i ve got a hp nc6000. i uninstalled the KAV2009 i had in it so i could install KIS2010. the system refused to turn on afterwards. it doesnt even get to the usual HP screen. any idea of what the problem might be

I think installing KAV or KIS is not related to the laptop failure, it’s just a coincidence.
Can you get any video on the screen at all?
Does the laptop make normal noise when you turn it on?

First off, I would like to thank you for making this very informative tutorial available. 2nd off, I would like to ask you where were you when I lost about 300 Gigs of very valuable material a few yrs ago. My recent situation is somewhat simular to what happens when you DONT BACK UP YOUR HDD!

I am running Windows XP Home Edition on my Dell Inspirion laptop that is less than 2 yrs old. On December 21, I was performing a search on google and noticed that everytime the search returned results, the links that I followed would take me to an entirely different page. Immediately I suspected browser hi-jacking and spyware so I ran all of my anti-virus, malware & spyware programs and they all found nothing. I went back to google and performed another search and still wound up on other pages. I then tried other search engines and yeilded the same results. I then shut down the laptop and tried to reboot in safemode (by using F8 key) which is when I saw the blue screen of death simular to the one you have illustrated in your above post. I again shut down and reboot which is when I was met with the “windows was not shut down properly” message and used the “most recent settings that worked” boot option which took me back to normal windows. I tried a few more times to access safe mode through the F8 key but still couldnt get in. This is when I had the bright idea to go to start, run and typed in “msconfig” which of course brought me to the selective startup options. Determined to get into safe mode, I chose to boot in safe mode from there when the message popped up advising me to shut down for the changes to take effect so I did…………It was all downhill at that point.

When the laptop rebooted, It brought me back to the same blue screen as before only this time and everytime thereafter, I couldn’t get back into windows and was caught in this blue screen loop. about a millisecond before the windows xp splash screen was supposed to show, I was faced with that blue screen. Now, not only do I have spyware (or something) on my laptop that won’t let me into safemode but I was also faced with the fact that I couldn’t get back into windows to change the settings back so it would boot as normal to further diagnose the problem. I tried changing BIOS settings and pretty much everything else I could think of before resorting to pulling out my XP recovery discs and performing that risky non-destructive recovery method in XP’s recovery console.

In a state of panic, I reluctantly changed the BIOS to boot from the recovery CD which it did and the non-destructive recovery was underway……so I thought. About 10 mins into the recovery session, I received another error message that a certain .dll file couldn’t be found on the CD. When I clicked the browse button I saw the file in question on the disc and tried to load it manually which didn’t work. I then tried to copy the file to a USB flash drive which also didn’t work. The recovery console gave me the option to skip this file so I did and then a new message advised me that Windows may not perform properly if skipped and asked if I wanted to skip anyway. I chose yes which brought up more (about 20-30) .dll files that couldn’t be found on the disc. At this point, I was frustrated beyond anything imaginable and prepared for the worst. I didn’t care at all about having to do a clean install of XP but I hated losing all of my valuable files yet again. Desperate, I went online on my old HP desktop and looked up data recovery and wound up here. After seeing your well described methods for data recovery, I downloaded knoppix from one of the mirrors and burned the iso. The version I have is indeed a little different from the one you have illustrated as the boot screen so I wound up having to do a little navigating to find out how to pull up the actual knoppix interface. I can’t tell you how happy I was after seeing everything I thought was gone still intact on that laptop drive. I went out today and purchased a Seagate 250GB free agent USB drive to transfer the files to which is in progress as I type. The funny thing is, On my HP Desktop, The drive shows as being formatted in NTFS and not FAT32. I am able to browse all folders and files on the drive which are mostly pictures, my huge cd-ripped MP3 collection and quite a few avi,mpeg & wmv files. I am able to view the movies and listen to the MP3s. How is this possible when your tutorial says that the recovered files can only be read but not written if the file system is formatted as NTFS? And could you also explain what you mean by “written” as I assume you mean “copied” from the crashed drive (which is NTFS) onto the new drive (which is listed as NTFS in properties) or will it mean that I won’t be able to “burn” these files to disc if I would ever want to later on?

I also own (2) 80GB Seagate External drives that are both filled to capacity at the moment. When I bought them, They were pretty much plug and play as I never had to do any formatting or installing with them. They are both FAT32 from the factory which led me to assume my new 250GB was also FAT32 from the factory. I would like to know this before I do the clean install of XP to get my laptop up and running again.

In closing, I really want to thank you and your tutorial for being here. You saved and relieved me of tons of grief. For anybody who may be reading this…..DO REGULAR BACKUPS OF YOUR DRIVES AS WELL AS SCAN YOUR SYSTEMS FOR ITDs (internet transmitted diseases) on a regular basis….It will save you in the long run.

thank you…

What happens when defected HD is not visible in XP and/or in Knoppix?
Are there any other tools in Knoppix or elsewhere that can help to first
’see’ the failed HD?

If the hard drive spins but not detected by Windows or Knoppix, it’s possible that the hard drive has corrupted partition. You can scan the hard drive using data recovery software (something like GetDataBack from Runtime Software or EasyRecovery from Ontrack).
If the hard drive doesn’t spin, you’ll have to use clean room services (very expensive).