As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

I need a boot disk that will run chkdsk... I think.

poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
edited April 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
So, I dropped my laptop yesterday and now Windows 7 won't load. I can get the BIOS/Setup screen fine, but after that I get a black screen with a little flashing cursor up the top. I tried the Lenovo One-Key recovery system, but that hangs after trying to read the hard drive. I don't have a Win 7 disk.

I tried an old Win XP CD I had lying around. No dice, it got quite far, loading lots of drivers, but eventually BSoD'd saying there was a problem with the HDD.

It seems that dropping it has buggered the HDD, but someone told me that if I can run chkdsk or some other HDD utility, I might be able to salvage things. Is that true? And if so, what do I do? I have an old Win XP desktop, so I can download utilities and burn CDs - but what? I thought Easy BCD was the kind of thing I wanted, but after downloading it, that doesn't seem to be the case.

If I can't do anything, will borrowing a Win 7 disk off a friend help? The laptop (Lenovo G570) is only 3 months old, and I haven't emailed the seller yet, but I assume it's still in warranty. But replacing it is of course a last resort.

I figure I could take a bear.
poshniallo on

Posts

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Hiren's Boot Disk has pretty much every useful utility you could want on it.

  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    You might also check if the drop knocked something physically loose inside.

  • StraygatsbyStraygatsby Registered User regular
    edited April 2012
    Getting a friend's Win7 disk certainly wouldn't hurt. It'll allow you to see if you can get through the boot steps to at least a repair/recovery option. Though, given that you got that far with an xp disk, I'm not sold it'll be that simple.

    Hiren's is a pretty loaded option, as is the UBCD (I believe that's the acronym - ultimate bootdisk CD I think). They're chock full of goodies, though by virtue of their chockfulliness, are somewhat daunting to users who don't know most of the tools on them.

    Edit: should add the additional tip besides chkdsk that should be ubiquitous by now (assuming you can get to a prompt/safe mode): sfc /scannow to take a pass over your existing winstallation.

    Straygatsby on
  • RuckusRuckus Registered User regular
    Most Laptops have a hard disk check utility built into the BIOS.

  • MalgarasMalgaras Registered User regular
    edited April 2012
    Something like what zerzhul mentioned would do. I used to use something similar called Trinity Rescue Kit. Thankfully, I haven't needed anything like that in a while (knock on wood) so I don't know if it is still actively developed, but it used to be great. Virtually any bootable Linux distro with decent disk utilities would fit the bill nicely.

    Malgaras on
    1tLJUH2O.png
Sign In or Register to comment.