start up problem?

Question

i was running a system restore,i left room for 5 mins,came back and comp was on a black screen with - start in safe mode - start from last known good settings etc,i clicked start from last known good settings and after rebooting my comp it beeped-(or made a clicking sound) then went back to black screen with options - i am now on safe mode,this happened over 1 year ago and i had to reformat the hard drive-lost all my music files etc,after taking a long time to put them back i dont want to have to do the same again-any ideas what the problem is?? i have tried system restore in safe mode - the same screen comes up? any help greatly appreciated,ty.

Answer 1

run a repair install
http://mypchelp.blogspot.com/2006/10/windows-reinstallation.html

Answer 2

What I say may be a waist of space. But, I say it anyway as it may help some, but, not fix the problem for now.
I not sure of this and put this into my "watch list". I will ask a buddy as I am interested. If, I find the solution I will either put it here or e-mail to those with this problem.
I do want to say a few things. As we see there has to be something wrong as it seems, from what you say, it shows up again after restore/full install. This not correct and best to be fixed. I see some answers that may give a fix, I not sure.
What I do; I not use a RAID array at this time (My MOBO does support this). I have 2 Hard Drives (HDD). One drive sits "unmounted", makes it hard to be accessed/corrupted and it not running causing wear. All my Important Documents, Music, Videos etc., I back up to the unmounted drive as I get! (I have a Full Install CD for my OS [which I assume you have, as you mentioned re-formatting], many computer companies sell as an option so you not need a Backup Partition using HDD space, well worth the $30 or whatever it cost). If, I need to do a total reinstall I not have to try and reload/save this personal data. I can just get the computer up and running, access/mount the backup drive and copy everything back. It take a while when there 100 GB of goodies I not want to lose, but, it faster than other ways of getting it back. It work for me. Hard Drives are very reasonable "to me" now.
Another option to an internal, but, watch prices. I was able to get an external USB 120 GB HDD years ago for $50. At the time, this was a great price. It has a lot of stuff I backed up years ago, I still access the drive from time to time for this information, but, it not something I need on my main drives.

With all this babble of mine. Consider another HDD just for things you not want to lose, like Music that we download and take time to go get again.

Answer 3

I've had exactly the same problem as yourself and I must say it can be very frustrating at the best of times!! try not to worry too much just choose to restart your computer with last known good settings, once it starts up set a restore point in case you have any future trouble.

Best of luck :)

Answer 4

If you can get into safe mode then you should be able to rescue your data.

You have probably done something to a driver by using System Restore. You will need to rollback the last driver you updated using Device Manager. If you don't know which one it was then you will have to experiment by rolling them back one at a time until you are back to normal.