Can you please help me fix my computer?

Which operating system ? It sounds as if the OS is seriously corrupted. If you have the os disk and boot the pc from cd rom you may be given the opportunity to repair Operating system files. I know windows XP had this option which I successfully used and I think my Windows 7 dvd also comes with a repair files option

If you have no luck with that, grab yourself a copy of windows 7 and do a fresh install. W

@Odysseus I’m running XP SP3 on the bad drive, and XP SP2 on the good one (beacause that’s all I have the installation disks for). I don’t think my computer is fast enough to run 7, and I have no money at the moment.

If that fails, grab yourself a copy of windows 7. When doing a fresh install win7 is able to save all of the old data on the HDD into one folder, you can then move all of your music and files to the relevant places on your new installation, Also you are still able to run many of your installed programmes and games etc, Just go into the saved data folder find the exe files and add short cut to desktop Voila. (some programmes dont work this way ,Adobe photoshop cs4 for example requires it to be run from the registry it was installed to)

win7 is Very cheap if you know where to look ;-)

WIN7 runs fine with a P4 and 512mb ram if you turn off all the glassy effects.

But try your installation disks first, I think the options to choose are… “Fresh install” (not the repair option at this point unless you made backup disks), then it will say there is already xp on the disk and give you the option to repair

@Odysseus Backing up my files is not a problem – it would just be time consuming. My computer has a 3.06GHz P4 with 1.5GB RAM, but I would prefer to put off buying 7 until next year when I plan to get a whole new computer. I’ll try putting in my backup disks to see if there is a repair option.

@teal1066 I already said above that I don’t want to buy 7 just yet. I don’t see how bird control is related to computing either, so if you don’t give me a good reason for why you posted that website I will report you for spam.

First thing I would do is back up all the files. Even if you don’t need to reformat the drive having at least one backup is always smart.

It may not be a problem with the drive or the windows install. If you have a hardware fault such as bad memory or cpu it could be that is causing the problem.

“I’m running XP SP3 on the bad drive, and XP SP2 on the good one”

Do you think it could be some fault in the SP3?

When was the last time you cleaned your disk for space? also, is your computer making duplicate copies of just about everything? i changed to Defender Pro Antivirus System and it cleaned out everything not being used. it’s a great antivirus program. the price is right at WalMart. the cost was around $35.00 and worth every penny.

Your system needs a good cleaning. not only will Defender Pro clean your system, it will also give you lightning speed connections. this is what you are looking for. clean your system everyday for continued good performance from your pc.

@Lightlyseared My RAM and CPU are working fine on the other drive. I’m busy backing up everything onto my external HDD now just in case.

@Brian1946 I highly doubt it, because I have been running SP3 smoothly since it first came out.

@john65pennington I gave it a thorough clean and defragment about a week ago. I’m running AVG free, and before I switched drives I also had AdAware and WinPatrol. Before I got the problems, I downloaded a bad media file which opened a window asking me to download a DRM licence for the file. I think it was this that imported the malware to my hard drive, but I expected AVG to be able to deal with it.

I wouldn’t expect AVG to deal with much of anything. Maybe I am biased since the one virus I ever had was one I got when I was running AVG Free, but I quickly switched to Avira Free, and haven’t had any such issues in the years since. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that that is my AV program of choice. I could send you to AV Comparatives or a few other places to show you why, or you could just take my word for it.

I almost wonder if using System Restore to roll the clock back to before that download would buy you enough time to get a real anti-virus program and do a scan/sweep…

@jerv – I think he’s running the AV from the other drive, so would a system restore even be necessary/helpful? Couldn’t he just run your other AV from the secondary drive? Not questioning that advice, just clarifying if it might help.

@FireMadeFlesh – Whenever I run into a problem like this, after running through the obvious steps (which it sounds like you’ve covered) I always figure I can either spend my time troubleshooting further, making theories, and trying to chase down a problem there may not be a solution to or I can spend that time just copying the files and reformatting the drive.

Then at least you know it’s done and you’re moving towards a solution instead of possibly spending more time and then having to reformat anyway.

That said, some folks have fun with the chase. So a couple possibilities.

Can you get into the system logs on the “bad” drive? They may at least get you pointed in the right direction, it should kick an error each time the bootup fails. Using the Event Viewer (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Viewer) on the “good” OS you have options to either connect to another computer (might give you everything on the other drive, I’ve never used it) or open a system log file (which should work)... mine are stored in C:\WINDOWS\system32\config (of course you’d want to look on the “bad” drive for yours)

There’s also a “repair” installation for XP if you have the disk handy. Although I’d back the disk up before trying, it may fix a corrupted OS.

Unfortunately, it seems when things start to go bad, symptoms tend to cascade. You fix one problem just to have another, which may or may not be related, pop up. It’s just so tough to tell if something is a symptom or the actual cause.

I hope it works out easily and good luck.

Thanks @jerv and @funkdaddy for your suggestions.

I spent most of today on the problem. I backed up all my files to my external hard drive, then reformatted the bad drive…. twice. When I reformatted, it would not even boot to the point of recognising the drive. I can still access the bad drive when I run it as a slave, but of course it is now completely wiped so that is not much use.

So my new question is, do hard drives have a specific boot sector that could become spontaneously corrupted? Can this drive ever be more than a secondary now? I’ve decided to make do with my Asus Eee laptop until I can collect enough money to buy a totally new computer sometime next year. Failing that, I will just get a new hard drive and format it from scratch. I suspect this drive is physically buggered rather than being a software issue.

It’s uncommon for the boot sector to become spontaneously corrupted, but it can get infected by certain viruses. Windows has a couple of command-line tools for that sort of thing. FIXBOOT does exactly what it says, as does FIXMBR. I generally ran those from my WinXP install disc.

@jerv Thanks. Can the boot sector, as a result of a virus, become infected to the point where a full reformat cannot overwrite the error? Can I run those repair programs run on the bad drive from the good drive (seeing as, obviously, I cannot boot on the bad one to install the program)?

A normal format doesn’t touch that part of the disk, which is why special programs like FIXBOOT are needed.

Like I said, I ran them from the WinXP install disc. You boot from the WinXP install CD, hit R to tell it you are repairing an existing WinXP install as opposed to installing it, then go for a Recovery Console so that you get a DOS prompt. Then you are in business :)

Of course, you will need to know your drive letters to run them correctly, but you probably already know those.

Reference 1

@jerv It turns out I don’t have a WinXP install disc, only my Acer backup discs. I put each of them in, and none of them would let me run the fixboot or fixmbr commands. They only give me the options of a reformat, updating drivers, and installing third party programs that came with the computer.

I’ll be buying a new computer next year anyway, so I think I’ll just make do with my Eee until I can afford a new computer. After all this, my new one will definitely have a RAID setup.

RAID doesn’t solve all issues. A striped array will be more robust and reliable, but only after it is set up, which can be a nightmare in it’s own right.

I think I might have something that can help (if I can find it). Time to go digging…