totally stuck

My girlfriend was on her pc and she had a power cut, when the power came back on she tryed to reboot the pc and as windows 2000 started to load up a blue screen aopperaed saying STOP *** inaccessiable_boot_ etc. so i tryed using the safe mode and all the other options in the section you get when you press f8 as i boots up but all went to this blue screen.

any help would be great we are really stuck

 

Either the power cut borked some data on the hard disk, or it screwed a component. My bet is the former. So maybe a recovery (from the install CD) will help, otherwise I think a reinstall will be needed.

 

+1 for Gliders opinion.

The hard drive may need to be formatted then reinstalled. Worst case scenario: head crash due to sudden power loss.

You may want to consider investing in a UPS

 

I very much agree with this, I've seen this happen before, not just in power cuts but when the power cord is accidently pulled.

edit: looks like doug agrees too

 

great, thanks alot for the info,i will get her a UPS as well,i will get myself one as well for my PC just incase ;P. i will try the cd tonite

 

How often do you have power cuts in your area? I only have a surge protector and I never have a problem when there is power loss in my apartment. I really don't think a UPS is necessary unless you are running a server that should never go down or you experience alot of power failures.

 

Here in Belgium, the area where I live, we had one last month, but the previous one was... 8years ago I think, when someone ran into a pole which held the powerline

 

Hmmm....yea, anytime someone hits a pole with a powerline, that's bound to happen

 

UPS' are good for smoothing out AC voltage to an almost perfect sine wave. This causes less wear and tear on the PSU.

 

But isn't the job of the PSU to do that? The only reason why I wouldn't say to get a UPS is first they're expensive, and they also weigh a ton. I think you'd be babying your PC too much if you have a UPS connected to it. If it's a regular PC everyone uses day to day, then you don't need it. If it's vital to your living, then I'd say get a UPS.

 

I've seen many PSU's crash and die because of the voltage going into them straight from the power circuit. Having a UPS will make your PSU last so much longer, they are worth getting, especially if you use your PC while a thunderstorm is nearby.

 

My brother just had his HDD break because of a this. The power not only cut out, but surged and turned on and off a few times too.

 

Try re-formatting and re-installing windows.
*might* also be worth a try giving fixboot and fixmbr a shot at the recovery console too. Doubt they'll do much/anything but it could be worth a shot before resorting to a re-install.

 

The only thing I can think of aside from a reinstall or ideally a format and clean install is use chkdsk /r on the recovery console. Put in your windows CD, wait a bit, it should ask you if you want to install a new version or repair an old one (press R!) choose repair. You'll need to log in then you can use chkdsk /r to see if the data on the disk can be recovered.