Computer Won't Boot After Compressing Files
Question:My laptop recently quit booting all the way up (I'm using my dad's computer to speak with you) I may know what the problem is, yet I have no way to get on anything with my laptop. I'll run you by my most recent actions which may help you help me. I wanted to download something, yet my C: drive would be overrun. So I had to, yet again, clear some space. I've attempted every defragment, compressing, type memory saver, so I had to try this...I right clicked on my WINDOWS file in my C: drive and hit Properties. I then clicked "Advanced" from there I checked the boxes saying "compress files to save space" and "Archive Files". I hit apply and waited for it to complete. My download had plenty of space, I let it finish, shut the Laptop down, went to bed. Today, I turned it on, but it came to a screen I was not familiar with. It basically said some Windows File may be corrupted or missing, and told me to choose one of the following options: Safe Mode, Safe Mode With Networking, Safe Mode With Command Prompt, Last Known Good Configuration(your most recent settings that worked) and lastly, Start Windows Normally. I've tried every one, none of which worked. The laptop would think for 3-5 seconds, restart, and bring me to the same exact screen. Yet something interesting will appear with the safe mode with networking and safe mode with command prompt, when I hit either of them, a list of like 20-30 file names will run down the screen, and then it does a reboot to the same screen thing. All of the files begin like this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\System32\
I really need help. My
important files are stored on there and I can't get to them. Thank you
for any help you are able to give.
Answer: The first
issue I see here is that you compressed your Windows system files which
you should not do. When you compress files then each time they are used
they need to be uncompressed before doing so. This sounds like what is
causing your problem. Compressing files can also cause corruption. You
can try a system restore back to a point before you had this problem. I'm not sure if it will change the compression of your files though.
The multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition messages are
normal for booting into safe mode. If you can boot into regular safe
mode (not command prompt) you can try to uncompress your Windows folder.
If that doesn't help then you can try a repair installation
of XP which will reinstall Windows over itself and leave your programs
and files intact. Just be sure to follow the instructions carefully to
avoid doing a fresh install and deleting your data.
Finally you can take the drive out and
put it in an external drive caddy to get your information off of it and
then do a format and reinstall of Windows or use the recovery
CD/partition that came with your computer to start over. You can also
boot to a Linux CD like Knoppix or Ubuntu
and copy your data to a flash drive etc to save it first. Just be sure
not to do a hard drive install but rather run off the CD.
