Windows won't start at all!

[Murphie]

I feel like writing "HELP!"
Celeron 1G, 512 MB RAM, about 3G free of 20 G hard drive. (Yes, I know it's too full). Twice lately I've gotten this message: Windows was unable to save I$ something; Please try to save the file somewhere else. I: is a USB 1 hard drive I use for back up. (As soon as we have a little money I'm going to replace it) The first time it happened, after a restart the computer was OK. This morning, however, even after Retrospect quit (I cancelled the backup to the I: drive, and the other backup ran) the machine was still very sluggish. Internet Explorer stopped responding. Actually, pretty much everything stopped responding--I couldn't even restart through Windows, and ended up hitting the reset button. Then it hung up at the "Windows is starting up" screen. I tried again in Safe Mode but it was the same thing. I tried using "Last Knows Good Configuration" but that didn't work either. I don't know what to do next, but it's very important to get this machine back on its feet.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Murphie

[Paul Komski]

Presumably this is Win2K or WinXP.

but it's very important to get this machine back on its feet Is data recovery important or do you just want to get going again?

I wouldn't have said that 3GB of free space was "too full". You have ample room to install Windows as a second/parallel installation, which could be the quickest way of getting going again. Just boot to the installation CD and choose new installation. Don't delete or format any partitions but just install into the same partition but into a new Windows Folder (called say Windows2). That should give you a dual boot menu and allow you to get in to get going and hopefully access all your data. You can then decide what to do with the original installation and whether or not to attempt to repair it.

[Murphie]

OK, thank you very much, I'm going to do that right now. I'm glad there's enough space. The data is important because the back end of the invoice program is there, and if I can get going without having to reinstall, it will save some time now, although there is a back up almost up to date (missing just this mornings work) if all else fails. I do plan to put in a bigger and faster drive before too long.

Many thanks!
Murphie

[Murphie]

Well, when I went over and clicked the mouse, and what do I see but my login screen....So I didn't do an installation and kept an eye on it. It's still not acting right. It can take several minutes to open programs; Outlook stopped responding a couple of times. I had a hunch that part of the problem might be the USB drive--I've had trouble with that all along, but at the moment I can't even uninstall it because it's taking so long to open up the "Add-Remove" control panel. I ran Adaware last night and it found nothing. NAV is up to date; Trojan Hunter is on--what else did I forget?

Does anyone have any ideas? Does this just look like a reinstall?

Thank you!
Murphie

[classicsoftware]

Turn the system off.

Remove the USB hard drive.

Re-boot the system.

Let us know what happens.

It appears the USB drive is failing.

[Murphie]

Yup, that must be it--as soon as I got rid of the drive I got a computer back. I was finally able to uninstall the driver too. Everything seems to be working normally again now.

I hate to knock anyone, but those 2 low-end Buslink USB drives gave me a lot of grief; I can't remember how many times I reinstalled them, and several times they almost brought the computer down--or so it seemed, since when I would remove or reinstall them the problem would go away, for a while. They are being replaced.

Thank you very much!

Murphie

[classicsoftware]

I build my own USB devices.

Buy the hard drive of your choice.

You can get a USB enclosure:

Here (http://www.cooldrives.com/al5ideopdrce.html)

or

Here (http://www.cwol.com/usb/tt-5-25-firewire-400-usb-2-drive-kit.htm)

or

The always reliable Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-746&depa=0)

I don't know how much you paid for the pre-built, with the enclosure, you can swap hard drives in and out. It's a pleasure.