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Windows Vista Problem solving for the Windows Vista Operating System. Please remember to state which edition of Vista you are using - Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate etc. and whether you are using the 32-bit or 64-bit version if you know.

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  #16  
Old November 27th, 2009, 01:15 AM
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  #17  
Old November 27th, 2009, 01:34 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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Well it is already on the finalizing repairs, but neither the cd-rom nor hard drive light are flashing or showing activity.
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  #18  
Old November 27th, 2009, 06:01 AM
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What is the situation now carmatyl?
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  #19  
Old November 27th, 2009, 06:39 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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It still says finalizing restore.
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  #20  
Old November 27th, 2009, 06:41 AM
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Ok, that doesnt sound good. Leave it over night and if it's still the same in the morning, you will have to pull the plug on it (shut down).
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  #21  
Old November 27th, 2009, 06:48 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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It will most definitely still be doing it tomorrow.

In preparation, what should the next steps be?
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  #22  
Old November 27th, 2009, 06:57 AM
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Well you cant know that for sure. Like I said earlier, I have heard of instances where System Restore took a lot longer than a couple of hours.

If it is, we will back up their data and you will have to run a full system restore to factory default settings using their restore disks or their restore partition. There should be an option there to do this when you boot and tap F8.

You will need a USB external hard drive or a couple of USB sticks with reasonable capacity to back up their files.
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  #23  
Old December 3rd, 2009, 10:58 PM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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Sorry for the long silence AnnMarie!

I was just able to take the computer with me, so I have much more time to fix it instead of running back and forth.

So, how do I save the data when I cannot get to the desktop. I'll be using a friends external HD for this.

Thank You!
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  #24  
Old December 4th, 2009, 03:51 AM
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No problem. Plug in your USB drive and grab your Vista Recovery DVD. Boot using the DVD and open a command prompt (print this page for more help) and type:

C:\windows\notepad.exe

Notepad will open. Go to File Open and where it says Look In, if Vista is on your C drive, change the directory to OS (C: ) or to whatever drive letter Vista is installed on. Next, change the Files of Type to "All Files". You will now be able to navigate through your drive and save files to the USB drive. Rightclick on the file you want to save and choose Copy. Navigate to your USB drive, rightclick again and choose Paste.

When you have finished, reboot. Post back when you have done this and we can reassess the situation.
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  #25  
Old December 7th, 2009, 06:55 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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well more bad news

I was on my laptop getting ready to work on the pc. For some reason I disabled my commodo firewall and clicked to install zonealarms version since now their version finally works for vista. Upon doing so the computer locked up and made some funny noises. restarded it, nothing. restarted it, got to the login screen, logged in, blue screen. restart, made it to the desktop but i couldnt click the start menu, restarted it and now i am doing a system repair. ugh

I dont get it. It is only about 3 years old, I take care of it, I have always had a firewall and spysweeper on it and have never used any p2p program and I know about viruses and spyware and can take care of myself on that aspect.
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  #26  
Old December 7th, 2009, 07:08 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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Alight, well the restore seemed to have worked successfully. Bah, what a scare!

When I get the external HD. I'll be back!
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  #27  
Old December 7th, 2009, 08:07 AM
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Quote:
Upon doing so the computer locked up and made some funny noises.
That doesnt sound good carmatyl. What sort of noises?

btw, you must always uninstall one firewall before installing another.
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  #28  
Old December 7th, 2009, 08:13 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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Thanks for the tip!

It was somewhat of a grinding sound for a second or two. More than likely the HD. However, the HD never makes any unusual noise, even when under an extreme load of data writing/reading.
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  #29  
Old December 7th, 2009, 08:19 AM
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A grinding sound could be a sign of imminent hard drive failure. Back up all your data while the machine is still up and running. A good thing you have that USB drive handy.
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  #30  
Old December 7th, 2009, 08:23 AM
carmatyl carmatyl is offline
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AnnMarie,
Do you know of a place to get a very cheap external HD?
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