HELP! Can I save my hard drive(and an anti-liberal library)?

I made a big computer mistake ^ | 3/30/02 | Myself

[Diddle E. Squat]

Can't fire up my computer, says "error loading explorer.exe, you must reinstall windows". But the restore CD disk brings up a message that I will lose all data on my hard drive. Am seeking a fix that saves the data(I have over 500 articles saved in favorites or as text docs, would hate to lose all that). Running Windows ME on a home desktop PC(e-machine), but my only current internet access now is here at the library. If anyone has advice that I can take home to work on a fix, I'd be greatly indebted to them.

Here's what happened. Went to a website this morning looking for Eagles lyrics, and the dang thing tried to install that cursed Comet Curser. I've got Zone Alarm and Adsubtract SE, so I blocked it from recontacting the internet to finish installation. Then tried to get rid of it, searched my computer for files with the word 'comet'(computer froze, which sometimes happens when I do a file search, and the only way to restart was a power shutoff. When it came back up it did the usual scan disk for errors, but since the 'cluster' check can take hours, I cancelled it). Came back with comet.dll(which the PC would not allow me to delete, since it said it was a systems file that windows was using) and another folder icon with a cometdt TMP file. I disconnected my internet connection and several times I would delete this last file and then clear the trash bin, restart and do a new search, and the file would reappear again. I got the idea that the comet.dll was regenerating a new file for each one removed.

Reconnected the internet connection(high-speed cable), and restarted several times, each time a request would be made to contact the internet and finish installation of the comet curser. Each request had a different file name, so blocking didn't work, and every new window opened would launch a request. Went to ZoneAlarm page and it showed CMDNINST.EXE as a file trying to do an install. So I went to my files, located it, and deleted it to trash, then emptied the trash. Each restart would start a 'improper shutdown scan disk for errors', which I would quit(takes too long), but the last time after I quit I got a e-machine screen saying 'error loading explorer.exe', 'you must reinstall windows'. So I shutdown, put in the first of two restore CD's, and restarted. I get two options, 1) reinstall windows millenium edition(which soon brings up the message that I'll loose all information on the hard drive if I continue) or 2) boot reinstall manual?(I forgot the exact wording, but it brings me to an A>, and since I obviously know very little about computers, that puts me at the end of my rope).

So what should I do?

[texas booster]

I agree with your logic of 4 partitions. Keeping the swap file on its own partition seems to be faster. Moving My Docs, My Pics and My Music to its own partition have saved me lots of scandisk time.

[mcsparkie]

Buy yourself a new hard disk and install it as a primary. Then reinstall your OS on the new disk. Make your current hard disk the secondary and you should be able to access it as the "D:" drive. Copy your data from the D: drive back to the C: drive.

Do exactly as zchip said. There is no other good alternative. Subsequently, keep all your Data on the D drive at all times, backing it up onto the C drive. Never use a C drive for primary data storage.

[brbethke]

since I obviously know very little about computers

Very good. Admitting this is the first step on your road to recovery. Now, reboot your system from your emergency boot floppy. (You did make an emergency boot floppy when you installed your virus protection, didn't you?) And for God's sake, if the system wants to run Scandisk, let it run Scandisk. Scandisk is good. Scandisk is your friend.

Be very careful when rebooting from any manufacturer-supplied "recovery" CD. Many budget-priced PCs don't come with actual Windows installation media, rather they come with a disk image of the hard drive as shipped. The installer program therefore starts a reinstall by completing erasing and reformatting the hard drive, which in your case is bad.

Say, a question just occurs to me: if you can't boot your PC, how did you post this message?

[fellowpatriot]

Do you have a CD burner? If so, go into DOS and copy the files that you want to save off of your hard drive.

ex: COPY c:/directory name/file name e:/file name

Next time you want to delete a program from your system, use Control Panel/Add Remove Programs. It's the safest way to do it. You can run into a lot of trouble (as you now know) deleting files directly.

[Tennessee_Bob]

and the computer has told me that I will lose all data. But that has not happened.

Depends on whether it's a reinstall or a restore. When I was working for the Toshiba Help Desk, we would tell customers who were too far gone to run recovery. The Recovery CD would boot up and warn the user that they were going to lose all data if they continued (much like Diddle E. Squat is seeing). After the user confirmed his choices, the system ran a neat little program called "Destroy.bat." Destroy blew away any and all partitions on the system, whether original or user created, and then would recreate the system as it came from the factory.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Here's a link to a suggestion - I've used this hundreds of times when I was working help desk, and it has quite a high success rate.

Instructions on how to run scanreg /restore

If Windows Me still does not start in Safe mode, there may be a registry problem. To diagnose a registry problem, run the Windows Registry Checker tool (Scanreg.exe).

1. Restart your computer with the Startup disk in your floppy disk drive, and then choose the Minimal boot option.
   
   
2. Type scanreg /restore , and then press ENTER.
   
   

The Windows Registry Checker tool (Scanreg.exe) is not included on the Startup disk. When you start your computer with the Startup disk, the folder where the Windows Registry Checker tool is located (C:\Windows\Command) is added to the path. For additional information about the Windows Registry Checker tool, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q183887 Description of the Windows Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe)

[ElkGroveDan]

I agree with zchip. Even if you are tight on money you can get hard drives pretty cheap these days.

You will need to figure out how to turn the new drive into the primary or master drive. It requires setting a little jumper and then you need to make the old one a secondary drive.

The other choice, is to operate through DOS if you are familiar with those commands. Insert a system disk in the A-Drive and reboot. Then you can manually copy your essential files onto diskettes if there aren't too many, or else a zip drive. Once you have saved the important data you can go ahead and re-install windows.

[Dave S]

To quote Mr. Blutarsky: "If I were you, I'd start drinking heavily!"

Sounds like he had been doing that before he screwed himself.

[Visalia]

I vote for allowing Windows to finish ScanDisk first. If the explorer.exe message still persists there might be an additional error msg naming a specific .dll, etc.

At this point go here:

http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/errexplo.htm

This is a listing of errors and associated MS support pages.

[Publius6961]

For Heaven's sake let the scandisk finish!

I concur completely!!.

What's the point of letting your OS "fix" the problem, then abort because it "takes too long"?

Gheeeez...

[Focault's Pendulum]

ut it brings me to an A

I concur abourt letting scandisk work.....however...seeing the A drive in a reinstall will automatically default to C: Drive if your CD Rom disk is running.

[jdontom]

Sounds like a worm virus to me, I'm no expert but let the computer go through its check at start-up. If there is a problem you can view your data in safe mode. If you have a virus checker start there, if not download one.

Good luck

[jdontom]

He's at the library waiting on a miracle.

[ICU812]

I don't have an answer to your problem but as someone who has had similar problems I think people who make computer viruses ought to be publicly flogged.

For future reference keep your favorites/bookmarks backed up on a floppy(I do this every couple of months after learning the hard way).

[Askel5]

since I obviously know very little about computers

Very good. Admitting this is the first step on your road to recovery.

Lol ...

[Askel5]

since I obviously know very little about computers

Very good. Admitting this is the first step on your road to recovery.

Lol ...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I know all that. I was just being a wise ass.
Even if it is just a C: drive it has still been partitioned....one big one. Your question just seemed nonsensical since he was running Windows in the first place the boot drive had to have been partitioned.

[NC_Libertarian]

People who install stuff on your computer without your permission should be shot.

[Diddle E. Squat]

OK, thanks to all for the great advice, this is a good learning experience for me.

Yeah, I let the scan disk complete, but still the same message. Went out and bought a cheap second hard drive as a future emergency backup($20, 1.7 gig, not huge but should get me temporary net access.) Unfortunately when I tried to run the restore disks on it, I got a Symatec screen stating that the disk was write-protected! So its back to the store on Monday for swap or refund. Luckily I have 24 hour access to university computers, I just can't search in my pajamas for a few days(the school isn't THAT liberal). Will probably work on the problem next weekend(to paraphrase Shakespeare, "My kingdom for some free time"!)

[Diddle E. Squat]

Gratitude ping. Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to respond to my request for help, it was much appreciated.