My mom's laptop G56 is not booting - HELP - getting a blinking cursor at the top middle of screen!!

[tjkpturner]

My Mom's laptop with all her important files on it is not booting.  As soon as it turns on, it basically goes to a black screen with a blinking cursors at the top.  I've tried the instructions on here of using the windows recovery image to get to the DOS prompty and run the dos commands provided to fixboot... but these are not working.  The computer is a G56-125 NR notebook only about a year old, OS is Windows 7 Premium 64 bit.  I've also tried system restores but get same thing when power on

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If you can't get the notebook to boot up (and it sounds like you are not going to be able to) and want/need to retrieve the files, the only way I know how to do this is to purchase an external SATA to USB notebook hard drive enclosure like the one below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182138

You remove the drive from the PC, put it in the enclosure, plug it into another PC's USB port and copy the files off the disk.

Then you can put it back in the notebook and do a system recovery.

Paul

[tjkpturner]

Okay - how do I do a system recovery... I have w windows 7 recovery image I created, but the system restore on that is not working do I need a complete windows 7 new install? I don't think the lap top came with that CD?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You tried to access the recovery image from the repair CD you made and it didn't work?

If you cannot get anything to work, then I have this workaround you can use to get W7 back on there.

If you just let it install w/o deleting and formatting the drive, when Windows installs, it will create a windows.old folder and you can get your Mother's files from the windows.old folder.  Also in the windows.old folder there should be a SWSetup folder. That folder contains most of the program and driver installation files that came with the PC.  Copy that folder off for safekeeping and use that to reinstall any programs that came with the PC that you want back on there.

Here is the workaround...

If you can read the 25 character Microsoft windows 7 product key, you can download plain Windows 7 ISO files to burn to DVD's for the version of windows that came installed on your PC, and that is listed on the Microsoft COA sticker on your PC's case.

Burn the ISO using the Burn ISO option on your DVD burning program and burn at the slowest possible speed your program will allow. This will create a bootable DVD.

Use the 25 character product key on the PC to activate the installation.

The key will activate either a 32 or 64 bit installation.

Then go to the PC's support and driver page to install the drivers you need.

Link to the W7 ISO file downloads is below.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/

Paul

[tjkpturner]

I was able to load another instance of windows and get the computer to boot back up and saved Mom's files. Thanks for your help!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.