PC Inept need help

[Gogs]

Hi Forum

My dual hard drive dell has just thrown a fit and corrupted itself, or something along those lines. I am getting new CDs for windows XP sent out but it will mean formatting and reinstalling the hard drives which means lost data. Not the tragedy it would mean to some as I've only had the thing 3 months and not used it that much. I know I can install SHIII along with the OS and other programs on one drive and keep the game saves and .doc files and things for backing up on the other. I know this because I read some clever Joe here talk about it but I cant find it and I have no idea where to start. Can somebody point me in the direction of a URL that will help or give me some advice. I think that knowing this will help with mods - being able to fix things if I stuff everything up.

I sit at a computer all day and I'm familiar with the software I use but I do not have a scooby about this stuff. I pop the CD in and generally say yes to the default prompts.

Thanks for any help:up:

G

[Narcosis]

Hi Forum

help:up:

G



My advice is first, see if you can access "Safe Mode" (if you can try system restore)

When booting your OS, as soon as the first (POST) screen appears showing your memory and hardware information, start pressing 'F8.'

The "WindowsXP"advanced options menu will come up listing various boot options. As you can see, there are a few safe mode options available. 'Safe Mode' is the one we are interested in for now.

Then go into your files and save on to CD R/ USB key ring / all data files you want.


visit this site for repairing XP problems:
Go down list, their you will see How to Format.
You only need to format at this stage the Hardrive where you last put the OS.
LEAVE THE OTHER ONE ALONE AT THIS POINT.

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20To%20Format%20using%20the%20Re covery%20Console



How did the problem occur?

[sonar732]

A little help on what exactly happened would help because as Narcosis stated, you might not need to reformat at all. For instance, what Anti-Virus software are you running? By the way, you said it was a dual hard drive...what is the second one used for or is it a single hard drive divided into partitions by the manufacturer?

Another thing is the question of how sure are you that it was your hard drive? I've seen problems with RAM (memory) that has caused the computer to act weird.

Lastly, boot into safe mode as instructed, and definately save your 'My Documents' folder as this is the default area where windows saves most of their stuff...MS Office and the like.

[cobalt]

don't buy a dell :-?

[scandium]

don't buy a dell :-?
Generally speaking, one brand name PC is just as good as another, and Dell is no exception.

When it comes to computers there are basically two kinds of people: those who were usually introduced to them at a young age and/or have had one or more of the benefits of having a serious computer education (and I don't mean a worthless piece of paper from any of the thousands of "IT" diploma mills that have ruined this labour market), and/or IT work experience and/or a natural aptitude for PCs and the interest to go along with it along with lots of free time to explore it.

Then there is everyone else (which includes most people).

The 1st group knows the industry jargon, knows what to buy and how to put it all together and tweak it and can fix it when it breaks. This is the group I belong to and for a long time I wondered why everyone didn't do the same thing... then I got more and more involved in IT and tech support, and later customer service, and now I know only too well why most people don't and I finally have some understanding... essentially not everyone has these benefits that this small group has and they have lives and/or families as well so for them a name brand is the only way to go and one's usually as good as another.

Unless they have a family member or a neighbour who's a "computer geek", knows their stuff and has lots of free time to do the homework & the inevitable troubleshooting that occurs over the lifetime of a PC...

What it comes down to, and this is what people who actually know their **** when it comes to PCs and can give advice, is that its what's inside the box that matters, not the name on it. And Dell's been making an attempt to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack by offering more and more top shelf components and custom options.

[3Jane]

Don't know if you have heard of this piece of software, but I found the Ontrack 'EasyRecovery Professional' excellent for recovering lost data files, even from a SATA HDD I reformatted.
If you can't get hold of it, I can send the setup file if you want through 'You sent it' or some such.