Acer Mini won't boot, even in safe mode!

What option are you choosing there? See if a more basic one works, if it'll let you.

bglashbrooks said:

My Acer Mini netbook has become possessed by...something.

I can get to the safe mode option screen, but it won't boot up past that point.

Has anyone ever had this happen? Any pointers on how to fix it?

I do have another computer (I actually have 3 others...) but the Mini has my revised chapters 7 through 9 saved on the desktop and I am going CRAZY without that document!

I'm usually pretty comp-savvy, but this one has stumped me!

Any help would be appreciated.

BG

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As someone who once lost a very important piece of writing due to a hard drive crash, my advice is when you finally get this problem resolved, make sure going forward you not only save your book on the desktop, but invest in at least two portable USB drives. Make sure you save any revisions and updates to those devices as well. That way if one thing goes, you have a backup. Now I save my work on two USB drives and on two different computers, as well as emailing the last draft to myself so that there is always a backup in the event one or more devices fail.

From Safe Mode, do a virus scan and an ad-aware-type scan. See if that helps.
Restart.

If the above doesn't do it, then, booting from safe mode, in the search box above the start button, type in "msconfig" (minus the quotes) , then in that screen, go over to the Startup tab, then see if there is something on startup that looks not right. You should go here to check each one out (on your other computer, of course): http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php (Use the search box on that website with the questionable name or startup item. Uncheck anything that is listed as suspicious. Then click "apply."
Restart.

Hope the above helps!

ETA: If the above doesn't work, there is one more thing I did awhile ago, as a last resort> I'm not as tech savvy as I'd like about this, but here goes: As the machine starts up, continuously press (F12 or F8 or F2--I can't remember which) to get into the BIOS. Only do this when all else fails. From there, you can see if your machine is trying to boot from the CD drive or whatever, and you can change that by moving your arrow keys. It tells you on the screen what to do to save it or move to another thing.

as a last restort f10 on boot up. it basically restores your system back to factory settings.

you can try going through safe mode via Dos if you know the commands. But sometimes lil things turn off restore F8 and well then it won't do a bit of good.

Seams said:

as a last restort f10 on boot up. it basically restores your system back to factory settings.
.

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The OP would not want a system reset to factory settings because that would wipe the hard drive clean and the entire purpose of the thread was to retrieve revised chapters that were on the desktop.

I think it would be best to take it to a professional, like The Geek Squad if there is a Best Buy close by, and let them look at it. They should be made aware up front that there is important data on the hard drive and that nothing should be wiped from it.

that's why i said 'last resort'

read what I said, if you are going to quote me, jr7110

another option is an external drive with bootup capabilities. set the bios to boot from that drive, then see if you can get into the other drive.