Posted on 04/17/2009 4:01:32 PM PDT by Chickensoup
After a year of dedicated use after a computer mishap described in this thread:
The Computer is Broken. Seems to be Circling the Drain in a Loop. TECH PING LIST SUPERSTARS03.02.08 chickensoup
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1979332/posts#73
Having a similar problem but the boot on the XP Pro disk doesnt seem to help. got to the blue screen once and hit the 'R" key and it loaded but just sat there and hummed. so i started to type in chkdsk/r but it would only let me type in "c"....
It is now back to circling the drain to the white on black screen that tells me to start in safe mode.
Why the heck would you suggest a non-geek person, just trying to get their prior computer's state back, install a cr@p OS she may not even have and setup up the system as a dual-boot with separate partitions?
That was just plain clueless, djf. Why don't you tell her the best thing to do is dual boot Linux to get her back to “normal”? She didn't have Linux, either.
The light came on
the thing also wants my adminstrators password. I have tried a couple without sucess.
That’s called the boot loader.
At the beginning of your C: drive you have something called an MBR, or Master Boot Record. It loads some info from the C: drive, and looks for something called Boot.ini
Boot.ini has a description of all the systems and drives on you machine (I have one machine with 6 drives), at least the bootable images.
When you install ME/2K/XP it searches for previous installations. Unless you tell it to overwrite the previous one, he will config the machine in whats called “dual boot” mode.
That’s what you have now. At this point, you can actually rescue all the data from the previous install.
Depending on which of the options you chose (which version you answer when it asks you at boot time), you can either boot the new, fresh, unchanged copy, or go back to your previous install.
I suspected MBR corruption when you first described the problem.
Be careful. Some viruses and trojans work by tweaking the MBR.
In my experience these do more harm than they help, especially registry cleaners.
I don't want to join any pissing contests, I've only owned computers since '96 but I've had a lot of experience with broken computers. I think I'm jinxed ;-)
I have a compter guy, who isnt answering my calls. I asked him why we had files in different places when he moved me to the new disc drive.
I will call him monday.
Thank you for your time. I have a double shift to work tomorow.
g’night.
So she followed your instructions and got dual boot by accident, instead of by plan.
ME is the last OS where you can actually talk to the hardware.
The various INT’s work as they do in DOS mode.
I have a question, I have heard of boot sector viruses but how in the heck do you get rid of them? A clean install of Windows wouldn't fix that, would it?
If you don’t know your password, and if a virus might be responsible, PLEASE restore using the method described above.
Just stop with this playing around. You are wasting time. We can’t tell you your Administrator password (try blank is what I can offer), and even if that worked, you have so many other issues yet to come.
1. Format your hard drive
2. Install Windows XP
3. Install your Maxtor Backup/Restore program
4. Restore from your latest backup.
thank you
How do you know she has ME? I ran two Windows 2000 installs on the same partition with no problems, allowing me to boot into either directory.
Just restore your system and get rid of these directories. You said you have a backup. Now use it.
Under WIN/ME, it’s
FDISK /MBR
W2K and XP you user the ERD (emergency repair disk)
Yes, you can rescue all your data.
Thanks, saving that just in case.
your hard drive drove hard and crashed ..it’s dead ...
LOL, you’ve come a long way baby!
I've been a systems programmer since the early seventies. My Mac Pro has four engines at 2.66Ghz with They are now selling Mac Pros withMainframes must have gotten smaller nowadays.
1.5 Terabytes of DASD and 5 gigabytes of ECC memory
with gigabyte ethernet ports.
I run a number of VMware fusions
with XP and SuSE under OS X Unix©
eight engines at 3 Ghz
& 32 gigabytes of ECC memory
But...
You probably still run Windoze!
I haven’t even seen the z10 hardware yet, probably never will. Company just doesn’t need anything anywheres near that big!
BTW, nice to meet ya... mainframe SP since abt 84... trying to get current with z/OS 1.10...
Get a Mac mini for $500
BGH, You are the guy.....I just noticed that CostCo has the GREAT, brand new systems, with monitor, for 499. I saw a complete system in their add last week for 359....But, like you....I love dumpster diving for computer parts....My town has a recycle center for computers and TVs. I can go there and build a entire Fortune 500 company from the hardware I find.
How is your town allowing you to enter the recycle center and take home stuff??? You town wants that stuff to sell!
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