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Rescue & Recovery issues.

E.g. 3000, IdeaPad, S- and U-Series, B-Series and so on...
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keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Rescue & Recovery issues.

#1 Post by keeners » Tue May 13, 2008 12:06 am

Hi all. First time posting here, so I will try to be as detailed as possible with the problems I have.

I was re-starting the computer the other day, and it hung at shutdown. I did a hard shutdown by pressing the off button. Waited a few minutes and restarted.

Got to the login window, and got a black screen. Tried that a couple of times and could not login.

Then I think I tried going into Lenovo care but not sure which part.
I recall a black screen with something about booting up??
That didn't work.

Shut down, and went back into Lenovo care. Tried to restore files from previous backup. I get a window where the files are loading, then once it get to 100% and 0 seconds remaining. it just stays there. I even let it sit overnight like that to see if something would happen.

After a good night sleep, I was like duh! why didn't I just do F8 and go from there. So that is what I proceeded to do.
I tried:
* Start windows normally
*Last known good configuration
*Safe Mode.

Ok, got in thru safe mode and tried to do a restore from there. I get a message that cannot restore because there is file or disk error in SW_Preload C:. It gives me the chkdsk option and it freezes there. Cannot cancel it at all without doing a hard shutdown.

I am at the point that I don't want to keep doing this over and over and not sure where/how I should proceed.

Any help, suggestions, or hints that you can provide me would be greatly appreciated.

I have a Lenovo 3000 N100 0768-A52 w/ Vista Home Premium.

When I first got the laptop, I made a Rescue disk as instructed. But since reading this forum, I am doubting myself if I actually made a complete rescue disk as I only have one disk, and have read that people have like 7 rescue disks.

Thanking in advance all the gurus that volunteer their time for the newbs that make stupid mistakes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

Harryc
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#2 Post by Harryc » Tue May 13, 2008 6:22 am

Call Lenovo and get a full set of recovery discs. This should be free under warranty if the recovery partition does not work. Even if you used a DVD, a full recovery set would still be one CD and one DVD. I'd also run a diagnostic on your hard drive from the manufacturer. In fact I'd try that first as it may repair defective sectors.

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#3 Post by keeners » Tue May 13, 2008 10:54 am

Harryc wrote:Call Lenovo and get a full set of recovery discs. This should be free under warranty if the recovery partition does not work. Even if you used a DVD, a full recovery set would still be one CD and one DVD. I'd also run a diagnostic on your hard drive from the manufacturer. In fact I'd try that first as it may repair defective sectors.
I have NOT used the DVD that I burned because I was not sure that I should at the time. Should I try it?

Not sure what kind of hard drive the laptop has. Where would I find the diagnostics for it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

Harryc
Moderator Emeritus
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Posts: 13228
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:23 am
Location: Upstate New York

#4 Post by Harryc » Tue May 13, 2008 11:50 am

Go into BIOS. The hard drive model number should be listed in the boot section. Post it here if you need help identifying it.

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#5 Post by keeners » Tue May 13, 2008 12:52 pm

Harryc wrote:Go into BIOS. The hard drive model number should be listed in the boot section. Post it here if you need help identifying it.
Harry, thank you for taking the time to help me out.

Hard Drive: Fujitsu MHV2120BH PL -(S1)

Just now, after exiting BIOS, I let the computer do a boot up. It got me to the desk top. Desktop icons loaded normally.

However, when I press Start, it turns into a white square and then nothing else happens. If I click on any of the other icons, nothing happens.
Any ideas as to why this is happening?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

Harryc
Moderator Emeritus
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Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:23 am
Location: Upstate New York

#6 Post by Harryc » Tue May 13, 2008 2:27 pm

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/comp ... ities.html

Use the DOS tool and run the comprehensive (not short) tests. I have no idea why your windows is acting up. My best guess is hard drive corruption, or that you simply need to repair or reload XP.

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#7 Post by keeners » Tue May 13, 2008 3:03 pm

Harryc wrote:http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/comp ... ities.html

Use the DOS tool and run the comprehensive (not short) tests. I have no idea why your windows is acting up. My best guess is hard drive corruption, or that you simply need to repair or reload XP.
Thanks for the link. BTW, I am running Vista Home Premium.

So far today, I have done the following:

Booted into safe mode again, and tried sfc /scannow from the cmd. prompt.
With Administrators Permission it ran to verifying 100% then it said: Windows resource protection could not perform the requested operation.

I am trying to do a chkdsk from Safe Mode with command prompt according to what I read here: http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/micros ... eezes.html

I just entered the cmd. and it is sitting there. Hasn't asked me if I want to reboot or anything. I'm going to let it sit for a while and see if it does anything.

Going to check the link you provided. Thanks again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#8 Post by keeners » Tue May 13, 2008 3:11 pm

Harry,

I just checked out the diagnostic file you sent me. How can I run it under DOS from vista? The read me says it cannot be run from a windows environment.

Thanks again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

Harryc
Moderator Emeritus
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 13228
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:23 am
Location: Upstate New York

#9 Post by Harryc » Tue May 13, 2008 3:24 pm

USB diskette drive. Every Thinkpad owner should own one for this purpose, and to flash BIOS if Windows is not operational. If you can figure out a way to create a DOS boot CD and put the .exe from Fujitsu on it, that would work too. Another option (but not as thorough a check as the Fujitsu utilities) is a bootable CD of PC-Doctor (free download at Lenovo). You'll need a working windows or Linux machine with a CD Burner to create the CD's.
http://bootdisk.com/
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-52871

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#10 Post by keeners » Tue May 13, 2008 3:50 pm

I tried to run PC Doctor from safe mode, but I got a message that you can't do it in safe mode.

The cmd window prompt is still sitting there with nothing happening. It's been over 50 minutes. I don't think it's going to do anything.

I will check out the options that you have suggested. And if you can think of any others, shoot them at me.

I have to get ready for work soon, so I won't be able to do those things till later tonight.

Thank you once again for your efforts. I will keep you posted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#11 Post by keeners » Fri May 16, 2008 2:21 pm

I haven't had the time to mess around with the laptop the last few days due to work.

Just wanted to ask you what the difference is between Windows Diagnostic Tool Ver. 1.0 and DOS Diagnostic Tool Ver. 7.0


Thanks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#12 Post by keeners » Sun May 18, 2008 5:28 pm

Just wanted to let you know that I just got off the phone with Lenovo care technical support and they are sending me a set of recovery disks.

My warranty was also extended and they are also sending me a new battery for the laptop! :shock:

They were awesome!

Harry, thanks for all your help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

Iris123
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:07 pm
Location: New York City, New York, USA

Rescue and Recovery doesn't work!

#13 Post by Iris123 » Sun Oct 19, 2008 2:38 pm

Hi,

My Lenovo 3000 v100 just crashed. I was able to save the data using the rescue and recovery software, but now I cannot boot windows. I tried to reset it to factory settings, but it doesn't work. The program freezes right after it displays the message "Preparing your hard drive, please wait…” I left it for hours and it shows 0% progress. If I restart the computer, it goes straight into "Rescue and Recovery" (I can’t get it to boot normally). I tried to install windows XP from a cd, but I get the message that “no hard disk was found on this computer”.
I bought a different hard disk. I should receive it in a few days. But can I make this one work? I need the computer tomorrow. I can access the data on it, so the disk is not completely damaged. Any thoughts?
Thanks.

keeners
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 10:22 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#14 Post by keeners » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:37 pm

Iris, it sounds like you have a hard drive problem I went thru this also after I posted my problems. They sent me a set of recovery disks that didn't work, and the hard drive was doing similar to what yours is. They sent me a new ( refubished) hard drive. The recovery disks still wouldn't work, so they sent me a second set. That did the trick. Got my computer up and running without any problems since then. KNOCK ON WOOD !!!

Good Luck !!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LENOVO 3000 N100 0768-A52
Vista Home Premium SP1

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