I am in dire need of assistance with my laptop. i am having problems starting up win dows. it gives me a black screen with the error message that windows was unable to start. a recent hardware or doftware change might be the cause. the options to launch startup repair or star windows normally are the choices. i have tried the startup repair to no avail. I have tried to boot in all safe modes and it will not boot up. as a last case scenario i tried to do a system restore to an earlier point but i get no where with that cause when i click on the last date to restore from i get a message that the drive is Local Disk (C:)(system) and the status says: you must enable system protection on this drive. so i cannot even take that route. it also has a yellow caution sign that says: you must always restore the drive that contains windows. restoring other drives is optional. before i had this problem i believe a virus attacked the computer. i ran a test and several threats were shown to have been removed. please help with this cause i have very important football and pole vaulting videos of my sons on here that cannot be lost. please, oh please someone help me out.
Go to Malwarebytes.com and SuperAntispyware and download their free programs and do a scan. these are two of the best anti spyware programs that i know of. Mircosoft used SuperAntispyware on a computer I was having trouble with and it scaned everything, pictures, music, document, mem. ac well as any drives that was on the computer.
Malwarebytes does a real good job of fining malware on the computer
very good suggestions i was going to suggest something else but will wait to see how the scans go
I use Mircosoft's Security Essentials as my primary antivirus and keep Malwarebytes and Superantispyware as backup security programs. They are all free and do fairly well protecting my computer.MSE runs a scan every night(if I leave the computer on) and about twice a month I run the other two just to on the informed side of things.Besides I'm cheap.Now I just need to find a good Free regeristery program
SDC 2010
Reboot your computer. While it is booting continually depress f8 or whatever key gives you the boot options. Do not start in Normal mode since it may very well be a corrupt driver that is preventing you from accessing your computer, instead boot into SAFE mode. Once there try again to run system restore. If no, uninstall any recently installed programs and reboot.
Also, I am a bit perplexed--if you cannot access your computer how did you run your anti virus? What brand anti virus did you run? SOme have been known to inject your system with virus' instead of vice-versa.
hi guybo,
I have not been able to run the antivirus software since not being able to boot up windows. I noticed something was going on and that it possibly had a virus so i ran the software that was installed on the computer. I cannot remember at this time which brand it was (obviously not one to remove this friggin virus). I have tried to boot in all safe modes to no avail. it does get me to the screen that would allow me to do command prompts. when i try to do a system restore to an earlier point i get no where with that cause when i click on the last date to restore from i get a message that the drive is Local Disk (C(system) and the status says: you must enable system protection on this drive. can you help me with this? tanks to you & the others who have replied. it is appeciated. I am just heartbroken that i may lose all my sons football videos.
hi guybo,
I have not been able to run the antivirus software since not being able to boot up windows. I noticed something was going on and that it possibly had a virus so i ran the software that was installed on the computer. I cannot remember at this time which brand it was (obviously not one to remove this friggin virus). I have tried to boot in all safe modes to no avail. it does get me to the screen that would allow me to do command prompts. when i try to do a system restore to an earlier point i get no where with that cause when i click on the last date to restore from i get a message that the drive is Local Disk (C(system) and the status says: you must enable system protection on this drive. can you help me with this? tanks to you & the others who have replied. it is appeciated. I am just heartbroken that i may lose all my sons football videos.
very good suggestions i was going to suggest something else but will wait to see how the scans go
caperjack,
unfortunately i cannot download this software to run the scans cause i cannot boot up windows successfully. any other suggestions? I just dont wanna lose my sons football videos. its his senior year...no more football as a high schooler!
By any chance did you make a recovery disc when you first got this computer? If you did, then there is your proble solver. Use this to boot windows in safe mode and go on line and download those antivirus programs and run them. If you can't get on line with that computer in safe mode, use a flash drive and download those program from another computer to the flash drive.
caperjack,
unfortunately i cannot download this software to run the scans cause i cannot boot up windows successfully. any other suggestions? I just dont wanna lose my sons football videos. its his senior year...no more football as a high schooler!
unless the harddrive died you should be able to connect the drive to another computer via a
external harddrive case or slave it to a working computer ,or take it to a computer repair shop to see if th\ey can recover the videos for you
Also, if you know someone who has an anti virus program on a disk, borrow it, insert in your machine and then boot from that. Chances are that it will not only boot but run the anti virus first.
caperjack,
how exactly would i "slave" it to another working computer? thanks for your help!
no i dont know anyone that has a cd. any other suggestions?
caperjack, i can get to the command promopt window...is there a way to gain access that way??
Since you do nothave the expertise to slave the drive I strongly suggest you do as caperjack states,"take it to a computer repair shop to see if th\ey can recover the videos for you" Then, with the pictures and videos safely on a CD or DVD you can proceed to format the hard drive and reinstall windows. For another option--reinstalling windows without losing data, see http://www.pcworld.com/article/212573/reinstall_windows_without_losing_your_data.html?tk=nl_sbx_h_crawl
It is not easy or without risk and you may not be able to access it. So again take it to a computer repair shop and explain the situation to them. Best Buy and Staples both offer such service.
thanks a bunch! one other option i was given was to make a hiren bootcd. Are you familiar with this option?
thanks a bunch! one other option i was given was to make a hiren bootcd. Are you familiar with this option?
hirens or a linux live cd is an option ,but it requires somewhat advanced knowledge of computers .
slaving a harddrive
http://askbobrankin.com/add_a_second_hard_drive.html
Surely you know some with a computer with the same os that you have, get them to make you a boot disc to use.
to be safe i would have someone take the file off before you start playing with boot disks ,as one mistake and file could get deleted/formated over , and then you looking at a program to recover them ,ect ect
OK. After carefully re-reading your posts I notice that 1. Your machine will not boot
2. You THINK you may have been infected.
Whether or not you actually were infected is of no consequence now since your boot record and master boot record have been compromised so that removing the infection (if there is one) will not bring the machine back to life. If you have the original install disc for windows, boot from that and try repairing the BR and MBR. This is not always possible. You may then also try reinstalling windows 7 over the top of your current installation in hopes that your data will be saved. Risky. Before attempting this I would take the machine to a computer shop, explain the circumstances and see what they can do. Formatting C at this point will remove all data and viruses leaving you with a somewhat clean C. Then you would have to reinstall everything, including data. There is an outside chance that your pictures and videos could be recovered using third party software like Recuva, but if this data gets overwritten during the format reinstallation it is gone.
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