G33Ks - Windows Vista Repair

[lukenemma]

you dont get them on os x it's a Unix based os and they dont get them

[KERRSURF]

I've never had a Windows virus (that I know about) or a *NIX one.

I do check for them.

[lukenemma]

i have pc's and mac's and lynux system that i use a day to day mac's are better and are over priced at one point i had a macbook and a samsung r510 both has the same spec both from pc world ( got a mate to get me discount ) both got on the same day and there was a £500 price diff but i needed both for work

[dieselboy]

Not reading the thread but you will be better off wiping and starting over.
BEFORE you do that, just source or use a usb hard drive caddy to attach the hard drive as an external usb disk. Then copy your photos and documents and private things over to another PC. Then, put the hard disk back in the laptop, install windows and either remove the disk again to copy back or use some other methed like over the network or a DVD RAM.

Otherwise you could spend hours getting nowhere.

[K2Surf]

you dont get them on os x it's a Unix based os and they dont get them

You're way behind the times Mac OS X viruses have been around for years...

[BUSHWHACKER]

mac's dont get them and if you spend 400 on a second hand mac book it will out reform a £500 new laptop i no this cos i got my mrs a new laptop for xmas and my 2007 macbook is quicker on bench test and if you can aford a mac i can give you the link for hackentosh so you can put mac os x on you pc and mac os x only cost £30 to buy alot cheaper then windows

You need to get your two computers looked at, they don't appear to have the two keys between the 'M' and the '?'.

[Rustinho]

Thanks for the assistance everybody. It's largely confirmed what I expected I'd have to do - ie whip the hard drive out of the wife's laptop, back up what I can and then format & reinstall everything. That is assuming the hard drive is usable - looking at it tonight there is a screw missing (from the hard drive & the wife! lol) so that probably explains why it has crashed (obviously referring to the hard drive there).

Once again - thanks for the help everybody.

[lukenemma]

you can get a new 500gb drive with use adapter on ebay for about 40 next day

[Rustinho]

you can get a new 500gb drive with use adapter on ebay for about 40 next day

Or £38.99 from PC World...

[JUDWAK]

Never had a virus on any of my Macs since I've owned them.

the dickwards that make the virus's have just started to make them for
appple iphones blackberrys that type of thing
the reason (bbc news) theres a bigger market for them
has windows gets harder to crack
its leaveing the apples and phones wide open
its been on the news dude

[JUDWAK]

Has anyone out there in Surfland ever done a system recovery/repair on Windows Vista without a recovery disc?

I've had the system startup repair/recovery running for the best part of 24 hours now (on & off between the system freezing, etc!) and it has gone from "searching for problems" to "fixing problems" and back to "searching for problems").

The problems are on my wife's laptop. (Dell Inspiron 1545). The only other apparent problem with the laptop is that the screen is pretty badly damaged (cracked with a lovely dripping blood red effect from the cracks!) although it has been running like this since before christmas.

I've got a Windows 7 upgrade disc to use but attempting to boot up from there doesn't seem to be being successful either.

Formatting the hard drive is an absolute last resort because it has a load of photos on there that the wife has never got around to backing up.

go to dell support
theres an id number on the laptop

iam not sure if they cover what you need
but i keeped my old dell going for years just because dell have very good support
far better than any other make
there support is makes dell worth buying

[DaveHMS]

i cured mine - bought a macbook - bye bye windows.

Me too.

[J i m s t e r]

i have pc's and mac's and lynux system that i use a day to day mac's are better and are over priced

That's LINUX, I.T. Guru.

Macs used for the same thing day-in, day-out for things like publishing or photoshop are fine, but when you are mobile and connecting to multiple networks and working on PC-native files, then the issues appear. I know it's impossible for Apple to conceive of all possible configurations but they are not easy fixes for the end-user.

Macs would be better if they worked 100% of the time. I agree with their simplified interface - if it were up to me, I'd ship all kit intended for non-techies with a Fisher-Price interface. My dad never calls me up for advice on how to use his toaster.

With Apple kit, the fact that they've "Welded the bonnet shut" means you have to go back to Apple and be rhaped through the wallet (again) for work done to rectify these problems (that they never have). They look nice though

In, what, 20 years of working in I.T. I've never thought "This PC is stopping me doing what I need, and I'll need a Mac to get it done."

To the O.P. :

Never, ever keep your own data (photos, videos, mp3s) on the computer's hard disk. When the computer dies, so do these. And they will clog up the disk that the O/S runs off, which slows the whole thing down.

Always keep it stored on external drives, and synch/back them up regularly - Microsoft's free SyncToy (google it) is great for this.

[Rustinho]

To the O.P. :

Never, ever keep your own data (photos, videos, mp3s) on the computer's hard disk. When the computer dies, so do these. And they will clog up the disk that the O/S runs off, which slows the whole thing down.

Always keep it stored on external drives, and synch/back them up regularly - Microsoft's free SyncToy (google it) is great for this.

I've told the wife to back stuff up time & time again but she never listens. Maybe she will learn the hard way this time...

[Dixie.t]

I've told the wife to back stuff up time & time again but she never listens. Maybe she will learn the hard way this time...

take the bits off you know you need to keep then format and start new, if the wife asks if you backed it up say no im following your lead on this one.