vista on my hp pavilion dv4 1117 nr laptop wont boot in safe mode.

It goes into a blank screen with a live cursor. Is this a new kinda BSOD?

I am not sure it came with cds. How would I find out? I cant find any.

I created a recovery cd from
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/

a clicked repair ...it just keeps looking for a windows installation.

I am not backed-up

What else can I do?
Jan

Welcome to PCHF Jan

Have you also tried "Last known good configuration" from the safe-mode boot menu?

yes,
i tried everything ...they all go to a blank screen with no desktop only a working cursor....even when i try to boot to command prompt.

Hi Shy, welcome to PCHF.

No this isn't any kind of stop error.. this is more the absence of any error at all.. and not even blue!! Have you installed/removed any hardware or software recently? At what point do you see this flashing cursor or what is the last thing you see on the screen?

I take it the reason your trying to access Safe Mode is because your not able to access Windows normally?

You will need to Windows Setup CD's to repair this problem. The HP's are always shipped with the installation CD's, can you see if you can find them?

Thanks so much for your help!
I tried booting with another set of vista disks from my desktop.
I got the repair prompt but it did not work.
I went into setup [F10] and the hard drive was not showing ...i went into the diagnostics in setup and it did not complete
I went into diags from f11 [recovery] and it gave me a #10008 error

I called HP 800-474-6836
They no longer give disks they have a "create recovery disk option" they told me, but were willing to send me disks.
It is still under warranty for another 30 days...whew..so they are replacing it and checking out the power port which intermittently does not work. They are sending me a box to send it back to them and said they would fix it in 7 - 9 days.

So now my big problem is getting the pictures off the bad Hard Drive.
I bought a usb dock and plugged the bad hd in to my desktop. I can see it in 'my computer" but when I try to go in it gives me a "not formatted error and asks me if i want to format.
Any suggestions I have a lot of HD utilities but how do i get in to use them. if it cant see the drive?
Is this the right forum or should i switch to hardware now??

thanks again in advance
Jan

Hi Jan,

The flashing cursor appears just after the post screen, and before the windows logo, is this correct? This would happen if the PC was not able to find the boot sector of the drive. With everything you have described, it sounds like the drive has actually failed, especially if it isn't listed in BIOS. It could be that one of the heads have become physically stick to the platter of the drive, or problems with the board itself if you were having power problems. Does the drive make any loud clicking noises when you turn it on or try to access the drive?

HDD failure is not something you'll be able to resolve yourself unfortunately. Your best chances of success would be to send the disk off to a company that specialise in data recovery, such as: Michigan Data Recovery | Hard Drive Data Recovery Services, Hard Disk Recovery

If the disk appears in Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Hardware tab) under Disk Drives than you may be able to do a partial recovery using software tools. The best software I've used (saved my bacon a few times), is R-Studio: File Recovery and Data Recovery Software. Hard Drive recovery utility - but it does come with a price tag. Although, you could download the demo to see if it works first, and can see all the files you need to restore.

yes, it looks like windows loads, and there is a quick flash of a small dos screen on the top left, then the screen goes blank [not blue] the cursor in safe mode shows in the area that has safe mode written on each corner, and I can move it...but shift ctr alt del etc does not work.

The HD light blinks but it doesnt make any noise!

thanks so much for you advice

jan