Rescue and Recover my Rescue and Recovery!

Hi. Laptop is a Lenovo 3000 C200 with Windows XP SP3. Computer was running fine one night, I shut the lid, went to bed, awoke the next morning and Internet Explorer and other aspects of Windows were not performing "properly". I restart the computer and the get the famous "Sorry for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully" message, along with the Safe Mode options which do not work (it just loops). I found the error code (unmountable boot volume) and further research on that suggests that I have a corrupt boot.ini file. So to fix that I need the XP cd, which I don't have. Even if I had an XP cd, I'm not sure I could load it because I'm locked out of my BIOS settings. Microsoft offers a download for boot diskettes, but I haven't used a floppy drive on any of my comps for at least 5 years. Now I'm desperate so I enter my Rescue and Recovery program, which I notice is taking 10x as long to load. In R&R I am unable to access the "Rescue files" or "Restore your system" option, go figure. The system goes nowhere when I click those. I am able to open the web browser and have accessed the internet through R&R, so this may be my only hope?! I think that's everything, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

how did you lock yourself out of the bios?

Sounds like your hdd is on the way out.

Without a XP pro discs or Lenovo recovery media set, puts you in a tight spot on how you can fix the laptop.

 

There must have been a password set at the factory for BIOS, I've never set one. I have tried just hitting enter but it wants an actual password. Yes, this does leave me in a tight spot...

Would replacing my HDD be a possible fix, or would it be much more complicated than that? There's no important files on the hard drive so this is not an issue. I would still need to access my BIOS I assume to install new OS.

 

the factory couldn't have set the password for you, so did you get the laptop from Lenovo or from resellers? Also, if there was a password set when you first got the laptop, why didn't you contact Lenovo at first instance?

I guess it doesn't hurt to try a generic XP pro cd and see whether that installs.

 

This is the first instance of me trying to access BIOS settings on this computer. The computer came to us through my wife's side of the family, who I'm sure do not know how to access/change any BIOS settings or passwords. It was bought at a retail store. My thought is there is some kind of generic password.

Contacting Lenovo is my last option here since computer is out of warranty.

 

then the retail store people must have set the password, or it was returned by some other customer whom had set it. There is no such thing as a generic password, and Lenovo won't and can't help you with password resets.

 

Update:

I powered up the Lenovo this morning to give Rescue and Recovery another shot, and it worked. I did the factory install while I had the chance in case malware was the culprit.

Now for my next questions

R&R did not respond yesterday, but today it did. Does this sound like a hardware issue to you? By not respond I mean when I clicked the "Recover files" and "Restore you system" options, the HD indicator light turned on perminently and the system went nowhere. However, other options were available, like the Internet.

Can I change my BIOS password through windows?

Thanks for your posts.