Bleh.. Computer Problem Created 18 years ago2005-12-27 10:29:51 UTC by Dorian27

I'm recruiting the help of Tech saavy people that have helped me in the past.. i.e. Seventh-Monkey and m0p perhaps 4thgen (you seem smart enough to help ).

I'm working on this lady's computer. She says it is running slow and sluggish.. I defrag, run ad-aware, clear temp, cache, cookies, all that jazz. I run CHKDSK, it takes about 45 minutes, then her computer crashes. I get a blue screen.
(paraphrased)

Your computer has been shut down to prevent any seriouus damage from occurring. If this is the first time you've seen this message, restart your computer. If not, uninstall any new hardware or software, and reboot

I was going to backup her data and reformat but
a. she has XP Home, and I have no Home CD (legitamite (sp) at least) (keep in mind, this is a professional customer.. no illegal software) and
b. she has a SATA hard drive.. I haven't upgraded to SATA, so I cant back up her data. (or can I, if you know how, please tell.)

I'm going to get a bad reputation if I can't fix this lady's computer, and she will want her money back, I am sure.. and I don't want to part with the $75 she gave me to look at her computer.

If anyone has a solution, please help me.. I know I need to get ahold of XP Home if I want to reformat, but is there any way I can repair the OS. btw.. due to the incorrespondance of XP Pro and Home, when I boot to my pro disc, I have no repair option.. plz help me.. plz.. I'll give you a cookie.

can you get her xp home cd off her or is it pre-installed (like when she bought the comp)

Like in most scenarios it was a pre-load.. my concern is not with the XP CD, I can get one from my girlfriend, she takes them from her office all the time, my concern is an alternative method that I can get done soon, and with he least amount of stolen software possible.

You sure you don't have any SATA ports on your motherboard that you just don't use?

Try reinstalling all the drivers you can. Any libraries/filenames mentioned in the BSOD?

Have a look at the running processes with the [m]supreme[/m] Process Explorer. Post a list from the proggy if poss.

Yeah, I cheaped out and bought a MOBO with no SATA at the time, I didn't realize the greatness of hot-swap.. o well..
As for the BSOD, I can't reinstall any drivers, cuz I don't have any driver disks and I can't even reach the OS.. the load bar goes by about half way, and I get the Blue Screen.
The BSOD doesn't list and specific filenames, paths, libraries, its pretty generic.
On a not-worth-mentioning note, I use Security Task Manager to explore processes, but that wont work, cuz the OS wont load.
Why you gotta be show-offy and use your Uber admin text pout

Oh, you didn't say that you couldn't get to the OS anymore :P.

Is the drive partitioned nicely, or just a sloppy mess?

For some reason there are 3 partitions.. one isnt big enough to install XP (it is 80 mb or so), and the other ones show up as Unknown partition, so I don't know which one her data is stored on. The unknown partition probably means her XP is corrupt, I don't really want to risk destroying her data by choosing the wrong partition to format.

*Update*

I ran a disc diagnostics thingie.. and it said SATA hard drive failed.. I think her hard drive borked.. I hope ill find a way to recover her data.. I tried putting a PATA HD into her computeras a master, but its a dell and it has a funky BIOS. I can't choose any boot device other than her SATA, or a CD-ROM, and there isn't even a CD-ROM installed!! I hate you Dell!

Get a new HDD... avoid WD and Maxtor at all costs. Seagate are the best option. Hitachi are a bit unreliable.

any suggestions on backing up her data? I can easily get a new hard drive, and reformat it, that isn't my concern as much as a way to back up her data.

*Update*
The lady is looking for her XP restore disc now, if she finds it, I'll try to fix her OS with that. I'll work the other problems out after I try that. Also, my boss, suggests that perhaps her Drive Controller is buggin out. It would make sense because it said her HD failed, and her floppy had a disc read error, and she doesn't have a floppy drive! If the restore disc doesn't work, I'm giving it to Dell to fix, it is still under warrantee after all.

Get a new HDD... avoid WD and Maxtor at all costs.

I have wd. Why avoid them? Maybe because of the temperature?

I don't know why I should avoid Maxtor or Western Digital, but I do anyway, Seagate ftw!

Meh when i turn off my pc and touch my HDD it burns my fingers, so i guess that's why. (not because of the fingers but because they are not relyable?)

Both Maxtor and WD use very unreliable motors. I've had 5 Maxtor disks fail on my consistantly after a few months of use. All different batches. WD have terrible RMA policy, and will sell refurbished drives as brand new, as well as using nasty motors that vibrate randomly and overheat often. Now, WD disks are a bit more reliable than Maxtor, but I still avoid them with the exception of Raptors, which are quite reliable. I have 2 Raptors in RAID0 sitting here right now, and the temperature is acceptable, but their only downside is the stupid price and the unbelievable noise. The access noise is like grinding rusty plates.

Never had any problem with WD drives, but they were noisy as hell. Then again, so were some old seagates (an old 10gb from '99)

@dorian27: can't help you, but you might want to trash the two extra partitions if they're not doing anything. (assuming the hd still is good)

I shall not do any partition trashing, because I don't know which partition has the lady's data on it
Now she prolly wouldn't want me wiping away all her stuff now would she
Sorry for the frequent smiley use.. im a little hyper from the coffee twitches at least I'm not falling asleep on my keyboard though!

Get a spare HDD, copy the partitions there with some disk imaging app, before the old HDD packs up completely. Get the new disk, copy each partition over with an aforementioned disk imaging app, if the new disk is bigger or smaller, resize the partition in proportion, repeat for all 3 partitions. Fixed The choice of app for this, however, I don't know.

I'd use partition magic, should be able to handle this with no problem. Might cost some money though...

if they're not doing anything.

if you don't know what it is, don't execute/delete/modify it. I learned this the hard way once.

I know I know, Its a really stupid idea but i did it once, you save all the things she wants on floppys or cds (your choice) then there youve got yourself $75.

yes save the whole hdd on floppy's and give them to her that would be like 120000 floppy's

Or just use partition magic

Or cd-rw

save all the things she wants on floppys or cds

How do you expect him to do that when the OS is unbootable?

Dorian, she has more than one SATA connector, right?

*Update* (again, but for the last time)
It r teh fixed..zorz..zzz
I figured there was no way to back up her data with my current resources, so I got out her handy XP Home restore disc, and gave old Dell a call. they walked me through all the usual crap, and in the end had me run: chkdsk /r, fixmbr and fixboot. As I was doing this I was thinking 'oh great, I already did this, but they wont let me move on until I do it again.' So It ran for approx/ 1 - 2 hours and then the computer booted up... all the way to the OS.. I was like OMGWTFBBQ, but I was happy. I logged on and it wasn't sluggish either (which was it's original problem)
Thank you very much for all of your suggestions, and Yes Ansith, I think you are crazy, there is no way im going to try and back up her data onto floppys. she had at least 5 gigs full of data, so 1 floppy = 1.44mb. 5000 mb / 1.44 = 3472.22 floppies. to that.
Also, as 7th said, I had no OS.. or a floppy drive for that matter, I cant back up to floppy withought those 2 key components. Anyways, I'm $100 richer after that experience (she paid me another $25 when I went back to her house to hook it up) and you are not.. ta.

Sorry for the lack of help from me Dorian. I was on holiday.

?60 for ringing Dell up? Easeh.

At first i didn't think it would amount to having to call dell. At first I was gonna charge her $20-$30 but she left a check for $75 with my shoes and I didnt argue

Dorian I Know putting everything on floppys is a very stupid idea but You could put it on cd rewriteables which I did say!