Hugh, you are right. But in my safe mode condition, I cannot get my Dell Dimension desktop to read either a CD or the USB connector for my Maxtor OneTouchII ext HD. And so before going to this step. I need to either find a Whopping Big flash drive, or use a lot of flash drives to copy off the better part of 115GB of valuable docs.
Here is (at least) one scenario where the best option appears to go to your local most trusted computer repair person, and entrust your computer to their expert hands. In contrast, Geek Squad told me that I had to bring recovery disks with me. So far, Norton has cost me a LOT more than Norton has saved me.
Well, I am about ready to try anything. In the past 3.5 hours, [Support Agent], then [Support Agent], and then [Support Agent] have turned my PC into, I think, essentially, a brick. Their latest solution: just uninstall Norton completely, throwing their hands up.
Now even booting up now is a hit-or-miss proposition. I am successfully booting up about 30% of the time, and this is usually only in safe mode. The last attempt a few minutes ago took 7 tries, alternately giving me a BSOD, hanging at another blue screen, or hanging at a black screen. I am writing this on my netbook.
Now that the Norton help desk has REALLY screwed up my PC worse than ever, they suggest now that I go to Microsoft to see if Microsoft can undo all of the damage that Norton has done in the past 3.5 hours. All this to get a sound product that can scan my PC for problems. Norton, when did the world get so complicated? My Case # is XXXXXXXXX.
<<edit: removed support agents names and case id as per the participation guidelines and terms or service.The edited information is stored internally for our records.>>
Interesting that people still don't know when NOT to use Norton Power Eraser or what in the list that it shows to not have Norton Power Eraser remove.
HAng on and don't go to Geek! They'll destroy your data ....
I just crashed both my PCs trying to get into Safe Mode but I'm part way back.
Normal service should resume shortly .......
HAve you tried Safe with Networking to see if you can save files to the PC you are using to communicate with us?
OK Panic over -- had to cold reboot both PCs to get the KVM switch t work again ....
The reason I said don't go Geek if you can help it is that they have a sign behind the service desk saying in Large Print that it is the customer's responsibility to have backed up their files .... which is difficult if you can't boot up or access a drive! Although in fairness my local PC Doctor has the same sign ....
I couldn't get my multiboot older PC that I normally use XP on and am on now to boot to Safe mode since the F8 doesn't do it either on startup, or as MS says, from the boot menu if you are multibooting .... but normal Safe mode probably does not load USB drivers from what they say about it.
If you can't network to another PC then you could download a boot disk like one of the Linux ones and use that to locate the files you want to back up and copy them -- that I imagine would see USB drives but someone here will know better than I do since it's ages since I used one.
If you can't network to another PC then you could download a boot disk like one of the Linux ones and use that to locate the files you want to back up and copy them -- that I imagine would see USB drives but someone here will know better than I do since it's ages since I used one.
I just managed to boot my XP machine to Safe mode (the first ooption) and the penny suddenly dropped and I think I know why I can see my external USB hard drive and a thumbdrive if I plug it in.
My AMI BIOS has a setting "enable legacy USB" which lets the system see USB during boot up etc so you can use the keyboard.
I don't know the Dell key stroke to access BIOS Setup but that manual should give it. For my system, not Dell but Custom, it is Del when the initial boot up starts -- your Dell flash screen may mask this but may tell you what key ato press.
If you can get in look for an entry that says something about enabling legacy USB or some similar meaning and enable it then restart and go to Safe mode and see if that does it.
If it exists and is already on then that's not the answer and go for the bootable CD that delphinium recommends.