- Help!! - Me Downolads clear my PC
- Posted by Matthew Guard on July 13th, 2003
Installed a new Hard Drive at weekend and installed all
my original software.
Visited Microsoft website to download a lot of upgrades
for Me and on first attempt somebody turned off my
computer mid-download. Second attempt - internet
connection lost half way but I recovered what I had
downloaded so far by reconnecting and starting download
again. On completion asked to restart computer which I
did and on re-entering Windows everything has
disappeared. I just get a blue screen and when going to
task manager there is absolutely nothing running. Please
help as I am a novice and , although I stumbled my way
through installing a new hard drive, I have no idea what
to do now.
- Posted by Jerome T. Czeikus on July 13th, 2003
Boot from a floppy, reformat the drive, install everything - again.
"Matthew Guard" <matthewguard@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:01e401c3497f$c6a25ef0$a301280a@phx.gbl...
- Posted by Matthew Guard on July 14th, 2003
I've followed advice from elsewhere:
Boot up in 'Safe'mode - not worked
Boot up in 'Logged' mode - not worked
Started System Restore from Command Prompt - only a white
screen appears when clicking on Launch System Restore.
Does anyone have any other advice please? A donation of
£20 ($30) to the charity of choice of whoever gives advice
that resolves problem.
Thanks,
Matt
- Posted by Dave Bowman on July 15th, 2003
On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 20:13:39 GMT,"Matthew Guard" <matthewguard@hotmail.com>
penned this whopper in news:01d501c34a44$6a0f6050$a601280a@phx.gbl:
Any specific error messages? Did you load the drivers for your motherboard
before starting the Windows updates?
--
"Belief is not the beginning but the end of all knowledge."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832); German poet and dramatist.
HAND!
Mike
- Posted by Matthew Guard on July 15th, 2003
Mike,
I've not had any error messages at all. I think I've
downloaded everything. Not too sure what you mean by
downloading to the motherboard though. The Driver CD that
originally came with my PC was installed and my PC was
working perfectly until the download.
As it was a clean install onto my new hard drive it looks
like, as there's no obvious solution, I'll just have to
clear the hard drive and start reinstalling everything
again.
Any tips on how to prevent this from happening again (I
think it was the download/update for IE6 that caused all
of this, although it may have been something for Direct9x
(or something like that)?
Thanks,
Matt
- Posted by Dave on July 15th, 2003
If an ME update was powered off in mid stream, there is no knowing what
has happened to your system files.
How you doing with reinstalling?
Assuming you get Windows working OK, and reinstall all your software, do
you have data to recover from your previous hard drive?
If so I suggest you install hte old hard disk as a second drive, then
all your data will be there for you.
To do this you will need to change the hard disk so that it is
configured as a 'slave'. If you want to do this, you should find
instructions on adding a second drive in your PC documentation. Also
someone (me?) should be able to help you here.
Dave
Matthew Guard wrote:
- Posted by Davee on July 15th, 2003
It's the power down that is dangerous. When files are updated they are
(obviously) in memory or on their way to the HDD. If the power is
suddenly lost then you can lose data and possibly part of the file
structure on disk. MOst PC's power supplies will cope with a mians
'blip' but just turning off the power is a no-no.
An interrupted download should do no harm - except annoy! I really don't
think any update process would be occurring as the data arrived over the
net. It would be wanted much quicker than it could arrive over any
connection. So the update triggers the download then when it is complete
the update proper is launched.
I think Windows lets you (as an option) download updates as a discrete
operation and then you apply them when you are ready.
Now the second drive.
1.If you are worried about a virus, get up to date virus s/w. Then you
can put in the old drive as a second drive if you want, and do a
complete scan of the drive. If it cannot be read by the virus check at
this time, do the next step, then do a full system virus scan, which may
take some time.
2. Then do a Scan Disk of the old disk which will give you the
opportunity to correct any broken files (but data may be lost). Then
assuming they are OK, copy the files you want to your new disk. Then
format the drive, which may report bad sectors, but it will arrange for
them to be skipped over if there are not too many. Then do another Scan
Disk with a surface check; this will take some time. If it is OK your
disk is usable and you have a second drive. If a number of surface
errors occur it's probably not worth keeping. Other people may comment
on this.
Dave
M Guard wrote:
