Typing this on thumbs sorry for lack of details.

Partner kicked power plug out while cleaning and the whole computer shit itself. Doesn’t boot into windows at all. Shows mobo thing but I can’t access boot order or bios stuff at all. Computer eventually gets mad and tells me to use a recovery cd. That ofc doesn’t work (which specifically could be issue with my DVD drive, it has been wonky burning things lately). Recovery USB looks mad glitchy and when I try recovery it just gets mad that I didn’t select a windows installation. I can see all my drives if I try to install windows from it.

All this is out of my wheelhouse and I really don’t want to take it in anywhere. What should I check next?

    • motherfucker [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      You will need:

      • A working windows computer
      • A USB drive for the copy of Linux (should be empty or only contain stuff you don’t care about)
      • An internet connection
      • An external hard drive to copy your old stuff onto (ideally also empty)

      Download a Linux disk image (an .iso file):

      https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop/

      Ubuntu is the name of the Linux distribution. You want the Long Term Support (LTS) one.

      Then download this software. It will help you flash the USB and it has a really simple interface with good feedback if something goes wrong.

      https://etcher.balena.io/

      Plug in your USB, launch Etcher, and follow the instructions.

      Then you’ll need to restart your computer and boot into the USB, at which point there should be a “live install” or “live boot” option. That’ll give you a full desktop, access to a web browser, file explorer, etc.

      You should be able to figure out how to find your Windows hard drive and the external hard drive and drag the files over. When in doubt, make sure you’ve tried looking through all the drives until you recognize the Windows hierarchy. Drive partitioning is counterintuitive and sometimes one drive will actually mount as several drives.

      You can always come back and post screenshots since you should be able to access Hexbear from the live boot.

    • silent_water [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      you write a linux liveusb to a flashdrive, then boot into that instead of windows. you’ll need a working computer to do it - there might be a way to do it from a phone if you can connect the flashdrive. once you’ve booted into it, you’ll get a complete desktop environment that won’t be totally familiar but should be close enough that you can figure things out. you’ll need to look up instructions for the distro you picked on how to mount the windows drive and the drive you want to use for backup, then copy your stuff off. afterwards, reboot into a windows installer and reinstall windows.