Windows won't start

[triplethreat40]

One day i turn on my beloved little laptop, and it says windows failed to start. i try most recent setting that worked. it sounds like it's going to explode, and then gives me the message again. i try all the different options for starting windows and nothing works. once or twice a blue screen with white text flashed, but it was waaay too fast for me to even know what it was about.

how do i go about getting it working again? the only thing i can think of is to reinstall windows, but i'm not sure how to do that.
any help?

[JackOfClubs]

How old is the laptop? You say is is making a lot of noise. What kind of noise? It could be from a broken hard drive.

[Dagenadriel]

Check to see if your hard drive is busted. If its not, reinstall windows.

[triplethreat40]

how would i know if the hard drive was busted?
do i just open up the back and look for anything unusual?

[Viral Death]

Sounds like it has crashed but I would re-program it with the disk it came with and if that dont work then there is something worse wrong

[Commander Thor]

You said it makes a noise when you try to start it.
Please explain a bit more.

Is it a buzzing noise, or a beeping noise, or a grinding noise?
Is it coming from the speakers or somwhere within the laptop?
Could it be the fan spinning up?

[triplethreat40]

it doesn't sound like it's coming from the speakers, that's for sure.
it's the sound it makes when i has to think for a minute (excuse the non tech lingo), but louder and more intense etc...

[NeverTooLate]

mine had the same problem next thing i knew a little fire

[JackOfClubs]

Sounds like the hard drive may have crashed. Is it a clicking, a scratching, or a thumping sound?

[triplethreat40]

i booted it and put in the windows 98 disk. then it made a clicking scratching noise, so i turned it off. i turned it on again, and it said no hard drive found.

so it's crashed i guess.

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

That's a bummer. You'll have to bring it somewhere to get the HDD replaced, unless you feel comfortable doing it yourself. It may be possible to salvage data from it, since you were able to at least get Windows to talk to you.

[JackOfClubs]

Yep hard drive is definitely dead. You can get an 80GB for around $60, I did a while ago. Could charge you a lot to put it in though if you don't want to.

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

Yep hard drive is definitely dead. You can get an 80GB for around $60, I did a while ago. Could charge you a lot to put it in though if you don't want to.

$60? You, sir, were ripped off. Double the capacity for the same price. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071) Where did you get yours?

[Mikey]

Windows 98? How old is your laptop

[JackOfClubs]

$60? You, sir, were ripped off. Double the capacity for the same price. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136071) Where did you get yours?
Haha it was an IDE....wasn't thinking when I made that post :D

Sorry if I misled people

[Awesome]

Yeah you must got a pretty old labtop there. Time for you to invest in a new one :D

[Eagle1]

it doesn't sound like it's coming from the speakers, that's for sure.
it's the sound it makes when i has to think for a minute (excuse the non tech lingo), but louder and more intense etc...

Sounds like a fried hard drive i would take it to a shop and have them look at it:cool:

[tripolar]

Just take it to a shop and see what they can do for you. All you may need is a new hard drive and then it might work again.