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Mobile PC Medic, Inc:
PC First Aid 
-Steps to take in common PC crisis situations
- Breathe - you always have to breathe.
- Turn the power completely off (unplug and remove batteries if it's a
portable) and
turn it back on. This is known as a reboot and will correct most problems.
- If strange beeping is heard, try pulling out the memory and video cards and
then reinserting them back in their slots. This is called re-seating and
will help if corrosion has developed on the contacts or if the cards have
wiggled free of their slots.
- If you get a message about a hard disk failure and you hear a distinct clicking sound, turn off the system immediately!
This is usually the sound of hard drive's death rattle and leaving it to click
only increases the chances that you will never see your data on this
hard drive again.
- If you push the power button and hear nothing and see no lights or error
messages, then you either have a bad motherboard or a bad power supply.
There is, however, a small chance your CPU just needs to be re-seated (see step
#3); but you better go to Church soon if this works to solve your problem.
- A "Non System Disk" or "Non Bootable Disk" error message
may merely mean that you have left a floppy disk in the A: drive. Take
it out and prepare to feel foolish for falling for this panic attack
classic.
- Alternatively, if you're not feeling foolish but still panicky, boot with
your Windows Start Disk and type the following command at the A: prompt:
sys c:
Once you have received confirmation that the system has been transferred, try
starting the system again. If this works, then thank your lucky hard
drive stars and back up your data pronto because your hard drive is getting flaky
and you should prepare to replace it.
- If the system won't finish its boot into Windows (after you have installed
some cheap/expensive piece of software crap) then boot into what's called
Windows "safe mode" by hitting the F8 key (repeatedly), before
Windows first boots up, and uninstall the offending (and soon to be returned)
object of your invective.
- If your system still won't boot into Windows, see if it will boot into DOS
by using the afore mentioned Window Start Disk. If you can get a C:
prompt (by typing C: at the A: prompt) then you still have a fighting chance
to get your data back and backed-up. You have to be able use DOS for
this and you have to have data that will comfortably fit on a floppy
disk. But don't worry, if this doesn't apply to your situation, you can
always call your local
Mobile PC Medic.
Data recovery or data transfer is our specialty. We will safely back-up
your data to our portable hard drive so your hard drive can be
formatted and Windows can then be reinstalled.
- The worst part of the panic attack, (which soon follows the realization that your
computer is not going to boot up) is the inwardly directed, personal
recriminations that follow the your next realization -- the one about not
doing your regular back-ups like you knew you should have -- ya big dummy,
etc, and so on!
There may be other recriminations as well. Especially after you have
read the
10 Commandments of Blissful Computing and realize that you may have been unknowingly and needlessly
contributing to the premature demise of your computer and possibly that of
your precious data as well.
So it's best to have no regrets. Do what you should do. Because whether you do or don't,
things will still go wrong. If you haven't had a PC-related panic attack yet,
its only because you haven't been using computers long enough. So mitigate the pain
and suffering that inevitably follows the sounds of beeping, clicking, or
silence, by protecting your data and hardware through regular maintenance and backups.
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