Can't start

greatblah

New Member
Hello! I've been having massive issues with my Vista-equipped Acer laptop yesterday and today. I was installing the Service Pack 2?3? update and left it on overnight. This morning however, I discovered that my computer became unable to even reach the login screen.

It shows the green progress bar, screen blacks out for a bit, and reloads but stalls before it reaches the blue screen where you normally log in.
No error message is given. I tried to use system restore - for some reason, I have no restore points. Startup repair fixed some chkdisk errors, but it still doesn't login. I've tried booting from CDs, but despite me throwing the CD/DVD drive and the USB CD drives above the HDD in the BIOS for bootup priority, it just goes on normally. Also, Safe Mode doesn't work either - it stalls with a black screen and nothing happens, muh like when I try to boot up normally. I'm at my wits ends, what should I do? I can access command prompt via the one option in startup repair that lets you login as an admin and gives you more recovery options - it gives me the option to system restore, startup repair, system backup, and command prompt. I don't have any backups though. I don't even seem to have an option for system recovery from what I can tell.

How can I make a backup of all my data? Or even barring that, just reset it to factory defaults? While I would like to have my data backed up, I do need it working ASAP.
 

My Computer

An old thread to restore factory specs.

Is your model here ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Thank you! But just a quick question, would it be possible for me to make a backup of my C drive before I overwrite? Given that I can't access safe mode or anything and all that.
 

My Computer

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
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