I made a bone-headed error and let my hard drive get too full (too many auto-podcasts). Now Window’s won’t start…not even in safe mode. It will start loading and the automatically restart. I can’t even reinstall. Every time I try and run setup I keep getting to blue screen with the message “an error has been detected and Window’s has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer)paraphrased.”
Is there any way around this besides buying a whole new hard drive???
bootable cd. (the windows install cd might allow you to do this in repair mode)
delete files from the full disk.
Booting from a removable medium (as Westrogothia suggests) is surely the easiest way.
You could also remove your hard drive, slip it into an external enclosure, and connect it to another PC where files could be transferred and/or deleted. This sounds cumbersome, but (given a compatible external drive enclosure, which these days are common) it can take as little as a few minutes.
You will probably need a preinstall environment disk like Bart PE, its a free download but you would need a working pc or a friend with one to get it.
Once you have it there is a file system utility just like windows explorer.
Using a windows install disk unfortunately you only have access to c:\ and c:\windows, not the documents and settings folder where your excess files are most likely located.
My first suggestion would be either the USB housing or a computer saavy friend who can plug/slave your drive into his machine so you can delete some stuff.
Tried that. Even when I used the install CD it would not let me repair or even do a fresh install. That’s when I got the blue sceen error message.
When trying to boot as normal or even in safe mode, it would start loading Windows and then just restart automaticaly. I probably would do that all day if I wasn’t there to turn it off.
I did find a used HD for $25 down the street so I just went and bought it. That external enclosure was a good idea though.
I think by “bootable CD” Westrogothia meant a LiveCD. You’d want one for Rescue, Diagnostic, Security, and/or Antivirus