Question
My worst nightmare just came true and I'm hoping that my IT friend can fix it. I came home last night to discover that my laptop crashed. I have AutoCAD 2006 and Cabinet Vision Solid Manufacturing on it. Every time I turn it on, it keeps going to this screen and giving me an option to start my computer in safe mode, the most recent settings, or start up normally. No matter what I choose, it recycles the Toshiba screen and goes right back to the black and white prompt screen. I can't get to my desktop, or even any blue screen. Thoughts? I keep up with my antivirus software and updates along with spyware and adware all the time.
Forum Responses
(CAD Forum)
From contributor D:
Try holding it a few inches above the table and dropping it. The hard drive may be stuck and a slight shock from the drop may break it loose.
You may have a corrupted registry, a damaged boot sector, or some other issue. You can try a repair installation from your Windows CD. You will have to reinstall SP2 and all updates, but you shouldn't lose any programs or data. If this is the only PC you use for your business, then you should create a slipstream CD and have backups on an external drive. If you don't have backups, then the first thing I would do is buy an ex-drive and copy all of your drive to it before trying to repair it. You can try to use FIXBOOT. If you have a C: prompt, then change directory (CD) to WINDOWS. Then enter FIXBOOT. Then press Y. If your IT friend can't advise you, then you should read about FIXBOOT, recovery console, slipstreaming, and repair installations before proceeding.
P.S. If you don't have the option to perform a repair installation, then do not choose the option to perform a new installation (before you backup). It can/will overwrite your data and cause unrecoverable data loss.
By the way, I was in your situation about a year ago. I brought my hard drive in to Kroll. I didn’t live to far from their main office (at the time). They were able to retrieve everything. If it wasn't blown up or in a serious fire, everything is there. They put everything on another hard drive for me and gave back my old one and said it worked but just got stuck. I put it back in my computer and that is what is running it now. It cost 2300 bucks (though insurance covered all but deductible) - it had me worried. I keep two backups now on a rotation basis and only one on site at a time, in case of fire. So if you give the hard drive a drop, it just may come unstuck - after all, it is a machine.
Here is the funny part. The idiots at " ^&*^%$%^" lost the part that holds the hard drive to the laptop itself and told me they're going to give me a brand new laptop. I decided to go with an HP, since they couldn't find any Toshibas. The HP is a lot better than what I had and I like the screen much better.
The downside is that I have to re-install all of my software:
Cabinet Vision's Solid Manufacturing
AutoCAD 2006
Quick Books Contractor
On top of that, I guess they are staying away from making laptops and/or desktops with parallel ports and my Key for Cabinet Vision was a parallel port, so I had to pay 100.00 to have them burn me a USB key. I had all the bells and whistles CDs, too, that have to be re-loaded. Ugh. I also bought an external hard drive. I finally got smart… Sigh.
