Crashes regarding my OS

[xxneilxx]

<I am not sure if this is the right foum for my question, please inform me if i am worng>

I have : 256 MB cards x 2
NVidia Geforce FX
36 GB harddrive
Intel pentium 4
Windows XP
1.8 GHz ( i know, i know it is pretty old)

So my computer always tends to : 1) freeze up 2) Crash -> turn off -> restart

Point 2) occurs very randomly

point 1) occurs when i am using Mword, Opera, Firefox etc

To solve point 1) i defragmentated, Uninstalled my old antivirus and replaced it with a new one (Bitdefender), Installed a Registory program and ran it, deleted old unwanted files, folders and programs. I ran antivirus scans and found barely nothing, i also systemed restored. Both point 1) and 2) occured less and less.

Until yesterday when i was typing up my College Practicals, when my computer froze up again.
I forced it to shutdown > Wait for 2 min > Trned on the pc > waited for windows to load normally> error scan > login screen > desktop loaded > tried to make backup > froze again

rebooted > F[8] > last known good configuration > error scan > freezes before the login screen can load

reboot> [f8] > debugging mode > freezes
reboot> f8 > safe mode > freezes even before loading

Because of this i cannot access my desktop in either mode. Therfore i cannot use control panel to see if any thing is worng with my hardware of software components. My computer boots fine because all my lights turn on and i do hear the sound of one beep. I dont have in my immediate possesion my orginal copy of OS XP, so i cannot repair any windows components that may have crashed. I would like to know of any alternatives to recover data off my hard drive (18GB) before having to reformat my pc.

Any ideas, suggestions, opinions and alternatives are welcome. ANy help would be much appreciated.

[xxneilxx]

With regards to the above question
I opened my PC to see is all my components are in place, every thing was in order and there wasn't any dust build up.
I kept noticing during the previous crashes that my PC time on my desktop kept changing and i had to update the thing to the correct time. Would this be because my CMOS battery was dying out. If so ow to i replace it with a new one.
Could this also be a BIOS failure ??

[Sylvander]

How does the hardware [including the CMOS battery and the BIOS's configuration settings maintained by this] perform if you run a distro of Linux loaded from a "live" optical disk?
Try it and see.

Knoppix 5.1.1 (http://iso.linuxquestions.org/knoppix/knoppix-5.1.1/)

Ubuntu 7.10 (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloading?release=desktop-newest&arch=i386&mirror=http%3A%2F%2Fubuntu.virginmedia.com%2Frelea ses%2F&debug=%5B%27country_US%27%2C+%27country_UK%27%2C+% 27continent_NA%27%5D&download-button=)

[xxneilxx]

I downloaded the Ubunti 7.10 iso, i burned it on a disk and during the boot operation tried to run it. It seemed to begin to load but the whole thing froze and i had to restart the process again. I did not work so i didn't bother trying the Knoppix 5.1.1. But i was pretty sure it would have worked.

[Sylvander]

What you need to do is...

Find at least one Operating System that CAN successfully load from a live optical disk.
If you had done this in the past and had a few such disks to hand, that you KNEW had previously worked...
And now they didn't...
You'd know there was something amiss with something other than the software. [The hardware?]
And if they did work you'd know there was nothing wrong with the hardware.
If you don't have any such disks you've used in the past...
You need to now try out a few.
If NONE of them will work, it begins to arouse suspicion that the hardware [CMOS battery?] is indeed faulty.

When you burned the iso to the disk...
You didn't just burn it as a file to a data disk did you?
Did you burn it as an iso should be burned?

I'm typing this using the portable version of Firefox...
That's held in a folder, on a partition, on my external USB2 HDD.
It's run using a cut down version of Windows XP [BartPE] loaded from a live bootable CD-RW disk.

Or I could be using the web browsers supplied in Ubuntu or Knoppix.
If you successfully used any one of those it would demonstrate that there's nothing wrong with your hardware.
You could use one to work on your documents, or copy your files off your HDD, whilst you attempt to fix the problem with the Windows installed on your HDD.
I've just run the FREE Portable Open Office Writer [held on my USB HDD, but it could be on a Flash Drive] and used it to open a word document that is on my internal HDD Windows Desktop [the Desktop folder on my internal HDD (D: partition in fact)].
Try a few out [on a CD-RW disk?] to see if you can get one to work.

[Sylvander]

I'm typing this from within the Knoppix 5.1.1 environment...
Loaded it from a live CD-RW disk.
Used the System->File Manager to navigate to the portable version of Firefox held in a folder on a partition on my external USB2 HDD and ran it.
This works because Knoppix 5.1.1 includes WINE that makes it possible to run Windows applications within Linux.

So this would provide you with lots of useful programs to run.
e.g.
Open Office
Portable Clamwin Ant-virus
1-2-3 Spyware Free
Portable HijackThis
Portable backup program Toucan
DeepBurner [Optical disk burner]
Anti Sony DRM

Naturally the File Manager could copy or move files to other storage devices.

[xxneilxx]

"When you burned the iso to the disk...
You didn't just burn it as a file to a data disk did you?
Did you burn it as an iso should be burned?"

I used Alcohol, to burn the ubuntu as an image onto the disk, and not as data disk. But it still didn't work. After extensive searching i finally found the CD which contained Knoppix. I remember for sure that i was using this OS fine a while back. It no longer works now.

If i try again, and manage to get one of portable OSs working (probably impossible) would i be able to copy of data onto my usb? Can i restore my system as it was bac or would i have to reofrmat and reinstall the entire system.

[mjc]

If Knoppix had worked at one time and now doesn't, the likelihood of having a major hardware problem is high...

Disconnect the hard drive...and any other drives, except the one optical drive you want to try to boot from.

[xxneilxx]

I is a harddrive failure. SO i decided to connect my Hd to his PC and copy all my files. I am then formating everything and installing the OS again.
Thanks for the help