Computer Help Needed (Crashed)

[colchar]

So yesterday my computer (desktop) was running fine but I decided to run my anti-virus program (AVG) since I hadn't done so in a while. After that, my computer would not turn back on again (it would go through the start up process but never got to the screen at which you input your password). I finally managed to get it started using the set-up disc in what appeared to be Safe Mode (although it took several tries to get it going). I was hurrying through backing stuff up onto my external HD when it crashed again and gave me the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (I haven't seen one of those since the days of Windows 98). Now it won't start up at all.

When I did have it started I attempted to use System Restore to get it going again but that feature would not work (heck, I couldn't even get my control panel to display any icons when opened). I am at a loss as to how to get this thing going again. Even if I do get it started it looks like I might have to reinstall Vista but do not want to do so until I can back-up anything I need off the system as there are some school files that I stupidly hadn't backed up and desperately need (and doesn't it figure that my PhD supervisor would send me an email today asking about my progress on my dissertation - talk about bad timing!).

Does anyone have any advice?

[CameronBornAndBred]

I would recommend taking it to a shop. Blue screens are indicators of hardware failures (whether physical or driver), and it sounds like you have gotten it to the point of no easy return. It is possible that it was rotten timing and it's a coincidence that the AVG scan completed shorly before you have suffered a drive or some other failure. If you have anything that you really need recovered, and the drive is physically OK, any shop should be able to get your documents backed up before performing a repair install or clean install.

[Highlander]

Personally, I think your best bet is to use a functioning computer to get the files off of your hard drive rather than try to reinstall things (since that is risky).

If you have a second computer and aren't afraid of taking your computer apart, you can remove the hard drive. Radio Shack sells an adapter which will turn an internal hard drive (IDE or SCSI) into a USB drive. You could then attach your drive to another computer and back up anything on it that wasn't corrupted. If you're uncomfortable with that, you can take it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they can probably copy off your files to DVD-R or something similar, although that will probably cost you around $80-100 if I had to guess.

That reminds me. I need to go back up my system...

[Turk]

Personally, I think your best bet is to use a functioning computer to get the files off of your hard drive rather than try to reinstall things (since that is risky).

If you have a second computer and aren't afraid of taking your computer apart, you can remove the hard drive. Radio Shack sells an adapter which will turn an internal hard drive (IDE or SCSI) into a USB drive. ~snip~

That reminds me. I need to go back up my system...

Your approach makes sense if the motherboard is no good, but if the hard drive has mechanically failed that might not work.

We're actually looking at replacing the old Turk computer, so that Radio Shack adapter would be a good thing to have on hand... That would simplify the migration process a great deal.

Good luck, colchar - sounds like you've got a pretty serious problem to deal with; I hope the hard drive is OK and the second computer idea works...

P.S. I think I'm going to back up my computers too...

It's like when a tree falls over onto somebody's house - everyone else in the neighborhood goes and checks their homeowner's / renters insurance to see if they're still OK...

[-jk]

Is this the same hard drive that failed a little while ago? If so, put the drive on a different computer and try SpinRite from Gibson Research. Prepare to be patient.

-jk

[colchar]

Is this the same hard drive that failed a little while ago? If so, put the drive on a different computer and try SpinRite from Gibson Research. Prepare to be patient.

-jk

No, my last problem was that I had accidently deleted some files (mostly video files of British TV shows). I had put them on my external HD and created a shortcut to them on my desktop. I went to delete the shortcut but, for some reason, the files deleted off the external HD. My fault for not paying attention to what I was doing at the time.

Luckily, I have a laptop so I am not stuck without a computer (I also have an older desktop that just needs the power supply replaced) but this is still a pain in the you-know-what as some school files were on this system and I need them. I'll either try the converter thingy from Radio Shack or I will ask a friend of mine, who is a programmer, if she can retrieve stuff for me.

And thank you to everyone who has offered advice and/or sympathy.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Your hard drive problems finally motivated me to backup my files at Carbonite.com I'm just into the free 15 day trial, but for $50/year, it sure does give me peace of mind to know my files are stored safely away from my home, just in case. Oh, and offer code Kim (as in Komando) gives you 2 additional months free when you subscribe.

It took almost 48 hours to upload the roughly 8 GB of files and pictures, but updates will only take seconds or minutes on an automatic basis. Carbonite told me on their web site it would take this long, and Road Runner only uploads at ~350 kbps, while the download is 6 mbps.

[Kimist]

I have encountered similar near-disasters after installing antivirus stuff, including the disappearance of all desk-top icons and the ominous "where did that come from?!" blue screen. (I'm hanging on to Win XP as long as I can!)

The more you do in a "forward" direction the greater chance you can really mess things up.

My first suggestion would be to go back to the most recent restore point (not system restore!) and try that. If possible, you should perhaps try to uninstall the offending new software, as a lot of things get "changed" upon such an installation and a "good" version of your operating files in their prior life just might re-emerge.

I have gone both routes with success. Best hind-sight observation is that the registry got trashed (do you have backup copies of it??) and/or there is some kind of major conflict with the MS antivirus stuff and the newly installed software.

If these first-line simple fixes don't work, you probably should bring everything to a halt and seek professional help. One caveat: Upon the first occurrence of such a disaster, I described the problems to a pro and he said my only choice was to do a full restore, risk losing everything on the hard drive, etc. After some careful tweaking by me he was proven to be incorrect...

k

[colchar]

I have encountered similar near-disasters after installing antivirus stuff, including the disappearance of all desk-top icons and the ominous "where did that come from?!" blue screen. (I'm hanging on to Win XP as long as I can!)

The more you do in a "forward" direction the greater chance you can really mess things up.

My first suggestion would be to go back to the most recent restore point (not system restore!) and try that. If possible, you should perhaps try to uninstall the offending new software, as a lot of things get "changed" upon such an installation and a "good" version of your operating files in their prior life just might re-emerge.

I have gone both routes with success. Best hind-sight observation is that the registry got trashed (do you have backup copies of it??) and/or there is some kind of major conflict with the MS antivirus stuff and the newly installed software.

If these first-line simple fixes don't work, you probably should bring everything to a halt and seek professional help. One caveat: Upon the first occurrence of such a disaster, I described the problems to a pro and he said my only choice was to do a full restore, risk losing everything on the hard drive, etc. After some careful tweaking by me he was proven to be incorrect...

k

I didn't install AVG - it has been on there for a couple of years. I hadn't run it in a month or so and, for whatever reason, decided to run it the other day. That was when the problem started but, as someone else mentioned in this thread, it might just be a cooincidence.

You mentioned the restore point. How do I do that without using system restore (I'm using Vista but expect it to be much the same process as XP)?

Also, if I can't retrieve stuff, I'll have a pro (a friend who is a programmer) try to retrieve the stuff for me. As long as I get what I need off the system I don't really care about reinstalling Windows from scratch. That isn't a big deal so long as I've retrieved everything. Reinstalling all of my software will be the biggest hassle but that is only time consuming, it really isn't that big a deal.

At one point, while using the set-up type disc that came with the computer, it said it could do the restore and everything on there would be put in a folder called Windows.old (or something like that) but I wasn't willing to take the chance of losing stuff. I'm determined to save whatever I can. I'm in the middle of moving so I'll deal with the computer sometime around the middle of next week and I'll see how it goes. The vast majority of what I had on the desktop is also on my laptop so I likely won't lose that much - it is the possibility of losing the school (PhD dissertation research files) stuff that I'm most concerned about.

[moonpie23]

APPLE is having a big sale today...should solve all your problems...

[colchar]

APPLE is having a big sale today...should solve all your problems...

Well my office-mate has had two Apple laptops die on him in the last 18 months (both were brand new). Sure he got them replaced but still...