LAPTOP Trouble

[Lex]

laptop trouble:

Now it looks like my laptop is hosed. I was trying to use spybot, and I only deleted things that were clearly spyware in easy mode, and I rebooted and something to do with the kernal is messed up.

So, now I am not sure what to do. I expect my daughter has gotten a virus on there, as it was acting really strangely anyway as that was why I was doing the cleaning.

I see the options as:

1. get a new hard drive, take that one out and access it as a data drive to get the data off it.
2. Get a copy of XP that isn't part of a formatting/recovery cycle like the PC came with. I never liked those!

Either way, I see it as costing a couple of hundred bucks likely.

Better ideas guys?

Also, anyone know how to get to a hard drive typically on a Sony laptop? Is the battery in the back or under the keyboard from the front? I'm really no laptop specialist and will likely take this in for service anyway, but if anyone has any ideas, great.

It has Home XP on it, so I guess if I could try a restore, I'd need home, not Pro or the upgrade to try to repair it, right?

Then again, what happens if I try to install 98 or 2000 on the laptop without FORMATTING? If I could get in, then I could extract our data, then format it for XP.

I own 98 and 2000, just not XP except for this extracting recovery deal.

Lex

[ThomasW]

System Retore is the first thing to try. All it does is use an older version if the registery. You don't need an OS disk to use restore.

The standard Sony laptops have the HD under the keyboard. You remove the spacer that holds the speakers (it slides off to the one side) then lift up the keyboard, that will expose the HD.

I found the Sony restore disks to be some of the easiest to use.

Jon and I have tried to both upgrade and install XP Pro from scratch on our Sony laptops that originally can with XP Home. In every case the XP Pro wouldn't work.

After my last laptop install got corrupted I used the Sony disks to setup everything again. After installing all my apps and custom tweaks to the HD, I used Acronis TrueImage and copied the Sony HD to a Maxtor external Firewire HD. Now if anything goes south all I do is a quick restore from that external HD

[Lex]

But how do I go about doing a System restore, use the Sony discs? If so, how?

Thanks for all the info.

I did try to reboot using safe mode, and it won't even do that.

The message is Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt.

Windows Root\System\ntoskrnl.exe

reinstall above file.

Lex

[Juan Cortez]

Go to Start/programs/accessories/system tools/ and system restore should be in there.

[Kevin P]

He can't even get Windows to boot to get to system restore. If the Sony restore disks let you get into XP Recovery Console (basically a DOS prompt that lets you fix boot problems) try using that. Otherwise you'll probably need a "real" XP CD. It peeves me that manufacturers are too cheap to include the actual OS and driver disks with a machine anymore.

You said you have Win2K, you could try installing that into a different folder, and then using that to copy off anything important, then use the restore disks to start fresh with XP. Or if the disk is formatted FAT or FAT32 (not NTFS), you could boot off the 98 disk. There are Linux distros (Knoppix comes to mind) that give access to NTFS partitions as well that some have been able to use to get data off a hosed Winders install.

[Lex]

I don't know if it's fat or NTFS. that's the bad thing. Any body know what Sony did last year in this regard?

Those are good ideas Kevin, I hope something works, as I'd like to be able to save the data. Dang Winblows.

I think I will try copying W2K onto another directory, then I presume the system will allow multi-boot options so I'd select the 2K session.

Lex

[Gordon Moore]

make a Win98 boot disk with fdisk on it (assuming you have a floppy) or throw it on a CDRW or memory key or whatever.

Boot to the optional disk and run fdisk. It will tell you what filesystem you have loaded. Even if it's NTFS, you'll know because it will recognize it, but not be able to do anything with it.

[Lex]

Yet another good idea, thanks Gord!

I think I have a boot disk, and I think I have a flooopppsy drive (getting to be a rare breed), I "think". I'll check tonight. At least I could burn to CD from disk if I have to on my full feature desktop.

thanks-a-mundo. (That's a Fonzie thing, isn't it?)

Lex

[ThomasW]

If his Sony restore discs are like mine, all they do is wipe the drive and reinstall the original software config. Takes 45 min or less, but of course any/all data is lost.

When I lost my software config, I removed the Sony HD and bought a $10 adaptor so it could be accessed from a standard IDE cable. Then use my desktop PC to grab all the important data files off the Sony HD.

I then used the Sony software to reinstall the original config and copied the data back using a firewire external HD.

[Azeke]

Lex,

If you are running XP you have a few options:

1) Reboot you computer go to F8 and choose the last known
good configuration/system restore, then run a virus scan.

2) You can slave your laptop hard drive as per Thomas suggestion and recover the data to a new hard drive.

3) Send the hard drive to a data recovery service (i.e. On Track), it's costly @ approximately $1500.00 US.

Just my quick thoughts,

Azeke

[Lex]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I was hugely popular last night, wiping out the drive with a reinstall. My daughter was not happy. But I felt cornered, nothing else to do, when I did a lot of checks last night.

1. Drive not accessable after booting to A> with 98 boot disc.

2. Could not get to safe mode.

3. Tried to install operating system into existing partitions on either of 2 logical drives, I could not. (98 and 2000)

4. Tried to run 98 off disc, nope.

Nothing worked, and it appeared that the drive was wiped.

After the install, I ran a photo recovery tool that I have. This tool has recovered images off compact flash cards that have been deleted. I felt sure that the program would find something, but it appears all it found were things in Windows, not one apparent personal photo. I don't know if I did the only thing I could do or not. I would have certainly tried that disc adapter with my other PC had I read about that first. I would have even accepted formatting and installing OS,but the system wouldn't let me install an OS without doing the scratch disc thing of the Sony restore.

I hate PCs somtimes.

Doug

[ThomasW]

It's certainly no fun to lose data. :cry:

Here's the way to ensure against future problems.

Get a copy of Acronis TrueImage software. IMO it's much better than Norton Ghost or Drive Copy/Drive Image

Make a CD boot disk using the Acronis software. Note that the Acronis boot disk loads USB drivers, and lets you access a USB external HD from DOS

Use the Acronis software to make an image of the fully setup Sony drive to any USB external HD. And update those images frequently.

If the imaging software ever fails to do a complete restore (note that Acronis is VERY reliable) have one of these 2.5" USB HD cases available. Pop the Sony HD into the case plug it into an existing PC and grab all the important files

[Lex]

thanks Thomas, I will check into all that. I did get Norton Ghost for my main PC after crashing and burning there some time back. The laptop just sort of got away from me with my daughter on it.

It did turn out to be a bad hard drive, because I reloaded everything on a fresh format, and it still crapped out with the same error. I put a new Seagate 40 gig drive in, and this has fixed the problems, the laptop is running better than ever now.

I do need to do something on backup, maybe copy it all to an external DVD drive maybe even.

Lex