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Computers and The Internet This is the place to ask questions and discuss the complex world of computer and internet issues.

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  #11  
Old 01-06-06, 23:29
Stephen Stephen is offline  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ledaig
Stephen,

Instead of loosing all of the data, can she not pull the hard drive and slave it to another machine to extract all of her info?

It should only be windows which has been corrupted, not the file structure of the drive.

Cheers
You make a good point, and it is something that had occured to me too. I suspect however that being the canny Geordie lass she is, with a computer savvy son, this may have already been done. However I will pass on the suggestion.
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  #12  
Old 02-06-06, 01:49
PollyG PollyG is offline  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen
You make a good point, and it is something that had occured to me too. I suspect however that being the canny Geordie lass she is, with a computer savvy son, this may have already been done. However I will pass on the suggestion.
Thanks for the thread,Stephen. Many thanks for the suggestions too.

My trashed PC is a 2yr old Mesh with an Athlon processor. I'd been delaying upgrading to sp2
because I knew some people had been having problesm but MS had stuck an icon on the dektop to warn me there's be no further sp1 security updates after October.

The updater did the usual PC scan, listed the service pack for my machine and went ahead as it usually does with the update. When the time came to restart the machine it closed down as normal, started rebooting then went into a loop repeatedly restarting but never fully booting up. It wouldn't go into safe mode - nothing could break the loop.

I'm not very technical but one of my sons knows his way around PCs so he came home to see what could be done. No joy with anything he tried. He phone Mesh technical support and they sussed immediately what was happening. They told us there's an incompatability problem with the processor and sp2 and emailed him a patch that they said may or may not fix the problem. He managed to install the patch but it didn't solve the problem adequately - though we have been able to get into Windows enough to retrieve one important email I didn't have on a backup disc.. managed to read it in wordpad and get what I needed from it.

We phoned Mesh again and let them know it hadn't fixed the problem and apparently it sometimes doesn't work - so they're sending an envelope containing a boot disc and detailed instructions as to how we may get the restore disc working - apparently the original restore disc won't work once this sort of incident occurs and the patch hasn't fixed things .... so I guess we were just very unlucky.

My son will be coming home again on Monday to see if he can reformat the PC with the 'fix' discs from Mesh so we'll see how things go and take it from there. They seem to have had quite a few people having the same problems so my son is following their advice as well as trying everything he can do himself - aiming to try every last resort before a reformat.

All my most important stuff is backed up on CD and/or DVD and I only lost maybe 500Mb of photos, the most recent and none especially important - so that's ok.

The incident has also given me the push to go ahead and order a laptop so at least I should be able to get back online again fairly soon - and it also means my son can work on restoring the PC with less pressure as he's also busy at work and lives up some distance from home.

Perhaps it's because my PC and processor date back to 2003/2004 - dunno. However, I do feel the M$ update scan should have detected and incompatible processor and NOT listed it as a recommended and *urgent* update for the PC ...... then stuck an permanent icon in the taskbar with a warning I wouldn't be able to have further security updates unless I installed SP2. But it's done now so I'm just thankful we have a son who can do all the necessary to try to fixed things for me.

See you all again as and when I can - this old PC just ain't up to it.

TTFN

Pol
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  #13  
Old 02-06-06, 02:41
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nirofo nirofo is offline  
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I read on a recent forum that changing the bios settings to basic then restarting the computer may allow you overcome the AMD64/MS SP2 problem and allow you to boot into safe mode, once there you can copy your files to another partition on the hard drive or to a secondary hard drive. If you don't have another partition or a secondary drive, then you will need to save your files to a CD or DVD writer. Make a note of all your bios settings so that you can re-install them before you attempt this procedure.

Incidentally, the AMD64 processors are not incompatible with MS SP2, it may be that you need to upgrade your bios to the latest version.

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Last edited by nirofo; 02-06-06 at 02:45.
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  #14  
Old 02-06-06, 08:18
Ledaig Ledaig is offline  
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Polly,

Have you tried using 'system restore' to a date prior to the sp2 instalation?

Cheers,
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  #15  
Old 02-06-06, 09:29
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Saphire Saphire is offline  
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When I have had a problem like this, I boot from floppy, then go onto c: drive from there I manually rename the windows directory to crash so I know where everything is then reload windows from scratch via the CD. Once I have done that and have everything back I then carefully go through my files until I find the problem one. I have been able in the past to everything back without causing to much hassle.
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  #16  
Old 02-06-06, 11:44
PollyG PollyG is offline  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ledaig
Polly,

Have you tried using 'system restore' to a date prior to the sp2 instalation?

Cheers,
Tried that, when he eventually managed to get into safe mode - but it didn't work.

P
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  #17  
Old 02-06-06, 11:58
PollyG PollyG is offline  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nirofo
I read on a recent forum that changing the bios settings to basic then restarting the computer may allow you overcome the AMD64/MS SP2 problem and allow you to boot into safe mode, once there you can copy your files to another partition on the hard drive or to a secondary hard drive. If you don't have another partition or a secondary drive, then you will need to save your files to a CD or DVD writer. Make a note of all your bios settings so that you can re-install them before you attempt this procedure.

Incidentally, the AMD64 processors are not incompatible with MS SP2, it may be that you need to upgrade your bios to the latest version.

nirofo.
He did manage to get to the desktop by doing something in the bios (I'm not techie enough to understand all he was doing). He was also able to get into safe mode after installing the patch - but there's no start bar and nothing opens properly. I think he said something about getting there with network prompts, which is an option offered when it's attempting to reboot. he's definitely made some valuable progress so I was able to check if there was anything important that I don't already have backed up on CD. Fortunately - I backed up almost everything a couple of weeks ago and there's not a lot of data stored on the PC. It's the inconvenience that's the worst part of it, though I can at least do the vital things via my husband's old PC.

He's been discussing each stage with Mesh technical support and they say it does sometimes happen this way with my particular model and that's why they're posting another disc and written instructions as to the next possible solutions. Some people found everything came right when the patch was installed - others ended up having to reformat.

I'm very grateful for the various suggestions and I've sent my son a link to this thread, just in case there's anything here that he hasn't already tried - or possible discussed with Mesh technical support.

Thanks again.

Pol
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  #18  
Old 02-06-06, 12:08
PollyG PollyG is offline  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Saphire
When I have had a problem like this, I boot from floppy, then go onto c: drive from there I manually rename the windows directory to crash so I know where everything is then reload windows from scratch via the CD. Once I have done that and have everything back I then carefully go through my files until I find the problem one. I have been able in the past to everything back without causing to much hassle.
That's not an option with this particular PC. there's no boot floppy and they say the original restore disc won't work anyway for this particular problem - so that's why they're sending new discs.

I'm just SO grateful our eldest son knows what's what as I wouldn't know where to start! last time I had a major disaster was 1998 and windows 95 - and that was easily restored with the boot floppy. I must admit i also went nostalgic for my Sureshot70 and cheap film

It makes you realise how dependant we are on the PC for processing our own digital photos.

Pol
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  #19  
Old 02-06-06, 13:46
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Anyone contemplating buying a new computer should insist that a full Windows XP operating system disk and any other software disks are included in the purchase price. The restore disk will not do what you need it to do when you have a system problem, you can only restore your system to the condition it was in when you purchased it. Running the restore disk formats your hard drive and removes all your files, photo's etc, it then re-installs Windows XP and any other software your system was originally set up with, end result an original clinically clean PC system. It also means that any software, antivirus, firewalll, Windows updates etc, will have to be downloaded and installed again. Time consuming to say the least!

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  #20  
Old 02-06-06, 13:54
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Tannin Tannin is offline  
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You are on a seriously wrong tram here, Stephen. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Windows XP SP2 has any compatibility problems with any current processor (or any even vaguely recent one either). That's none, repeat none.

There is, however, very good evidece that the XP SP2 upgrade can trash a system if the system is infected with spyware before the upgrade takes place. This is well-known around the traps, and we have seen it for ourselves from time to time also.

But what on earth was your friend doing installing SP2 now? It's been out for a very long time, and been generally accepted as a good and safe thing to install for almost that long. How did your friend manage to justify not installing it months and months ago? Unless there was a pretty good reason, sounds to me like a simple case of neglecting to maintain the system properly in that respect, which immediately makes me wonder what other things were not maintained properly, and distrust any "conclusion" drawn from that system.
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