Arexack's hideout attacked by brigands!
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- Arexack_Heretic
- Dangerous Subversive Element
- Posts: 1876
- Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:32 pm
- Location: [%H] = Earth surface, Lattitude 52°10'58.19"N, longtitude 4°30'0.25"E.
- Contact:
Pease tell me how!
Yes it is a PC.
I was just about to re-install XP from scratch.
this is what has happened:
I ran hitman-pro, which is a scripted compilation of various anti-spyware agents. It stalled while installing webspy or whatever program, which I noticed when I got up at 3am to turn the thing off.
It was not responding to any input, so I just switched the Power.
Next morning, my GF decided to look something up and logged in under her account. (no admin rights)
At which point some windows popped up declaring some files (from games) damaged or whatever (I was still chewing on my pillow) .
I told her to click those windows away and turned over.
After the last of these errormessages, the system froze up and eventually I got up very grumpilly and twatted the powerswitch again.
After this I tried to restart the computer aiming to log in as myself and remove the offending software.
The computer keeps rebooting before the account screen pops up though.
Trying safe-mode gets the same rebooting result.
I tried restoring the system, but the admin password it wants is not the one I wrote on my wall. (several weeks ago I had to format and reinstall everything several times over).
Anticipating your advice with trepidation.
A_H
Yes it is a PC.
I was just about to re-install XP from scratch.
this is what has happened:
I ran hitman-pro, which is a scripted compilation of various anti-spyware agents. It stalled while installing webspy or whatever program, which I noticed when I got up at 3am to turn the thing off.
It was not responding to any input, so I just switched the Power.
Next morning, my GF decided to look something up and logged in under her account. (no admin rights)
At which point some windows popped up declaring some files (from games) damaged or whatever (I was still chewing on my pillow) .
I told her to click those windows away and turned over.
After the last of these errormessages, the system froze up and eventually I got up very grumpilly and twatted the powerswitch again.
After this I tried to restart the computer aiming to log in as myself and remove the offending software.
The computer keeps rebooting before the account screen pops up though.
Trying safe-mode gets the same rebooting result.
I tried restoring the system, but the admin password it wants is not the one I wrote on my wall. (several weeks ago I had to format and reinstall everything several times over).
Anticipating your advice with trepidation.
A_H
Riding the Rocket!
You are stuck in a Reboot Loop and it's a nasty Windows Problem.
Google for "reboot loop" to see what I mean.
1. Have a look at these:
http://www.duxcw.com/dcforum/DCForumID7/711.html
http://www.cooltechzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743
2. Since Safe mode doesn't work here is one way to get most of your stuff back:
No guarantees, but I've done this with Windows 2000.
Install XP again, making sure that you do not format or delete anything. When asked which directory to install to, DO NOT ACCEPT c:\winnt. Choose a new directory name like winntnew. Complete the install.
Reboot, you will be asked to choose which OS to boot. Both will be Windows XP. Probably the top one is the new one.
OK, now you have a working OS with access to your files. You will need to reinstall all the apps but at least you have the data. Or you can try to fix the old one.
If all goes well I'll tell you how to get rid of the OS you no longer want. Can't do this from home as I don't have a working Windows installation. (Changed my motherboard. Both Linuxes booted with no problem bur Win2K won't and I can't be fagged to waste the time on it.)
Good luck!
Google for "reboot loop" to see what I mean.
1. Have a look at these:
http://www.duxcw.com/dcforum/DCForumID7/711.html
http://www.cooltechzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743
2. Since Safe mode doesn't work here is one way to get most of your stuff back:
No guarantees, but I've done this with Windows 2000.
Install XP again, making sure that you do not format or delete anything. When asked which directory to install to, DO NOT ACCEPT c:\winnt. Choose a new directory name like winntnew. Complete the install.
Reboot, you will be asked to choose which OS to boot. Both will be Windows XP. Probably the top one is the new one.
OK, now you have a working OS with access to your files. You will need to reinstall all the apps but at least you have the data. Or you can try to fix the old one.
If all goes well I'll tell you how to get rid of the OS you no longer want. Can't do this from home as I don't have a working Windows installation. (Changed my motherboard. Both Linuxes booted with no problem bur Win2K won't and I can't be fagged to waste the time on it.)
Good luck!
- Captain Hesperus
- Grand High Clock-Tower Poobah
- Posts: 2310
- Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:10 pm
- Location: Anywhere I can sell Trumbles.....
Totally off-topic, but congrats on breaking 1400 posts, TGHC! The exalted heights of 2465 posts beckon....
Captain Hesperus
Captain Hesperus
The truth, revealed!!
or even cheaper, fit your HD into another computer, you'll have to play around with the master and slave thingy, which I thought I understood untill I was told you can have two masters, so now I just ask my brother!
The Grey Haired Commander has spoken!
OK so I'm a PC user - "you know whats scary? Out of billions of sperm I was the fastest"
OK so I'm a PC user - "you know whats scary? Out of billions of sperm I was the fastest"
- Arexack_Heretic
- Dangerous Subversive Element
- Posts: 1876
- Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:32 pm
- Location: [%H] = Earth surface, Lattitude 52°10'58.19"N, longtitude 4°30'0.25"E.
- Contact:
Thanks for the hints D.
I'll try to install to a new directory.
(I was planning to reinstall in the same dir)
Last time, I have proclamed C to be OS only territory.
So almost all apps and data is on my raid-SATA configuration. Unfortunately, this means I need the BIOS for the config. IIRC this should be independent of windows though.
Luckilly I copied all the installation files to a DVD last time around, so reinstalling will be annoying at most. (hopefully some, such as my firewall, will have options to keep settings.)
Creating a second OS should enable me to copy any files that have accrued in the documents folders over time.
(lots of pics grabbed from the net etc)
edit: reinstall achieved.
+free access to C and old install of winXP
-Doesn't see RAID. Maybe I needed to re-install the raiddrivers too.
Got no time now to fix it, have to travel to Rotterdam.
Cheerz.
I'll try to install to a new directory.
(I was planning to reinstall in the same dir)
Last time, I have proclamed C to be OS only territory.
So almost all apps and data is on my raid-SATA configuration. Unfortunately, this means I need the BIOS for the config. IIRC this should be independent of windows though.
Luckilly I copied all the installation files to a DVD last time around, so reinstalling will be annoying at most. (hopefully some, such as my firewall, will have options to keep settings.)
Creating a second OS should enable me to copy any files that have accrued in the documents folders over time.
(lots of pics grabbed from the net etc)
edit: reinstall achieved.
+free access to C and old install of winXP
-Doesn't see RAID. Maybe I needed to re-install the raiddrivers too.
Got no time now to fix it, have to travel to Rotterdam.
Cheerz.
Riding the Rocket!
- GothStag
- Dangerous
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:10 pm
- Location: Fareham, Hampshire, England, Sol system, Galaxy 1.
- Contact:
I'm currently using a maxtor 120GB USB back up drive that cost nearly £60 / €81. Back up takes no time at all first time and it backs up any file changes only on each back up after that.davcefai wrote:This morning I was looking at the prices of Hard Discs. Prices are nowadays very low.
A 20GB ATA drive plus a USB adapter is going to cost less than €75.
Peace of mind
In memory of ma homey H-Dog.
Krunchin tha numbaz with tha Angels.
http://www.midstateoffice.com/index.php
Krunchin tha numbaz with tha Angels.
http://www.midstateoffice.com/index.php
Like nearly everything PC prices have dropped and memory has grown, my daughter has just bought one of these for £57.48 from Scan, it's very good too.
The Grey Haired Commander has spoken!
OK so I'm a PC user - "you know whats scary? Out of billions of sperm I was the fastest"
OK so I'm a PC user - "you know whats scary? Out of billions of sperm I was the fastest"
- Arexack_Heretic
- Dangerous Subversive Element
- Posts: 1876
- Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:32 pm
- Location: [%H] = Earth surface, Lattitude 52°10'58.19"N, longtitude 4°30'0.25"E.
- Contact:
not to nitpick... but did you mean 200GB ?davcefai wrote:This morning I was looking at the prices of Hard Discs. Prices are nowadays very low.
A 20GB ATA drive plus a USB adapter is going to cost less than €75.
Peace of mind
20 GB is sort of low these days...
Bounty Scanner
Number 935
Number 935
- Arexack_Heretic
- Dangerous Subversive Element
- Posts: 1876
- Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:32 pm
- Location: [%H] = Earth surface, Lattitude 52°10'58.19"N, longtitude 4°30'0.25"E.
- Contact:
Back to my problem:
A fresh install works, but all heck broke loose when I tried to install with the raid drivers.
By deactivating (or otherwise disbling) my raid configuration, all copies of WinXP can start up, but won't recognise the disfunctional disks.
OK I can reallocate the drive partitions of my stripe array using testdisk and write a new (temporary)table.
This needs a reboot to take effect.
With an active and 'healthy' raid, both my original and the fresh copy of XP with Raid drivers will end up in a reboot loop.
The install without raid drivers will boot normally, but will see the raid as seperate drives (of which one is unallocated).
The fact that the fresh+drivers install has the same problem suggests to me that something on the raid is causing the loop, not any recently installed registry keys or on-startup scripts.
In short: Crap.
RAID sounds fast, effective and safe, but only multiplies the things that can go wrong with your system. As soon as I can get acces to the data on those disks, I'll back everything up and then seperate and reformat the raid.
---
test disk sees my stripes as :
the old logical partitions + equally sized extended partitions.
---
gonna try to find out more...
A fresh install works, but all heck broke loose when I tried to install with the raid drivers.
By deactivating (or otherwise disbling) my raid configuration, all copies of WinXP can start up, but won't recognise the disfunctional disks.
OK I can reallocate the drive partitions of my stripe array using testdisk and write a new (temporary)table.
This needs a reboot to take effect.
With an active and 'healthy' raid, both my original and the fresh copy of XP with Raid drivers will end up in a reboot loop.
The install without raid drivers will boot normally, but will see the raid as seperate drives (of which one is unallocated).
The fact that the fresh+drivers install has the same problem suggests to me that something on the raid is causing the loop, not any recently installed registry keys or on-startup scripts.
In short: Crap.
RAID sounds fast, effective and safe, but only multiplies the things that can go wrong with your system. As soon as I can get acces to the data on those disks, I'll back everything up and then seperate and reformat the raid.
---
test disk sees my stripes as :
the old logical partitions + equally sized extended partitions.
---
gonna try to find out more...
Riding the Rocket!