Unexplained system failures.

[killians45]

RIGHT when you turn on the computer press and hold cntrl AND alt while tapping the 'G' key right after the post 'beep' and right before the Goback screen. Its hard to time this right, so be patient. Goback should ask (if done correctly) if you want it to be removed or unhooked from the MBR. Press the 'F' key to do this. At this point the computer should restart going into windows. Go back may prompt to re-enable, for Gods sake say 'NO'! If you want to later, thats fine, lets just get up and running again. See if this works. It will keep the original restore points. If not, then the next operation will COMPLETELY remove go back.

 

[killians45]

Put in the system restoration cd (should be the first one) and choose to boot from cd. Continue until you see 'exit program' and choose that. You should be at the cd command prompt (whatever that is, may be d:\> who knows. Now type in

cd goback <enter>

now type Gb_prog /Disable <enter>

should warn about removing goback from all hard disks and all backup points. Go ahead and proceed. Then click yes to restart. That should fix it.

 

[Cunjo]

I can't get to safe mode at all, I already tried the command prompt one too. I also tried using the DOS prompt on the drivers CD to copy files, but it doesn't recognize the external HD, and it says the C: drive is some kind of ram drive, I can't find the files on the HD anywhere.

 

[Cunjo]

BTW: goback is no use to me anymore now that there are no safe restore points. I am TRYING to disable it, but it is taking about 15 minutes to clear even 1% of the history.

 

[killians45]

oh yeah, will take awhile. especially if corrupted. DONT stop it, or that'll be even worse!

 

[killians45]

of course, that IS along time, too. looks like the initial issue has been found. Goback was corrupted in the MBR. Hopefully, this will cure it. if not, try the other ways to remove. and then finally, if it says removed succesfully and STILL problems, at THAT point try running 'fixmbr'. let me know how it goes!

 

[killians45]

hmm... I have another idea. try installing smartdrive onto a 3.5 disk, boot off of it and then run \i386\winnt.exe

you maybe able to install and boot to the usb drive that way.

 

[killians45]

or, even this may work. try booting into dos (diskette or whatever). I believe you said it recognized it. So (making SURE its the USB drive and not the internal) use the command format <USB drive letter> /s.... example:

format d: /s <enter>

that should copy system files. then goto bios and see if you have an option under boot for 'boot to other' and disable any reference to boot to HD. try to FORCE it to boot to the USB device.

 

[killians45]

but, as I've said before I realy DONT think you can install XP onto an external drive.

 

[killians45]

Hey, even better idea if none of this doesn't work. Maybe a little costly, but get a copy of Nortons Ghost 2003. Then (I think its a floppy that boots) it will make a ghost image. Do an image of the internal HDD and mount the image on the USB HDD. When thats done, assuming its succesful, format the internal drive reload and then access the ghosted image on the USB drive! Dont take my word on this, though. I would check out Nortons Ghost 2003 for product details and see if this is possible, but I dont see why it wouldn't. Plus, if none of the above works, this is about the last thing I can think of to save the data.