS 410.The isuue that I will try to describe has
not been able to be fixed by Dell on Call tech support nor by the XPS
hardware support people.We have been trying for the past three
week.May be someone on this forum will be able to help.I had been
having problems with Outlook Express.The last tech that I spoke with
ar Dell-On Call wanted to guide me through a process called PC
Restore.To this point I had not backed any of my data up,but have
loads of it going back to 1999 which was transfered form an older 98se
OS.When ithe data was transfer over the hard drive on the old computer
was erased as it was then my intention to donate the computer.I now
know that was a big mistake.At any rate,I informed the tech that I had
not backed my dated up on the new DEll.She said not to worry that she
would merely take me through a dry-run of doing the restore so that I
could do it after I had backed up the data.I agreed to allow her to
take me to the edge via the"dry-run".WE went through an initial
process out of the clear comes a message that said," Can Not
Restore".She asked that I shut the computer off,and do a restart
holding down the control-button and the F 11 keys which I did.I again
got the message,Can NOT Restore,but in a few seconds,a blue window
pops up with a "Stop:" message that indicated that windows has been
shut down.It mentioned to check for virsuses,and to remove any
recently installed hard drives and cotrollers.I had recently installed
an external 8.0BG removable drive that I was going to use to back up
my data.That drive was disconnected..it was a USB 2.0 drive..In
addition to the message stated above,the numbered message was
0*0000007B.Tech support from Dell said that they were aware of the
problem,but have had no fix as of this morning.The computer will not
boot.after doing numerous possible fixes as directed by Dell.As I
can't get into the computer I am unable to get to my data which at
this point is the most important issue for me.Can data such as in
Turbo-Tax,numerous years,and Quicken,2004 be recovered without a boot?
If so,how? Does anyone have a fix for the non boot ing computer? As I
am not of a tech nature I can't share with you all the fixes that were
tried by Dell,but they were many,and very time consuming one as long
as 3.5 hours.HELP,HELP,I'm going deep!!!Thank you in advance for your
kind suggestions.Tres
Click to expand...

At this stage, one needs to determine whether or not the hard
drive is still intact. Have someone knowledgeable remove the
hard drive from the Dell, insert it into an external USB/Firewire
HD enclosure, connect it to another computer and take a peek. If
the data files are present, do the backup, 2 sets, by burning into
a CD-R and copying into a second HD (or whatever). (The presence
of a backup implies that there are always 2 copies). And be very
thankful that they were not destroyed.

As for the hard drive, do the re-install from the Dell recovery
disc set and start anew.
 
Tres said:
New to this group,and new to Windows XP,Media Center,2005.The OS is
on a month old Dell XPS 410.The isuue that I will try to describe has
not been able to be fixed by Dell on Call tech support nor by the XPS
hardware support people.We have been trying for the past three
week.May be someone on this forum will be able to help.I had been
having problems with Outlook Express.The last tech that I spoke with
ar Dell-On Call wanted to guide me through a process called PC
Restore.To this point I had not backed any of my data up,but have
loads of it going back to 1999 which was transfered form an older 98se
OS.When ithe data was transfer over the hard drive on the old computer
was erased as it was then my intention to donate the computer.I now
know that was a big mistake.At any rate,I informed the tech that I had
not backed my dated up on the new DEll.She said not to worry that she
would merely take me through a dry-run of doing the restore so that I
could do it after I had backed up the data.I agreed to allow her to
take me to the edge via the"dry-run".WE went through an initial
process out of the clear comes a message that said," Can Not
Restore".She asked that I shut the computer off,and do a restart
holding down the control-button and the F 11 keys which I did.I again
got the message,Can NOT Restore,but in a few seconds,a blue window
pops up with a "Stop:" message that indicated that windows has been
shut down.It mentioned to check for virsuses,and to remove any
recently installed hard drives and cotrollers.I had recently installed
an external 8.0BG removable drive that I was going to use to back up
my data.That drive was disconnected..it was a USB 2.0 drive..In
addition to the message stated above,the numbered message was
0*0000007B.Tech support from Dell said that they were aware of the
problem,but have had no fix as of this morning.The computer will not
boot.after doing numerous possible fixes as directed by Dell.As I
can't get into the computer I am unable to get to my data which at
this point is the most important issue for me.Can data such as in
Turbo-Tax,numerous years,and Quicken,2004 be recovered without a boot?
If so,how? Does anyone have a fix for the non boot ing computer? As I
am not of a tech nature I can't share with you all the fixes that were
tried by Dell,but they were many,and very time consuming one as long
as 3.5 hours.HELP,HELP,I'm going deep!!!Thank you in advance for your
kind suggestions.Tres
Click to expand...

Turbotax natively saves the final tax forms in "filename.tax" format.
Cannot be easily read from other forms of software. In some cases, you have
to install the former version of turbotax which requires the OS it was
designed for, to read the former saved tax documents. The last few years,
an option to save the tax documents in pdf format is offered during the save
process in Turbotax. Its optional to save to another partition, hard drive,
floppy, or whatever. In all cases, an option is provided to print out all
the final filled-out tax forms for your records.

Quicken saves it database in various file formats. All beginning with "q".
For example "qdata.qdf". The file, q3.dir, may be involved. A number in
the filename may also be involved if you backed up a portion of the database
at any time. For example: "qdata1.qdf, qdata2.qdf". Saving to alternate
media is an option in the backup menu selection. Starting from scratch is
really a drag, hope you are able to recover.

Safe mode may allow entry to access those files. If not, as another
respondent indicated, get the hard drive out of the PC as soon as possible.
Don't mess with "fixing" until you recover your data and save to media that
will work on your PC.
 
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