FOAK: Fecked PC advice.

Brother-in-law's PC is fecked, I reckon.

Question is: what to do?

On boot up it does the blue screen, disk-check thing (which takes
ages) and says that lots (and lots) of files have "invalid time stamp"
related problems.

It won't save to disk or floppy[1], though Nero will burn important
looking stuff to CD.

A re-install of XP hasn't helped any.

Hard disc drive always appears "busy".

Norton Internet Security 2005[2] won't install OR uninstall due to
some "internal error".

Is it best to just format and redo from scratch?

Or is there an easy solution?

[1] Out of disk space, despite 71% being free.
[2] Last used 04/10/2150, apparently.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..73025../..16437.../..3180./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR-Visited:83 Pts:1800 Miles:6890

 

Shove the hard drive in another machine to copy the files off then reinstall
from scratch.
I'd check the battery on the motherboard as well just to be on the safe side

--
Alex

YZF 600

"I laugh in the face of danger"

"Then I hide until it goes away"

www.upce.org.uk
www.drzoidberg.co.uk

 

Dr Zoidberg wrote:

and then ditch norton.

 

[snip]


Maybe a hardware thing. Hard drive fucked?

I can recommend this:
http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

Not free, but you can have a 30 day evaluation.

 

While it *might* be a hard drive failure, my money is on spy / malware.
Try getting Spybot S+D and Adaware. If you can't get to those sites, it's
a dead give away. If they turn up nothing then I'd blitz it and start
again.
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Last used date and "invalid time stamp" are the key words here. What does
the bios say as far as date is concerned?

 

Could be a MBR resident virus.
These viruses don't normally get cleaned by Virus checkers. and they cause
all kind of disk/boot/attrib errors.
Try using a (late) DOS version of "fdisk" and after booting from a clean,
guaranteed virus free (same dos ver) bootable floppy, run;

fdisk /mbr

This will purged anything resident in the master boot record.

Then again, it seems to me like a farked HDD.

 

Rocks indeed.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Thats a start. Include the latest version of the A/V and Firewall
software,

Having saved the important stuff on CD, now FDISK the hard-drive
*then* reinstall XP (keep it unplugged from the internet for now).

Install the A/V and Firewall software from the CD. *Now* its
(relatively) safe to plug the PC back into the internet.

Let Windows Update do its thing to make XP fully patched (or use the
SP2 CD available as a cover disk on one of this month's computer
mags).

Re-install the rest of the applications and import the data of the CD
wot you rote earlier. Job done ... unless it *is* a knackered hard
disk drive.

 

Keelworm wrote:

Gnoppix and Knoppix aren't the same thing. Gnoppix is based on the Gnome
windowing system, Knoppix is based on the KDE windowing system.

Or has it changed now?

 

I believe that you are right. However, the window manager dunt detract
from the other coolness of the idea
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

It is indeed full of much coolness, apart from Gnoppix that seems to be
more full on bugs than Knoppix.

 

Well, it's Gnome innit......
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

I've always found KDE to be a pain, more so if not used with its KDE
apps, it's just that the Gnoppix distro is younger.

 

I am not a KDE fan, but at least (IME) it works. I'll stick with Wmaker
TYVM


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

No problems with Gnome on either Solaris or a Suse box I used to have.
Anyway, I prefer Openlook Windowing system on Solaris 2.6 to all others.

 

Muck wrote:

Stone the heretic
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Heh, and there was I thinking that it was a diplomatic answer.

 

Ta for all the advice:

I threw in a new(ish) 60Gb disc that I'd formatted here[1], and
installed from scratch.

I think it might have been at least a little bit virus related, based
purely on the following statement:

"We had to turn the antivirus off, or it wouldn't connect to the
internet".

Ho hum.

[1] Rendered spare following the great DVD/CD-RW drive swap disaster
of a few weeks back which I might have failed to mention.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..73025../..16437.../..3180./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR-Visited:83 Pts:1800 Miles:6890

 

*cool*

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk