losttsol

Luckily I have the backup laptop to type this with, but I was testing some overclocks and had the usual failure. Then once my computer started booting back up, I reloaded fail safe defaults just to get into windows. Well, Vista gets to the loading screen, but fails to get to the part with the icon and sound and the desktop doesn't come up. It just stays on the black screen with a cursor just before the icon normally appears.

I tried startup repair a couple of times by booting from the Vista CD and that hasn't worked. I cleared CMOS and did startup repair again with no luck. I did the windows memory test and that passed fine. I double checked BIOS and all the settings are at stock. Safe mode won't boot to the desktop either. Don't know what to try next. I would do a complete re-installation, but there's some data I'd like to hang onto.

Any ideas?

Also, if I did another installation, could I install onto a partition and keep my original files?

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losttsol

Yes, I've been doing the startup repair from CD. It's run through and said no startup problems are detected. I was also thinking the same thing you just said. Get another HDD and reloading the OS on that to retrieve the files. I just was hoping there would be something else to try.

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cardy13

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think you can partition a HD if it's not formatted. Have you tried booting with the vista CD and trying a repair that way? If all that fails, I think your best bet would be (thinking outside the box here) getting a small HD, 40gb or something, throwing it into your computer, and install windows xp or vista or any OS onto it, then back up your files that you want, and then wipe your Vista install and start over.

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