Corrupt Windows XP Operating System, Inaccessibililty & Open Source Linux Distribution Options

My Lenovo laptop kept rebooting one day. I thought I had lost the hard drive or a problem with the operating system. I had to find a way to test this. I tried rebooting to Windows, safe mode & load from previous known configuration. I also attempted loading Windows controllers only. Nothing worked. I kept getting a loop of going into a Blue Screen of Death BSoD. I used an imac to browse for a solution. I recorded the stop screen error messages to which there were three. The three files that are corrupt are pagefile.sys, NTFS and NTDRL (Boot loader) . I have XP home edition which is an upgrade version for Windows 95 and 98. The problem with this, is that I need to install a DOS partition before 95 or 98. I had to find a full version to repair the OS, to which I did. I was going to create a create a new partition and then load everything back in. The installation disk saw the full size of the hard drive as empty space and wanted to do a full complete installation. The Automated Service Recovery wanted a floppy. No floppy drive on this computer. This laptop is a refurbished one, and no recovery program or disc was provided.

I have a Toshiba 30 Gig IDE 2.5 inch drive. I purchased an external hard drive enclosure which powers up via USB connection. I placed that into the enclosure. I changed the basic Input Output settings (BIOS) on the motherboard to boot via USB. I thought I could boot the Toshiba drive and read the hard drive in the laptop. That didn’t work because NTFS and NTDRL are corrupt and it didn’t read the internal drive.

I have a SATA external case for the hard drive in the Lenovo. I removed the Western Digital 100 Gig drive and placed it in the SATA enclosure and connected it to the to the imac. I was able to access the contents of the drive and copy them to the imac desktop. I did the same thing to the Toshiba drive. I then removed the hard drive and placed it back in the Lenovo laptop. Now the files are backed up. Not the programs. But I am safe to continue getting the laptop up & running again.

Not Done Yet – Open Source Operating Systems

I had to find an alternate way of accessing the computer hard drive without reinstalling Windows on the hard drive. I wanted to check if it was a hardware issue or really an OS issue. I have two live distributions of Linux. Mandriva & Ubuntu. Both from 2008. I also had Solaris X. The Solaris X wanted to do a complete install on the Toshiba hard drive. The Ubuntu ISO distribution disc failed possibly from it being not stored properly. I tried Mandriva 2008. The good thing about Linux distributions is that you can try them without formatting your drive. You can use the operating system directly from the CD to try it out before full installation. Ubuntu saw the Lenovo’s internal hard drive, but saw it as unpartitioned space. Now I know that the motherboard can see it and it could be accessible if it recognized it as being formatted.

I went back to the beginning by looking through my Basic Input Output Settings (BIOS). I double checked the boot sequence to read from DVD first this time and had the Toshiba Drive connected via USB for installation of Mandriva 2008. It didn’t take long and I accessed the internet through wireless connection immediately. I knew I didn’t have to connect via Ethernet for updates. I did a live install of Mandriva 2008 to the Toshiba drive. And yes, I had to choose which hard drive to format. That is why I checked the hard drive capacity and the brand name of the hard drives first. After installation, it was obvious that the Linux distribution was obsolete due to it now being 2014. I upgraded to Linux Mandriva 2011 which its support life is ending soon. Another team worked on the Mageia Project. I used Mandriva to download Mageia 3, and burned the ISO image on a disc, and installed that. On February 1st 2014, Mageia 4 was released. I had options to download the ISO image and use the upgrade option, do update via internet or burn a Live distribution.

After the Smoke Clears

I am using Linux distribution Mageia 4 on an external Toshiba 30 Gig hard drive which boots via USB. It is a dual boot option with Windows XP Professional option for the laptop as the second option ( When I get that repaired). I can access the contents of BOTH hard drives. At present, I can access the imac hard drive via local wireless network and get files off that drive via SMB through Dolphin. The work I did here, is to show that no one has to spend unnecessary money to anyone when you can fix things yourself. I got my laptop up and running and have access to all my files.

A Few Things About Linux

Linux has their open source office suite which is Libre Office. You can conv files in PDF and also in Microsoft Word *.doc, txt, rtf and pdf. There is an independent program supported by Linux and other operating systems called WINE which is listed as an emulator and runs executable files and programs. got old games not working? Use this. I have a genealogy program called Family Tree Maker 2006. It is not supported by Windows 7 or windows 8 according to the software company. But it will run on Linux with WINE. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements version 4 which runs on WINE. I installed Chromium as the browser which is the open source version that the Google project uses. I installed Google hangouts which runs very well. I use a webcam that I bought at a local dollar store. I have a Microsoft webcam which doesn’t work on Linux. I’ve had no compatibility issues with computer hardware using Linux. I found the graphical interface easy to use, and didn’t take long to adjust to Linux.

My current laptop that is refurbished trying to boot to windows.