Computer DOA - HELP!!!

[OneFinger]

My primary computer crashed last night and I need someone to confirm how serious it is. It is an IBM-clone running Windows XP. I was on-line via my MSN DSL modem. My surfing was interrupted by an MSN window asking me to confirm my account name and password. (I KNOW - this sounds like a scam but MSN routinely does this to weed out people stealing their services.)

 

After entering the info, it screen said it was updating my modem status and wait until it was finished.

 

My computer rebooted on its own and is now in eternal reboot mode. It gets part-way through the reboot and starts rebooting again. I called MSN and, of course, they said it was not a problem with their service and its an OEM problem with my computer.

 

I went into BIOS setup and changed the boot sequence so it did NOT try to boot from the hard drive. I can reboot using the XP CD but it then wants to format my hard drive and reinstall XP. I have NOT done that yet. Don't want to lose everything on my hard drive.

 

The BIOS recognizes my hard drive but I suspect I may have a corrupt FAT file. Is this recoverable? Any suggestions?

 

I'm hesitant to take it back to the computer store because I've got my lavendar library stored on the hard drive.

 

Appreciate any thoughts or ideas.

[phage]

I just crashed my system a couple of weeks ago my choosing a bad monitor setting that blanked out the monitor and then I couldn’t see anything to change it back. Out LAN guy at work talked me through this so I’m not going to have all the details, but one of the real computer geeks around here can fill in the gaps.

 

Unless you disabled the function, XP will have been doing system checkpoints all along. You might want to try restoring to the last date that everything was okay. You need to come up in “safe mode” and then it will give you the option of continuing in safe mode or doing a system restore. Choose the restore option and it will give you the dates available.

 

In order to get into safe mode, I had to start up the PC and then immediately start tapping one of the function keys to interrupt it. That’s the part I can’t remember for sure, but I think it was F7. You usually get a keyboard error at first, you tell it to continue and just keep tapping away at that key. You should get its attention and you can proceed in safe mode to the restore option.

 

This worked like a charm for me. Hopefully, you’ve been doing these check points all along. Good luck.

[eastbayguy]

>This worked like a charm for me. Hopefully, you’ve been doing

>these check points all along. Good luck.

 

Aren't these configuration backups automated? I'd been led to believe they were. If they aren't, can you or someone else point me to how to turn them on?

 

This sounds like something you should practice every once in a while so when disaster strikes, and you can't post in the message center, you already know what to do!

 

--EBG

[phage]

It's in your System Properties. There is probably several ways to get there, but I always go through the Control Panel. I imagine that XP comes configured to use the feature and you have to go out of your way to turn it off. I know that I didn't turn it on and it was there when I needed it.

[OneFinger]

Thanks for the suggestion. A couple of times I've used that feature to resolve problems. Unfortunately, this time I can't get into Windows at all. While the Bios is still processing, the machine reboots itself. I never get to a point where it even starts accessing the hard drive.

 

At this point I'm not sure if I've got a problem with the Bios or it the boot sector of my hard drive got corrupt.

 

Taking it into the computer store tomorrow but I'm still nervous about the Lavender Library. ;-)

[eastbayguy]

>Taking it into the computer store tomorrow but I'm still

>nervous about the Lavender Library. ;-)

 

Not familiar with the Lavender Library. As long as the models are >18 you have nothing to fear. Since the majority of computers are used for porn surfing at some point or other, you're no different than every other person taking a computer in for repair.

 

Who knows, you might make a new friend. Hopefully, you'll get a hot repair technician. }(

 

--EBG

[Boston Guy]

One Finger:

 

1) It sounds to me like the "Blaster" virus. If so, you're in luck because there's a pretty easy fix (see below).

 

2) It's hard for me to believe that MSN regularly asks you to enter your username and password. That really does sound like a scam to me and I'd be very wary of entering the information in response to a popup. Do you have any idea how easy it would be for an unscrupulous Website to pop up a window that looks EXACTLY like an MSN-generated window? I don't use MSN, so others will have to verify whether MSN does request this info frequently but it sounds awfully suspicion to me.

 

The fix for "Blaster" is easy to apply and will not hurt your system. If your problems are caused by the blaster virus, your computer will be fixed. If not, you won't be in any worse shape than you are.

 

Do this:

 

1) You need the "Blaster Removal Tool". This is a program that you will need to download (using a different computer, obviously) and copy to a blank diskette. The program is called fixblast.exe. Download it using this link:

 

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/FixBlast.exe

 

2) Boot the infected computer in Safe Mode.

 

3) When in safe mode, put the diskette containing fixblast.exe into the diskette drive.

 

4) Using Windows Explorer, locate fixblast.exe on the A: drive and double-click it. This will start it running.

 

5) Reboot the computer in normal mode. If it comes up ok, you'll know you solved the problem. If you get to this point, you really should go to Windows Update and get your system updated with all of the recent updates. There has been a fix for blaster out there for quite a little while.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Good luck,

BG

[OneFinger]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks for your help and suggestions. I've been off-line a couple of days because it was just too painful to try surfing the web on a Pentium I computer with Windows 98, a 16 meg video card, and 64 meg of ram. ;(

 

I know it sounds "fishy" but myself and several other friends have confirmed that MSN is using this verification feature to track hackers on their system.

 

My computer tech doesn't feel MSN caused the problem. The fan on the power supply stopped causing the power supply to overheat. Techy said this caused a surge which fried the boot sector on my hard drive. They "claimed" nothing was recoverable but I'm not sure how hard they tried.

 

I'm back up and running with a new hard drive and power supply (no cost to me). :7 Unfortunately, my last backup was over 15 months ago. I didn't realize how much valuable info I kept on my hard drive and how difficult it is going to be to reconstruct. That won't happen again!!

[Boston Guy]

If you have absolutely critical data on that disk, you can pay to have it recovered. When they said nothing was recoverable, what they meant was that nothing was easily recoverable using standard techniques. Probably most of the data on the disk is actually recoverable.

 

It would cost you a few hundred dollars, probably, but sometimes that's a bargain compared to the cost of recovering certain kinds of data (or losing important information altogether).

 

To do this, you'd have to get the drive back from the computer techs (unless they already gave it back to you) and then send it to one of the recovery firms.

 

If you need more info on this, let me know and I'll post more.

 

Glad you got at least a functioning system back. Do those backups, though...

 

BG

[OneFinger]

Yes, I have the hard drive but don't want to pay the $1K quoted by a couple of companies to get the data back. But, does anyone have experience with some of the software programs that claim to be able to restore files? One said they could recover even if the hard drive had been reformatted.

 

Would appreciate any recommendations. And, remember, the cheaper the program the more $$ I'll have to hire my favorite guys. :7

[Boston Guy]

I've used the professional services a couple of times to help customers of mine who lost data but I haven't used the programs available to end users.

 

For starters, you'd have to able to install the disk back into your system, physically, and reconnect the electrical connections. If you're not comfortable with that step, you'll need help.

 

You might post this question over at the Atkol forums: some of the guys there have lots and lots of technical experience in esoteric areas of technology and I'd bet someone there could offer you real help.

 

BG

[phage]

A friend of mine accidentally reformatted his external hard drive a few months ago. (Performing PC housekeeping after a night at the bar is definitely not recommended!) He found a service on the internet that charged according to how much data could be recovered. They scanned the hard drive, calculated how much could be recovered, and told him how much it would cost.

 

I don’t know all the details, but he was very happy with the results and it only cost him a couple hundred bucks. Plus, it was very private and discreet.

 

He was lucky enough that it was a secondary, external drive. You would have to get the drive into a PC with internet access and have room on another drive to store the recovered data. That’s a lot of pre-conditions.

 

I can find out for you if you can swing the configuration and are interested.

[OneFinger]

The old hard drive is in the machine and ready to go. My new hard drive has more than enough room for what was on the old one.

 

I did download a trial version of "File Rescue Plus". It scans the entire drive and then lists the files that it "thinks" are recoverable. (The demo version will allow you to restore only two files.)

 

When I ran it on the old hard drive, it only found three files and they were all written to the damaged drive while it was in the shop (according to the date/time stamp on the files). I almost suspect that the repair place just reformatted the drive and gave it back to me. x(