More computer issues - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

10/11/2005 09:56:38 AM · #26

can you boot to DOS?

that might be an easy fix - if the shit wasn't on the damn DESKTOP.
makes for a much longer path.

the path to my images is something like
f:/offcam
f:/prints
f:/betterphoto
f:/dpchallenge

yours is along the lines of on winXP
c:/documents%2settings/all%2users/desktop ( for all users )
c:/documents%2settings/thatcloudthere/desktop ( for your login should you have one set up )

//www.csulb.edu/~murdock/dosindex.html

puma

Canon EOS-10D

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

10/11/2005 09:57:23 AM · #27

Went you first start your computer I beleive you can hit either F2 or F12 can't remember which and that will get you into configuration where you should be able to do a repair.

WGN1

Olympus E-500 EVOLT

Olympus 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital ED

10/11/2005 10:01:27 AM · #28

Before you panic completely,....try replacing the CMOS battery, and then you will have to go into cmos and refind the hard-drive...depending on how old the computer is ...there should be an auto-detect....it's worth a try... the battery is only a couple dollars...good luck

10/11/2005 10:06:00 AM · #29

I emailed the IT guy here at work...he said he has some recovery tools that he might be able to help me with.

*crossing fingers*

And then, yes...I think I'll go to a Mac.

Message edited by author 2005-10-11 10:06:26.

LeeD

10/11/2005 10:07:33 AM · #30

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:

And then, yes...I think I'll go to a Mac.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10/11/2005 10:09:11 AM · #31

Originally posted by Palmetto_Pixels:

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
And then, yes...I think I'll go to a Mac.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha...I use my computer solely for media (music and photography now, field recordings and video in the future) so a Mac seems like a better fit for that sort of stuff...

LeeD

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 16-85 f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

10/11/2005 10:12:48 AM · #32

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:

Haha...I use my computer solely for media (music and photography now, field recordings and video in the future) so a Mac seems like a better fit for that sort of stuff...

Yeah... I give up... You're probably right.
Lost another one. :-(

I really don't have anything against Macs. I just never have really used one so I don't know much about them. Ignorance is bliss!!!

cbeller

Nikon D300

10/11/2005 10:14:44 AM · #33

is the missing/corrupt file "system.ced"? If so, it most like a very simple fix.

Your IT guy may have the repair CD that fixes this, otherwise, slaving the drive to another computer and renaming a file will fix the problem 98% of the time.

We fixed hundreds of these errors.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

10/11/2005 10:16:38 AM · #34

Being a laptop user myself, my first thought when you said about being asked to format the drive was that you were using a laptop.

FYI, Laptops typically come only with a set of backup CD's which are image files of a prebuilt and preinstalled OS for that exact laptop. This enables the seller to sell a computer with Windows set up so that it is only useful for that particular computer.

They are not Boot CD's. They cannot do anyhthing other than reinstall.

You can also enter your CMOS and choose to your primary boot source to USB and use an external USB drive. It will be unformatted, so if you merely remove your hard drive (This isn't too hard in most recent laptops), you should be able to use your backup CD's to build a new OS. If you have a USB drive installed at the time of boot, it will try to find what it needs to boot from it. You can also set it (if I recall correctly) to stop if it doesn't find it or carry on if it doesn't find it. You don't technically need to remove the drive, but I would anyhow, just to get it out of the way of the format that you WILL need to do.

You can enter CMOS by hitting delete multiple times during the initial boot sequence.

This saved my butt once when I built a computer for someone and lost power 99% of the way through the process. Yeck.

If I have a problem with any of these, I have a bootleg copy of Windows XP that I burned off the net. I am forced into this option because I live in a country that does not offer English support at all via microsoft. They will refer you to the Chinese tech support every single time no matter what your question and how you word it. My computer manufacturer is local, but they do not fix OS or software problems. I cannot provide this CD for you as it is something I only use for troubleshooting and patches when people have a legal and legitimate copy of windows, but have a problem that Microsoft ought to fix, but isn't willing to.

Likewise, if you have a friend who has an actual boot CD, they may be able to lend it to you so you can at least boot off the CD and see if you can get a better look at exactly what kind of damage has been done. If you do this DO NOT USE CHKDSK! I believe you can also set CMOS to not do this.

When you get your OS rebuilt and everything sorted, I strongly suggest you do as I will be doing in the next month and build a proper boot CD that is legitimate based on your official version of Windows. You can google it with Windows boot cd and slipstream. If you learn about doing the slipstreaming, you will get a much nicer product from the boot CD install. I have a newer laptop, but it boots up in around a minute or so. I built a 1 ghz pentium 4 up that had Windows XP and extra language packs that booted in 13 seconds flat. The Windows XP image CD's that are backup discs are TERRIBLY bloated. I don't know nearly enough yet to build a proper slipstreamed disc, but I feel I should be able to get a boot in 20 seconds or less with a 5 month old computer. This may be of benefit to you as well.

Spork99

OM System OM-1

10/11/2005 10:27:52 AM · #35

Originally posted by Palmetto_Pixels:

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
Haha...I use my computer solely for media (music and photography now, field recordings and video in the future) so a Mac seems like a better fit for that sort of stuff...

Yeah... I give up... You're probably right.
Lost another one. :-(

I really don't have anything against Macs. I just never have really used one so I don't know much about them. Ignorance is bliss!!!

I have been setting up a home network with a Powermac G4 800MHz running OSX and a PIII with Windows 2000. I haven't really used a Mac much since the early 90's. I've mostly used PC's since that's what we had in engineering school. Throughout this process of getting these 2 machines setup, I am constantly amazed at how easy it is to get the Mac to do the same thing that is a PITA to get setup on the PC. The Mac really is just like the ads say "It just works"

ZorbaTheGeek

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

10/11/2005 10:34:04 AM · #36

I do this for a living and the only advice I can sensibly offer is:

If you need the data on that drive and don't know what you are doing leave it alone and take it in to the professionals and get it fixed. From my experience it's fairly unlikely that you have a dead drive, critical windows failures seem to corrupt system files quite often, usually leaving a non-booting system.

If you're technically minded you can boot from an original Windows XP CD. Get to setup, and choose "Repair Existing Installation" when asked. 9 times in 10 this will bring the machine back up.
Warning! Screw it up, and you'll delete your current installation, possibly including any data (depending on where you go wrong)

Windows XP does this ALL the time. It's very annoying.

Message edited by author 2005-10-11 10:37:22.

10/11/2005 10:39:26 AM · #37

Originally posted by ZorbaTheGeek:

Yes, I've given the laptop to a guy in my IT department stressing the importance of saving the files...I'm not sure what he's doing to it but I hope it works.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

10/11/2005 10:46:27 AM · #38

Windows does this ALL the time when averaged over a large number of computers in a certain service area. My sister and I both run WinXP and have never experienced major dificulties really at all once the machine is set up and running. I have built a handful of computers for others as well as being someone whom many foreigners go to for technical advice when they can't deal with the Chinese here in Taiwan.

Macs have their troubles too. They can be significantly harder to fix too depending on your background.

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

10/11/2005 11:01:20 AM · #39

Originally posted by ZorbaTheGeek:

I agree.

This may be much ado about nothing. Your main concern is that when you boot to the XP CD it wants to format... If memory serves, the 'r' repair option comes after that screen, but before (without) formatting. So you're IT guy should be able to fix you up very easily & quickly. Of course, you want to back up those files before hitting the 'r', just in case!

ZorbaTheGeek

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

10/11/2005 11:22:34 AM · #40

I run Windows XP on three of my home PCs and Linux on another two. Despite knowing exactly what I'm doing it's impossible to completely avoid issues with Windows based PCs.

To put things in perspective:
My Linux server currently has uptime of almost a year without a single reboot, and that was to install an extra drive!

As an interesting note, just today we shut down one of the diagnostic laptops we use in the workshop to take on a site callout. When I arrived at site I was greeted with the message:

"c:/windows/system/ missing or corrupt...."

Oh well, another one to be fixed.

You do have a point though, "ALL the time" is a relative statement based on sample size. My sample is based on the hundreds of machines I work on in the course of a year. I've only seen three macs in for repair this year, one of which is utterly dead (motherboard failure) and sat in pieces on my workbench right now.

It's impossible to read any factual statistics into the number of Mac repairs we see as I have no idea how many Mac machines are sat on desks in my local area. Although, we do have contracts with several local design companies who have more Macs than PCs. I get regular callouts to these clients, but I've yet to do anything but set up email accounts on the Macs....

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO Macro Super for Canon

10/11/2005 11:36:44 AM · #41

Yeah, I just want to use my laptop. I don't download funky stuff or modify it...just want to use good media software and have it ready when I need it.

As I begin my new career next year, my laptop will be the second most important tool (next to my camera) that I have. If my trusty Canon just bogged down, stopped or took 5 minutes to start up every once in a while I would switch to Nikon in no time!

I see an ibook in my future.

nemesise1977

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

10/11/2005 11:40:06 AM · #42

Originally posted by DanSig:

the answer to all computerproblems.. get a mac ;)

Thats is if you want problems :p

What is the exact error message and what version of windows is it, is possiable with that information to make a boot disk and copy the file over or could be an indication of somthing else being broken. I wouldnt say it is time to replace the hd yet. when you get an error the exact verbage is everything!

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

10/11/2005 12:01:25 PM · #43

Yeah Zorba, that is what I meant. I used Linux on my father's machines as I was growing up. They were all rock-solid. Of course the learning curve is pretty rough in Linux and it can be intimidating for many.

My dad is always proud of how his computer is able to stay running longer than the time it takes for the equipment to become obsolete and need upgrading :). He is semi-tech staff in a federal cartography office.

Just to give him a run for his money, I ran may computer for 4.5 months without a reboot. I'm not saying XP is better, just that it's not really that bad and IS capable of running for the average person without many problems for a significant amount of time.

The only things that have really hurt my computer's stability have been Chinese Dictionary software called Dr.Eye, Mozilla FireFox (I suspect it has issues because I run Tablet Edition), and Norton Antivirus.

Again, taking things out of context, I have had linux and Xwindows crash on me 10 times more than I have ever experienced with windows XP. I used Linux for almost 15 years and have used XP for about 2 or 3? I only used XWindows for about a year though.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

10/11/2005 12:39:14 PM · #44

Originally posted by eschelar:

I used Linux for almost 15 years ...

I didn't realize it had been around quite that long!

soup

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

10/11/2005 12:41:41 PM · #45

well UNIX...

tmhalling

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

10/11/2005 12:46:37 PM · #46

It could be something as simple sa repairing your master boot record. You should be able to run a repair operation from your boot CD.

1. Boot from CD
2. After the system loads instead of hitting R for repair attempt to install Windows. At this point it will ask you if you want to repair the existing installation. If you have a bad hard drive etc this process will not work and your system will lock-up. You can then be certain that you will need to replace the hard drive. This error can also be casued by faulty RAM. Did you replace or upgrade your RAM recently? If you need more help drop me an email. Spinrite can also recover data @ //www.grc.com

10/11/2005 01:52:50 PM · #47

General. If you want to split hairs, I first started "using" a *nix in the summer of 1991 when I was 13. It was SunOS if I recall correctly.

At the time, I was using my father's DOS machine to dial in to a *cough* local government dialup... We assumed that because it had no password it was for public use. We were able to telnet freely from there. Around the same time, X Terminals were available for free use 30 minutes at a time at the public library. I never used them, but I believe it was also SunOS or something similar.

My father switched to Linux a while later when he finally broke down and upgraded to a 386SX. He liked it a lot and hasn't looked back. It was about a billion times better than win3.1

He still has the 486 he got later running linux as a firewall in the basement back in Canada. I think it's going on 3 years without a reboot.

10/11/2005 11:08:30 PM · #48

Tim, please read the note above regarding laptops and boot CDs. Newer laptops are not sold with boot CD's. They are only sold with backup CD's.

Thatcloudthere, you might consider asking your IT friend if he can help you to make a boot CD while he has the computer. It is not too difficult from what I have seen. Might come in handy in the future too.

It is an innate function of windows to be able to generate boot CD's.

danderson107