Reply to: My PC died last night :-(

[suityou01]

I think I'm the only person in the world that has used SpinRite or uses grc.com to check for security weaknesses.Right. That's it. Now I just know I'm your sockpuppet.

No, not my sockie. Learned poster and esteemed colleague.

HTH

[Moscow Mule]

Mac's Time Machine does decent backups, but if you are a backup pedant like me you'll also backup to another drive or two using different software.

My desktop macs time machines to a mac mini server, which time machines itself to the other drive in the server. Both of these are backed up to external storage...

[RichardCranium]

I think I'm the only person in the world that has used SpinRite or uses grc.com to check for security weaknesses.

Cojak, please please please get a copy of Spinrite from www.grc.com

Right. That's it. Now I just know I'm your sockpuppet.

[Sysman]

Where do you get your desktop from NAT?

I'm looking at producing online tutorials and stuff and Camtasia is too much for this old machine whereas that what Macs are built for (amongst other stuff, admittedly).

Whether you go PC or Mac, get an external drive or three for backups.

Mac's Time Machine does decent backups, but if you are a backup pedant like me you'll also backup to another drive or two using different software.

Remember that you are protecting against two things here:

• Hardware failure
• Your own mistakes

and you want to consider how much to archive permanently, for example accounts, client reports, personal correspondence and whatnot.

[NotAllThere]

I got it from www.steg-computer.ch Not much help, I know...

I replaced my aging desktop last year with one of the one's they build themselves, without OS, having previously run a complete backup (Norton Ghost) of my old PC onto a 1TB External harddrive.

I installed XP on the new PC, then recovered my programs and data harddrives into it. At this point, the programs won't run, because the registry doesn't know anything about them. So what I did then, was reinstall the various pieces of software into the same locations. Then I recovered some of the "Documents and Settings" from the backup of the C drive.

It was about 1.5-2 hours actual hands-on work. Ended up with a much faster machine, and all the software I regularly used. Occasionally, I find a utility I overlooked, and it's a few minutes work to get it up and running again.

I even managed to keep the data for my kids SIMS-3 stuff.

[cojak]

I have the OS on one harddrive, programs on another and data on a third. With regular backups.

Having an Apple won't help you if your disk gets corrupted, fails or is otherwise damaged. You're just locking yourself into proprietry...

Where do you get your desktop from NAT?

I'm looking at producing online tutorials and stuff and Camtasia is too much for this old machine whereas that what Macs are built for (amongst other stuff, admittedly).

[cojak]

Cojak, please please please get a copy of Spinrite from www.grc.com

This is cheap, and gets results all of the time. Hand on heart the very best thing to use. I swear by it.

Good luck.

Will do SY01

[suityou01]

My lappy (my main CUK machine) died the other week. Would not boot into windows. Would boot into safe mode, but would lock up after a while. First thoughts was virus/rootkit. Scanned and nope. Second thoughts was HDD fail. Scanned. Nope. Then I ran msconfig, and removed have the drivers from the boot. Continually doing a binary chop of the drivers until I nailed the offending one. Some TCP helper related job IIRC (SSDP Discovery, I just checked ). Took him out and even though I am still using a custom boot without this driver the machine is ok.

Start > Run > MsConfig

Services Tab.

Untick bottom half. Boot. Booted OK? Retick top half of the half you just unticked and boot again. Etc etc etc. Took a while. Pick an evening with something good on the telly and get a couple of beers in and do it. Not so bad then.

Best of luck.

[suityou01]

Sorry about that Chaps, was distracted a moment.

The power is ok - it's the disk that's gone I'm afraid.

It started last night when the keyboard and mouse failed to respond in the middle of a little light surfing. I don't think that caused it (I was on this site at the time) but Window updates having been giving me problems over the last couple of days and I had to do a System Restore on the one before last.

It powers up but gets stuck during Windows boot-up.

It does this on Safe-Mode as well. I've managed to get it as far as CHKDISK but it gets stuck on the 3rd stage.

I've now got a Linux CD distro in and am considering doing a NTFSFIX as it suggests when I attempt to look at the disk.

That's as far as I've got...

Cojak, please please please get a copy of Spinrite from www.grc.com

This is cheap, and gets results all of the time. Hand on heart the very best thing to use. I swear by it.

Good luck.

[NotAllThere]

I have the OS on one harddrive, programs on another and data on a third. With regular backups.

Having an Apple won't help you if your disk gets corrupted, fails or is otherwise damaged. You're just locking yourself into proprietry...

[cojak]

OK - after looking at things from the Remote Console and performing another CHKDSK it limped into life. God knows why or how.

I'm now ripping everything I can off the disk and will reformat the bluddy thing.

Then I'm off the the Apple store...

Thanks for all your help chaps, the collective power of the universe an' all that!

[Paddy]

Right Paddy,

It's a desktop bought from Overclockers, so bits and pieces really. AMD 64-bit processer, Asus A8N-E/Nvidia NForce4 motherboard.


Right Cliphead,

I've tried that (using an old but useable Simply Mepis distro) but it can't read the storage media, it's suggesting I do a NTFSFIX on it.

I'm just trying to read up on how to save my data before I do anything to wipe it 1st.

I've found this on the web Troubleshooting startup problems - I'll have a read of that too.

(I do appreciate your support fellas...)

As it’s a desktop PC there should be facilities to install a second hard disk.
You could open up and find out the interface, (Ide or sata or whatever) if in doubt take some photos so we can see what’s inside.

Once you have purchased and installed the new disk and installed XP on it; you can read your old disk as data.

Alternatively, I can post a CD boot disk (Ultimate Boot) to you, that will enable you read and copy your data.

[Cliphead]

Right Paddy,

It's a desktop bought from Overclockers, so bits and pieces really. AMD 64-bit processer, Asus A8N-E/Nvidia NForce4 motherboard.


Right Cliphead,

I've tried that (using an old but useable Simply Mepis distro) but it can't read the storage media, it's suggesting I do a NTFSFIX on it.

I'm just trying to read up on how to save my data before I do anything to wipe it 1st.

I've found this on the web Troubleshooting startup problems - I'll have a read of that too.

(I do appreciate your support fellas...)

A more up to date distro will likely identify all your hardware properly and give more options for getting the data off the drive. I'd get the data off before trying NTFSFIX.

[cojak]

Right Paddy,

It's a desktop bought from Overclockers, so bits and pieces really. AMD 64-bit processer, Asus A8N-E/Nvidia NForce4 motherboard.


Right Cliphead,

I've tried that (using an old but useable Simply Mepis distro) but it can't read the storage media, it's suggesting I do a NTFSFIX on it.

I'm just trying to read up on how to save my data before I do anything to wipe it 1st.

I've found this on the web Troubleshooting startup problems - I'll have a read of that too.

(I do appreciate your support fellas...)

[Cliphead]

Use a distro like Linux Mint 8 live CD. That'll give you a full OS and access to the drive. If you have a network setup start copying data otherwise try burning your data to DVD.