Massive computer issues for me
Friday, January 23, 2004 by CerebroJD | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Yesterday I was surfing the net minding my own business, when all of the sudden I get a whole bunch of pop-ups. I began closing out of them, but one thing led to another, and somehow, I ended up installing something pretty dangerous I think. I think that because last night at 8 oclock our time, my computer decided to freeze up on my dad (while I was at work). So he restarted it, and now I cannot log into either of the two users on the computer. It simply freezes up before it has a chance to do anything besides display the "Loading personal settings..." dialog. Anyways, I tried to get in via Safe Mode to recover some of my data, but it still wont let me into my user. It will let me into the other user, but since all my files in my user are protected, I cant access or copy them to another computer on our home network. So this has left me in a fine situation. 1) No backups. (doh!) 2) No access to files. 3) Possible reformat on the horizon.
Oh yeah! I also ran three different virus scans from the other user, and all showed up with no results. Nothing new in msconfig that I could find, and when I did a system restore, nothing changed for the better.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have caused this monumental catastrophe? Any help would be appreciated. With luck, I will be able to figure out some way into the system, but things arent looking good at the moment.
CerebroJD crosses fingers
Oh yeah! I also ran three different virus scans from the other user, and all showed up with no results. Nothing new in msconfig that I could find, and when I did a system restore, nothing changed for the better.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what could have caused this monumental catastrophe? Any help would be appreciated. With luck, I will be able to figure out some way into the system, but things arent looking good at the moment.
CerebroJD crosses fingers
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Essencay
Reply #82 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:51 PM
legacy service from the days of wooden computers definitely no longer needed
Reply #82 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:51 PM
| DISABLE MESSENGER |
legacy service from the days of wooden computers definitely no longer needed
HG_Eliminator
Reply #83 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:53 PM
while this statement WAS true at one time, it is no longer the case. most progs now do not need or utilize the messinger service. if at all else fails in the section to disable it theres a tab to see what programs or other services depend on its running ... look and see whats there ..if there is a prog or service useing it them u must decide if the prog or service is worth the massive security risk.....
the only real use any more for messinger any more, is for hackers to have another way to get in to your system and mess it up....
Reply #83 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:53 PM
| cause in general a lot of things that we do rely on it i believe |
while this statement WAS true at one time, it is no longer the case. most progs now do not need or utilize the messinger service. if at all else fails in the section to disable it theres a tab to see what programs or other services depend on its running ... look and see whats there ..if there is a prog or service useing it them u must decide if the prog or service is worth the massive security risk.....
the only real use any more for messinger any more, is for hackers to have another way to get in to your system and mess it up....
kongit
Reply #85 Monday, January 26, 2004 6:00 PM
Reply #85 Monday, January 26, 2004 6:00 PM
I accidently bumped my capslock key and decided it wasn't worth retyping. 
Jafo
Reply #86 Monday, January 26, 2004 6:03 PM
Reply #86 Monday, January 26, 2004 6:03 PM
| I accidently bumped my capslock key and decided it wasn't worth retyping. |
Yeah, right.....
JaGWiReBrian
Reply #88 Monday, January 26, 2004 9:00 PM
Reply #88 Monday, January 26, 2004 9:00 PM
Well, if you play games, i believe was it diablo or wacracft 3 that needed messenger, anyway bah. Also, i bet you guys didnt know of all of the methods of backing stuff up now did you? 
IPlural
Reply #89 Monday, January 26, 2004 9:14 PM
Reply #89 Monday, January 26, 2004 9:14 PM
JaGWi, is that a re-tread or do you honestly think that no one else has any clue about computers?
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
CerebroJD
Reply #90 Monday, January 26, 2004 11:05 PM
Reply #90 Monday, January 26, 2004 11:05 PM
Ok, I'll disable messenger right after the reformat, which I will be doing on wednesday, as its my only free day this week. I'll grab the last of my important stuff off it before I do the reformat. I suppose this will be a learning experience for me since I've neve a) had a computer so badly screwed up that there was no hope for repair and 
had to do a reformat. So it'll be fun. 
Anyways, thanks guys.
had to do a reformat. So it'll be fun. 
Anyways, thanks guys.
kongit
Reply #91 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 12:22 AM
Reply #91 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 12:22 AM
I just reformatted and reinstalled. It took about 3 hours, not including me backing up files which took a little over a day. Its not that bad. As long as you have the original cds for everything you will be alright, and just make a backup of your documents folder.
HG_Eliminator
Reply #92 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:46 AM
Reply #92 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:46 AM
hey jag u forgot the most widely used form of backup.. a second hard drive ... i store all my files on a secondary hdd. it is in a removeable server type drawer that i can slide it in(it fits in a standard 5 1/4 slot)and boom theres my back up stuff ready for transfer back to C:\ when im done i take the hdd sleeve out and put it away..no muss no fuss.. it also works if u have more than 1 user on the pc ..each has their own Hdd sleve with their stuff on it they just slide it in and boom thier off and running .. when they are done they take their sleve out and the pc is ready for the next user ...it works well in buisnesses that prioritze security...(u cant hack my hdd while im gone if i have it with me )
Jafo
Reply #93 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 6:20 AM
Reply #93 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 6:20 AM
| Also, i bet you guys didnt know of all of the methods of backing stuff up now did you? |
Please credit us with a modicum of intelligence.
Generally you'll find that people here have likely been backing up computer data for longer than you've had long trousers....
CerebroJD
Reply #94 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:57 PM
Yep thats for sure.
I'll have to make sure that I get my serial numbers for all my stardock stuff off before I start. Losing them wouldnt be very good!
Reply #94 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:57 PM
| u cant hack my hdd while im gone if i have it with me |
Yep thats for sure.I'll have to make sure that I get my serial numbers for all my stardock stuff off before I start. Losing them wouldnt be very good!
kongit
Reply #95 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 4:52 PM
Reply #95 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 4:52 PM
you can just get them to email them to you. thats what I did yesterday. took about 30 minutes for the email to send, but I'm not complaining all my object desktop stuff is back up and running smoothly.
DesignCaddy
Reply #96 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:14 PM
Reply #96 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:14 PM
a little late for this, but here you go travis:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/08/04/xp
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/08/04/xp
kongit
Reply #97 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:29 PM
Reply #97 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:29 PM
actually that doesn't cover the basic step that I really needed, a reformat. And I actually could have installed windows in about 4 hours if I didn't have to backup things to discs.
DesignCaddy
Reply #98 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:34 PM
sorry, i didn't mean for it to be usefull.. my IT buddy at work sent it to me.. i said 5 hours, aw, come on i've never had a problem installing XP.. he said just read it and i gurantee you'll see something in there that has driven you nuts.
he's right.. i can never find that key when i need it.
Reply #98 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:34 PM
| I actually could have installed windows in about 4 hours if I didn't have to backup things to discs. |
sorry, i didn't mean for it to be usefull.. my IT buddy at work sent it to me.. i said 5 hours, aw, come on i've never had a problem installing XP.. he said just read it and i gurantee you'll see something in there that has driven you nuts.
he's right.. i can never find that key when i need it.
kongit
Reply #99 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:47 PM
Reply #99 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:47 PM
I got my pc with xp on it from dell and the sticker with the key on it is on the cd sleeve so if I can find the cd I have found the key.
hehe that site is pretty funny though.
hehe that site is pretty funny though.
Plop2
Reply #100 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 6:36 PM
Reply #100 Tuesday, January 27, 2004 6:36 PM
If all else fails and you can't get in, before you reformat your drive, try installing the bad drive on a different PC as a slave to access your files. Be careful not to run anything as this may cause probs on the good drive, simply copy the info you want to save to the master. I have had to do this for people in the past. Interestingly enough if you put the drive that you are having access problems on in a machine with a differnt OS, such as Win98, the admin properties don't carry over and you can access anything.
Good Luck
Also if you want to completely remove Messenger, I did, do the following...
Remove Windows Messenger
Click Start - Run
Type the following line:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
[Message Edited]
Good Luck
Also if you want to completely remove Messenger, I did, do the following...
Remove Windows Messenger
Click Start - Run
Type the following line:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
[Message Edited]
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Reply #81 Monday, January 26, 2004 5:42 PM
[Message Edited]