Help. Laptop won't boot up

[COBRA37]

Hi,
my wife was playing a game on the laptop and closed the screen without turning the computer off. Weeks later when i tried to start, it tries to resume windows at the point when the screen was closed but it goes to a blue screen and restarts. It won't boot into safe mode, it won't reformat, it won't let me install a new copy of windows. I have tried numerous utility disks to erase the drive. I have used scan disk which reports no errors on the drive. Been trying to sort this for days and desparately need help.

Thanks,
Paul.

[Nuttapper]

does the laptop have a cd drive in it, and can you boot from the windows disc when its in the drive ? if not why not, what happens when you try? could you put up the make of the laptop

[COBRA37]

yes it does have a cd drive. When I boot from the windows xp disc it gets to the point where it asks me to format the drive, it then says set up was unable to format the partition the disk may be damaged. It is a Toshiba satellite 1100. I have tried fdisk and formatting from a floppy boot disc and it goes through the format 100%. I then go to load windows and the hard drive is unchanged.

[Nuttapper]

did you delete the original partition and then recreate it and do a full format before trying the reinstall,, because what you are saying now is different than the opening post, as it seems to be formatting the drive but not allowing the installation of the OS.

Edit, without the Xp disc in the drive, when you switch on, what happens, does it run the BIOS screen and get to a windows message or just go to a blue screen

[COBRA37]

It does go through the format but when i try to load windows it shows that the disc is unchanged 19069mb (12703 mb free). Without the windows disc in it runs the bios screen, I am able to enter the bios, and then it says resuming windows. It then tries to go back to the game my wife was playing. It shows the desktop with the game on it and then crashes to a blue screen and restarts.

I have tried to format and delete the partion but to no avail.

[QWERTY]

Try deleting the Hibernation file from the root. (c:\hiberfil.sys) That will force Windows to boot normally. If it's still having problems then something else may to wrong and the hibernation problem is just a symptom (bad harddrive)

[COBRA37]

tried to delete hiberfil.sys but it is saying file not found. Not sure if I am doing correctly though. From a boot disk I entered C:\del hiberfil.sys. Can you let me know if this is correct?

Thanx.

[Nuttapper]

I cannot understand how the laptop is still booting if you have deleted the partition, how did you delete the partition? Did you do it from the Xp installation process? you should get the options to install on the same partition along with an option to delete the existing partition, as I recall this is done by pressing the DEL key and then confirming the deletion with the press of the L key.. if the partition has been deleted then it cannot boot into the original OS.. you would then just create a new partition and fresh install the OS (single partition assumed on the drive)

Edit
http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/hiberfil-sys-xp.html

[COBRA37]

I have tried to delete the partition using the windows disk and after I have pressed the L key to delete it just goes back to showing me the info C: Partition1 (Fat32) 19069mb (12703 mb free). So it won't let me delete it.

[handyguy]

I would use Fdisk. Run it from a floppy. Delete partitions, create new primary partition, set active partition. Careful, that is one powerful program.

Also in the bios turn off any & all boot sector or virus protection things if there are any, so it can write a new boot sector.

[COBRA37]

I have tried to fdisk and format from a floppy but when I try to boot the laptop everything is unchanged and it tries to resume windows from hibernation. I will have a look in the bios for boot sector and virus things.

Thanx.

[PhilEnfield]

Try booting in Safe Mode (Tap the F8 Key at boot up).

If you are able to get into Windows, go to Control Panel, and click Power Options). Select the Hibernate tab, clear (untick) the "Enable hibernation" check box, then click OK
Windows will will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

If successful, reboot and see if the problem is solved.

[COBRA37]

I can't get into safe mode. When I press f8 it just pauses the resuming of windows out of hibernation.
thanx anyway.

[Nuttapper]

I dont have the hiberfil file on my PC as it isn't turned on, however, if you reload your boot floppy and get to the dos prompt and then go to edit mode, you should be able to navigate your way to the hiberfil file and delete or rename it

[COBRA37]

I am not too clever when it comes to dos. How do I get to edit mode?

Thanx.

[PhilEnfield]

If you can get to the C: Prompt ... just type in "del hiberfil.sys" (without the quotes" and hit enter.