I have an old Compaq Presario 5000 that I only keep because all of my "liberated" music from the old Napster site is saved on it. Yesterday I tried burning a CD using NERO software, and the blasted thing told me that the NERO program could not read any of the music files. My first thought was WTF? This thing is not connected to the internet in anyway, so I'm sure there shouldn't be a virus thats causing this. This is the first time this has ever happened.

So... I grab a shovel and start digging through all of my old junk and managed to find the origional installation CD for NERO. When I tried reinstalling it, the computer told me that I had to re-boot the system for it to work. I did so, and now my windows screen won't display anymore. All I get is an "ACTIVE DESKTOP RECOVERY" SCREEN" with a button for me to push that should take me back to my origional settings. When I try to click on it, nothing happens. After re-booting like 1000 times, I managed to get my MS/DOS screen up.

From there I ran a complete scanreg/disk command and scanned the entire hard drive for errors. Rebooted again, and this managed to set things back to my origional background setting, but when I tried clicking on the "My computer" icon, it opened up, but nothing was visible. The bottom of the screen says it seen 6 files in there (which is what it should read) but the screen doesn't show them. After rebooting once again, I'm back at the ACTIVE DESKTOP RECOVERY SCREEN" again.


I have an external hard drive that I want to save all of my music to, but I first have to get into the internal hard drive to transfer all of them. How can I save my music without being forced to re-format the entire hard drive and lose everything.

Also, I can't seem to remember how to boot this thing up in "safe mode"


NEED HELP

S.O.S......S.O.S......S.O.S......S.O.S......S.O.S. ....S.O.S.....

What OS do you have on there?


If its 98se do this

1) Bootup and press F8 until a menu appears
2) Select Option 5 (Command Prompt)
3) Type this @ the prompt > scanreg/restore
4) Restore any older entry there....

If its XP do this

Bootup and press F8 until a menu appears

Select USE LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIG

If that doesnt work try booting up in SAFE MODE (On the same menu) and get to SYSTEM RESTORE and restore an older point...


Good luck :)

What OS do you have on there?


If its 98se do this

1) Bootup and press F8 until a menu appears
2) Select Option 5 (Command Prompt)
3) Type this @ the prompt > scanreg/restore
4) Restore any older entry there....

If its XP do this

Bootup and press F8 until a menu appears

Select USE LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIG

If that doesnt work try booting up in SAFE MODE (On the same menu) and get to SYSTEM RESTORE and restore an older point...


Good luck :)

Thanks. I tried this, and now my Windows Media Player won't work. I tried reinstalling it, but each time I try, it keeps saying that it was installed incorrectly and that I should "try it again". :(

Pull the hard drive out and put it in your new system. Should be simple enough. Just make sure the jumpers are set correctly. Check your BIOS start screen to see if it's recognized by the BIOS. If it doesn't show, that means the jumper's set incorrectly, so pull it out and set it to "slave". There should be a diagram on the metal side where the writing is at.

edit: Just realized it's a laptop. Get an external HDD enclosure for 2.5" HDDs. Here's one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817113028

Then just rip it out of your old system, slap it in, hook it up to your new comp and go to town.

Alternatively, you could try a live-cd Linux distro. KNOPPIX is the standard. But then, you know... you gotta learn some Linux.

Alternatively, you could try a live-cd Linux distro. KNOPPIX is the standard. But then, you know... you gotta learn some Linux.
Knoppix, not really. Try Ubuntu. It's generally better-supported and more common.

Live CD??

You know, I am really having a ball with this thing :(

Not only can I not get my Windows Media to play anymore, I tried to play NERO, (which is a CD burning software program that I installed when I first bought this computer) hoping that this would help me locate all of my music files. Nero still wouldn't work anymore. When I tried reinstalling the NERO software, the startup now ask me for the serial number that came with it when I first bought it. THIS WAS LIKE SEVEN YEARS AGO! :@@:

I have absolutely no Idea what the serial number is or what I did with it.I thought I had it stored in my file cabinet. I went to look for it and it was nowhere to be found.

All I want is my music saved off of this thing. I can't even use this computer to get into the internet because the RS 232 panel is not set up for use with an ethernet cable.


Only good thing is that I DO have an 80GB external Hard Drive conneted to my old computer that I can still get into. Problem is that when I try to copy my music files to it, it only makes a "Shortcut" file to the orgional thats still on the internal hard drive. When I take the external hard drive and plug it into my other computer and try to access this shortcut file, the contents appear empty. When I move it back to my old Presario 5000, they are all visible again :confused:

Need help desperately :bombout:

Oh.. I almost forgot to tell you guys, my OS system I have on my old computer is Windows ME!

My main computer "that works just fine" is running windows XP

To copy files from one drive to another, hold down either shift, alt, or control before you release the mouse button. I'm not sure which, it is on Windows ME but I think it's shift. Make sure on the shadow icon it has a little plus sign instead of the curly arrow.

Live CD??
Yes...

I found a way to click and drag all of my files to my external hard drive.

Thanks everyone :)

:hula:

Yes...
I don't believe it. I tried using it, I still think Knoppix has better hardware support.

I don't believe it. I tried using it, I still think Knoppix has better hardware support.


There IS a live CD component to Ubuntu installation disk. Believe me, I used it for a couple of weeks before taking the plunge and installing Ubuntu on my secondary drive.

All you have to do is put the Ubuntu CD into your disk drive and restart the computer, provided that you've got your computer set to try to boot from the CD drive first, Ubuntu will get started. You'll get the full Ubuntu desktop from which you can futz around with Ubuntu. There is a desktop icon for installing Ubuntu onto the computer itself, but so long as you don't mess with it, you're merely using the the Ubuntu installation CD as a live CD.

Dammit.