Dells well but my computer ain't, long

Final analysis, I was going to have to Fdisk and reload all my "bundled programs".

I thought I kept good back-up disks, and kept my virus's up-to-date. And while I don't consider myself a major computer geek, I ain't fraid off'em eather. I had a buncha data files that I didn't want to loose and much to my consternation, I didn't have any data back-up disks saved.

I eventually mounted my 21GB corrupted HD into an OLDER computer and saved the data files onto a 3GB drive. I ran abuncha diagonostics thru my old computer and confirmed my suspicions "corrupted files". Did all the recommended "fixxitt" and even went out and bought some new computer books and read them. (all else fails, read the instructions!)

One book was 1500 pages; I got at 1/2 price book store. It had some major information about my windows operating system and some very interesting "tweeks" for improved performance. (they worked too)

I even got to do some DOS command line commands like I was doing back in 1996.

For the non-geeks, Fdisk is a MAJOR and drastic command on harddisks. It like "erases" everything. But I read-up on it and thought I understood all the steps and bravely went where only the brave go. And I got back this answer. Unable to Fdisk!!! Seems that my Fdisk doesn't recoggnize 21GB harddrives, it stops at 8GB. I bit the bullett and got "Partition Commander" $50 to handle that problem. Except Part-Cmdr didn't like my 21GB disk eather.

I then went to CompUSA to enquire about having them "format" my harddisk. Yeah, for $71 and we have to have your whole computerbox to do it. And I am like standing there with my harddisk in hand. I don't want them muckin' with my computer.

So I went home and re-installed the 21GH harddrive in my computer and sunn-uffa-gunn, my faster virus infected? computer fired up. I ran Norton's AntiVirus and it identified 4-infected files and deleted them. I then started doing major checks and found out I lost most of my Norton Computer-Checker programs. They were still on the harddrive but I was un-able to figgure out how to "link" to them. I told you, I wasn't a major computer-geek.

And since my Norton's 2001 came "bundled" with the computer, I didn't have any CD program disks to re-load with. Back to the computer store. Bought the new $100 version of Norton's 2005. Loaded it and started checking my computer. Norton kept insisting I needed to "activate". I don't have a problem with activation once I get my ISP connected up. Right now, I'm still missing 3-major Norton computer checkout programs..... sigh

I probably have 70 pages of handwritten notes of steps performed and checks run and $200 of books and programs. Its been a learning and re-learning experience. I still have some more checking and re-loading to do. It probably would have been eazier to BUY NEW COMPUTER, but what fun would that be?

Thanks to all that expressed their concerns, I appreciate that..... ...Dell

I totally agreee that if you are running NT 4.0 or later you need a non-priviliged user account separate from the Administrator account that you logon to for everyday usage. That alone is probably Greek to many here.

TOH

FDISK does a lot of things but doesn't really erase a HD - just writes a new partition table and file system structures onto the drive making most "erased" files difficult but not impossible to retrieve (just in case you ever need to meet with the IRS ;-)

There's a lot of different versions of FDISK running around, and not all can handle FAT32 file systems. As mentioned by others the BIOS on some older PC's can't address partitions over 8G and some operating system (NT 4.0 for example) setup programs do not support system partitons over 2G (FAT) or 4G (NTFS). If you have one of those PC's/OS's you need to use FDISK or similar to create a primary partition of appropriate size and format it with a FAT16/32 file system. You install the OS on that partition. Then use FDISK or similar to create a second partiton and format it FAT16/32 in the remainder of the unused space. That will then show up as the E: drive or some such.

For quite some time now many Windows OS installation CD's are bootable if your PC hardware supports booting from CD. In that case just hit F2 (or whatever) on powerup to get into setup - enable the CDROM drive for booting, pop in the Windows CD, restart, and follow the easy GI prood instructions keeping in mind the restrictions already discussed. No FDISKing needed. Easy eh?

At the risk of starting an OS holy war I will say that my personal professional advice (I been doing this computer stuff for over 30 years now) is to bite the bullet and upgrade to Windows XP Pro assuming your hardware is reasonable (1Ghz, 128MB or better should be enough) Vastly easier to maintain and protect. XP Home edition is severely crippled - not worth the $150 savings IMO although my kids don't seem to mind.

HTH,

TOH

1. Hard disk is bad: not yer stated problem
2. Internet bill not paid: Not yer stated problem
3. No power to conmputer: not yer stated problem
4. Virus: Sound like yer problem? Solution is intuitively obvious. Reload yer programs and git a Norton update. Easy, eh? (Welcome back).

I sure wish I'd thought of that! I almost spit tea out my nose - good one.

Dan

I am glad that you are back up and running Dell. It is always a good learning experience to work with technology. Most people just get to frustrated and never finish the job. I am glad to hear that you stuck through it and got it fixed.

AVG: Link

Do you mean to tell us that all that was not intuitively obvious :-) ?

Well, at least you read and understood. And, you learned something new in the process.

Glad to see you back!

Rick

My old Dell Optiplex GMT-5166 that I was using for a mule (check-out computer) definately wouldn't have INT13 support. This current computer is a Dell Dimension XPS-T500 with Windows Millimnillium Edition as an operating system and FireFox for internet brouser..... ...Dell

Soundguy

Soundguy

Tim

Tim