Just kidding, of course it does. A fucking big one at that. Somehow my hard drive is corrupted, or so it seems. I started having problems yesterday, so I did a full checkdisk this morning, and it only made things worse. After checkdisk completed after many hours, my Windows couldn't start, it went into that perpetual rebooting mode. Argh, how the fuck does that happen to a 1.5 month old hard drive?
I installed another copy of Vista onto the SSD flash drive that I just bought, and that's how I can work on this computer while I consider my options. For some reason my PC can't start without a Windows setup disk, probably due to me not doing some step to dual-boot properly.
Man, it's like I'm Mr. Death to every computer component that comes in contact with me.
Interesting that a chkdsk could fuck up Windows. Have you tried starting in Safemode?
Some vendors have diagnostics you can run upon bootup. Some, in fact, are abitch to make a return to without getting some lameass error message.
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on August 20, 2009, 08:43:02 PM
Interesting that a chkdsk could fuck up Windows. Have you tried starting in Safemode?
Some vendors have diagnostics you can run upon bootup. Some, in fact, are abitch to make a return to without getting some lameass error message.
Yep, tried to start every which way, same thing. Tried the repair tool on the Windows setup disk, it said it fixed something twice, to no actual effect. Upon a third time it gave up and said that it couldn't fix what was wrong.
I guess the next thing to try would be to reinstall Vista on top of the corrupted version.
Another puzzling thing is that my hard drive seems perfectly accessible, although I have no way of checking the integrity of the files on it.
Sounds like it's windows that is the problem. Maybe it cant find boot.ini anymore?
My computer doesn't have a problem. :)
I heard that running checkdisk just makes things worse if the drive is broken and you should check SMART before you try.
Quote from: Grey Fox on August 20, 2009, 09:01:38 PM
Sounds like it's windows that is the problem. Maybe it cant find boot.ini anymore?
No, there was definitely something wrong with the hard drive, even before Windows refused to boot. I reinstalled Vista onto the hard drive, and so far so good. Unfortunately reinstalling Vista kind of pushes you back to square one, which I hoped wouldn't happen. I have to reinstall all the programs to run them again. I still have no idea what went wrong in the first place.
Quote from: starbright on August 20, 2009, 10:40:08 PM
I heard that running checkdisk just makes things worse if the drive is broken and you should check SMART before you try.
What's SMART?
Quote from: Barrister on August 20, 2009, 10:20:17 PM
My computer doesn't have a problem. :)
Yes it does. It's a Mac, and nothing can ever fix that.
And here I thought that this was about you getting a Mac.
Quote from: Threviel on August 21, 2009, 12:57:21 PM
And here I thought that this was about you getting a Mac.
I'm not comfortable enough with my lack of masculinity to go that route.
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on August 20, 2009, 08:43:02 PM
Interesting that a chkdsk could fuck up Windows. Have you tried starting in Safemode?
If the problem is physical (bad sectors) then chkdsk or any similar operation that involves working the drive can make it worse very fast.
Quote from: DGuller on August 20, 2009, 10:49:59 PM
What's SMART?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.
I thought you built computers.
Quote from: starbright on August 21, 2009, 04:41:11 PM
Quote from: DGuller on August 20, 2009, 10:49:59 PM
What's SMART?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.
I thought you built computers.
I only built one computer, and it may not be an unqualified success, given the existance of this thread.
Operating system? Service packs? Brand/model of hard drive?
Quote from: Threviel on August 21, 2009, 12:57:21 PM
And here I thought that this was about you getting a Mac.
Nobody would ever do that.
btw my selfbuilt computer running Windows XP is working perfectly.
Quote from: DontSayBanana on August 21, 2009, 09:47:09 PM
Operating system? Service packs? Brand/model of hard drive?
Vista, SP1, WD 1 TB hard drive.
I managed to reinstall Vista successfully on it, but then that installation again got fucked up once automatic updates started installing. Some update didn't install successfully, and Vista again went into a different kind of infinite reboot cycle. Jesus fucking Christ. I think I'll install Windows 7 RC next, and keep the Vista only on my SSD drive as a backup operating sysytem.
Which Vista? Home Premium? Ultimate?
Which update was it? I'm seeing a lot of complaints about KB968389... particularly that it's putting computers into a reboot cycle.
Quote from: DontSayBanana on August 21, 2009, 10:48:25 PM
Which Vista? Home Premium? Ultimate?
Which update was it? I'm seeing a lot of complaints about KB968389... particularly that it's putting computers into a reboot cycle.
Home Premium. As for which update, I'm not sure, there were 54 of them being installed at once when I went to bed last night.
I visited a site today, and suddenly all kinds of virus warnings popped up, and it looked like some anti-virus was activated. It told me my computer was infected and I needed to download some anti-virus software.
The thing is - it claimed to be Windows Defender. :lmfao:
Quote from: Barrister on August 22, 2009, 01:09:24 AM
I visited a site today, and suddenly all kinds of virus warnings popped up, and it looked like some anti-virus was activated. It told me my computer was infected and I needed to download some anti-virus software.
The thing is - it claimed to be Windows Defender. :lmfao:
:lol:
little did they know you were cruising in the Porsche of computers!
I'll have you know that Porsche makes the Mac Pro of automobiles. :contract:
Quote from: DGuller on August 21, 2009, 10:56:02 PM
Home Premium. As for which update, I'm not sure, there were 54 of them being installed at once when I went to bed last night.
Interesting. I, too, am having problems with Home Premium since installing updates. Now I'm a little worried about installing that update, because it went in my queue last night. :ph34r:
OK, new development. I'm working in the Vista installed on the SSD drive, and I'm downloading WinRAR so that I compress and archive everything relating to the old installation of Windows on my old hard drive. Stuff like program settings or data files, something that would be really nice to keep. As I finish installing WinRAR, I go back to my hard drive only to find it not existing, as far as Windows is concerned. WTF, where did you go, bitch?
I'm going to reboot now and see if my hard drive comes back. If you don't see me here, it means my system went totally FUBAR.
Get ccleaner, run it, then go to the registry panel, click scan for issues and fix all the issues that appear.
Probably won't solve the problem but it's worth a try.
Ok, my system is pretty fucked right now. The hard drive seems to have given up the ghost, and for some reason my Vista on SSD is not bootable by itself. It can only boot up if the hard drive works. Dunno why.
So I can't do anything on my new computer right now, and I'm now back on my very, very slow old computer. I guess I'll use it to go to Newegg and order another hard drive.
Quote from: Barrister on August 22, 2009, 01:09:24 AM
I visited a site today, and suddenly all kinds of virus warnings popped up, and it looked like some anti-virus was activated. It told me my computer was infected and I needed to download some anti-virus software.
The thing is - it claimed to be Windows Defender. :lmfao:
I love those fake dialog ads. Its more fun to go run the websites that "scan" your computer, then try to sell you shit to "fix" it. Makes it really obvious which ones are scams.
DGuller, I have a suggestion, but it might take a while to download the needed CD image.
In a situation like this, I'd take a Linux live CD (I prefer Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download) and boot the machine off that. The kernel will scan the buses and pick up any drives on them. The problem with the drive might be so obvious the kernel can't even recognize it. If it does, you can browse to the drive in the file manager and see if everything looks to be intact. If it does, back up whatever you want. In either case, you can try to format the drive using the tools on the live CD (note that you can't format as NTFS) and see if you get an errors out of that.
Alternately, you could try the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/), which includes several hard drive diagnostic utilities.
I know these are fairly advanced options, but I wanted to throw them out.
By the way, the behavior of this drive sounds a lot like what happened to the drive in my Sun box (the old server). I don't know the cause of death on that one yet because I haven't returned the drive yet.
Meanwhile you can try Puppy Linux on your old comp, it made my 7 years old laptop way faster than my 1 year old desktop.
Quote from: vonmoltke on August 22, 2009, 11:57:27 PM
DGuller, I have a suggestion, but it might take a while to download the needed CD image.
In a situation like this, I'd take a Linux live CD (I prefer Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download) and boot the machine off that. The kernel will scan the buses and pick up any drives on them. The problem with the drive might be so obvious the kernel can't even recognize it. If it does, you can browse to the drive in the file manager and see if everything looks to be intact. If it does, back up whatever you want. In either case, you can try to format the drive using the tools on the live CD (note that you can't format as NTFS) and see if you get an errors out of that.
Alternately, you could try the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/), which includes several hard drive diagnostic utilities.
I know these are fairly advanced options, but I wanted to throw them out.
By the way, the behavior of this drive sounds a lot like what happened to the drive in my Sun box (the old server). I don't know the cause of death on that one yet because I haven't returned the drive yet.
Thank you, I'll try that. I'm a little short on useful boot disks right now.
Ok, now I just don't get it. Ubuntu seems to read my hard drive just fine, and so does DOS prompt from the Vista boot/installation DVD. However, Vista setup itself just can't see the hard drive. I just don't get WTF is going on with my system.
By the way, can we get a subforum here just for the threads about my computer problems?
Ok, Ubuntu just lost my old hard drive as well. I feel better now (no, not really, but at least I feel less confused).
I think at this point I should stop torturing the hard drive, until I get the new one in the mail. Then I'll try to access it again and hope that at least it would have enough breath left to let me dump the files from it to the new hard drive.
Quote from: DGuller on August 23, 2009, 02:48:01 PM
Ok, Ubuntu just lost my old hard drive as well. I feel better now (no, not really, but at least I feel less confused).
I think at this point I should stop torturing the hard drive, until I get the new one in the mail. Then I'll try to access it again and hope that at least it would have enough breath left to let me dump the files from it to the new hard drive.
Yep, congratulations. Your hard drive was a lemon. :console:
Or is it? One more mind-fucking update, although I think this will really be the last one. My hard drive is just fine. My SSD drive was starting to behave strangely as well, by not allowing either Windows or Ubuntu to install on it. So I decided to disonnect its SATA cable. Whadda you know, my old hard drive sprung back to life as if nothing happened. Of course, its Vista still did the infinite reboot routine, but that wasn't hardware-related. So now I installed Windows 7 RC on it, and in fact am typing this message from it.
So, the most likely conclusion is that somehow the SSD drive corrupted the I/O for my system just by being merely connected to the motherboard. The problems were created as far back as BIOS. This is bizarre, but now all the pieces of the puzzle fit. Jesus, I really thought the days of such inexplicable hardware incompatibility were long behind us.
Huh. Interesting.
Quote from: DGuller on August 23, 2009, 05:35:17 PM
Jesus, I really thought the days of such inexplicable hardware incompatibility were long behind us.
Sadly, SSDs aren't running under really solidified standards yet, so I imagine coding the interfacing for them has got to be a bitch.
Quote from: Liep on August 23, 2009, 01:49:40 AM
Meanwhile you can try Puppy Linux on your old comp, it made my 7 years old laptop way faster than my 1 year old desktop.
Can you tell me more about this please?
Also, Liep, are you the one in TDC? I've got some 31st october issues coming up :D
V
Quote from: Valdemar on August 24, 2009, 04:07:37 AM
Quote from: Liep on August 23, 2009, 01:49:40 AM
Meanwhile you can try Puppy Linux on your old comp, it made my 7 years old laptop way faster than my 1 year old desktop.
Can you tell me more about this please?
Also, Liep, are you the one in TDC? I've got some 31st october issues coming up :D
V
It's a linux version that runs directly in the RAM, so if you have anything above 100mb ram it loads the entire thing instantly. And I do mean instantly, as in open the office programme, email, browser, within 1 second. Clever thing is it boots from a USB and can save data directly back to the USB, so no matter how fucked your old comp is it's suddenly super fast. Loving it.
And Bogh is the one in TDC.
Quote from: Liep on August 24, 2009, 05:40:54 AM
Quote from: Valdemar on August 24, 2009, 04:07:37 AM
Quote from: Liep on August 23, 2009, 01:49:40 AM
Meanwhile you can try Puppy Linux on your old comp, it made my 7 years old laptop way faster than my 1 year old desktop.
Can you tell me more about this please?
Also, Liep, are you the one in TDC? I've got some 31st october issues coming up :D
V
It's a linux version that runs directly in the RAM, so if you have anything above 100mb ram it loads the entire thing instantly. And I do mean instantly, as in open the office programme, email, browser, within 1 second. Clever thing is it boots from a USB and can save data directly back to the USB, so no matter how fucked your old comp is it's suddenly super fast. Loving it.
And Bogh is the one in TDC.
Sounds great... Got an old Pentium 3 256mb ram. the pc itself works great, but it is slow as hell when it comes to internet and starting up programmes.
Got a link?
And I guess I need Boegh then :D
V
http://www.puppylinux.org/
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-4.2.1-k2.6.25.16-seamonkey.iso (100mb)
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ - Use this to format the USB stick to be able to boot.
Speaking of unsolved computer mysteries, mine is now over. Something (and I'm pretty sure the culprit was my laptop's "Eco Mode" utility) set my hard drive into PIO mode. I'm now trying to figure out how to set it back to DMA. <_<
EDIT: Actually, it looks like it's Windows native handling of ATAPI hard drives- it may point to a lot of corrupted data on my hard drive or a bad hard drive.
What's a PIO? Pain in orifice?
Quote from: DGuller on August 24, 2009, 08:45:43 PM
What's a PIO? Pain in orifice?
Processor-handled Input Output. Basically, DMA is the motherboard's "doctor's note" that allows it to dip into RAM while bypassing the processor, making it go faster.
When Windows gets six I/O errors (failed CRC or time-outs), it drops down from DMA to PIO. If it's still pulling this stuff after I reformat, I'll slap in another HDD.
Quote from: DGuller on August 20, 2009, 08:37:35 PM
I installed another copy of Vista
There, your problem identified.
You're welcome. :)
Quote from: DGuller on August 24, 2009, 08:45:43 PM
What's a PIO? Pain in orifice?
Some crazy catholic dude:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vatican.va%2Fnews_services%2Fliturgy%2Fimg%2Fp-pio.jpg&hash=9357c6079b74239f551fbdfe00c22dde75358be1)
May this subforum last as long as the writing forum and alt history subfora before it.
Quote from: Valdemar on August 24, 2009, 05:48:57 AM
Quote from: Liep on August 24, 2009, 05:40:54 AM
And Bogh is the one in TDC.
And I guess I need Boegh then :D
V
Did anyone call? Drop me a PM or start a new thread and we'll take a look at your options.
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2009, 11:46:14 AM
May this subforum last as long as the writing forum and alt history subfora before it.
:lol: I forgot about the alt history subforum.
moderated by Timmy Turtledove
Quote from: Caliga on October 16, 2009, 01:29:32 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2009, 11:46:14 AM
May this subforum last as long as the writing forum and alt history subfora before it.
:lol: I forgot about the alt history subforum.
moderated by Timmy Turtledove
Hami did a good job raping that forum.
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2009, 11:46:14 AM
May this subforum last as long as the writing forum and alt history subfora before it.
HOnestly I think this forum has already generated more threads and posts than those other forums...
Quote from: Barrister on October 16, 2009, 01:32:46 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2009, 11:46:14 AM
May this subforum last as long as the writing forum and alt history subfora before it.
HOnestly I think this forum has already generated more threads and posts than those other forums...
I thought the writers forum generated alot of traffic. For some reason alot of people didn't get access to it, though. I had access but I have no idea why and I never posted a single thing in there. No wait, I think I made fun of someone's emo poem.
What I miss the most are the Keewee subforums. :(
Quote from: Barrister on October 16, 2009, 01:32:46 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2009, 11:46:14 AM
May this subforum last as long as the writing forum and alt history subfora before it.
HOnestly I think this forum has already generated more threads and posts than those other forums...
As long as most PCs are Windows-based, this sub-forum will never go dead.
Quote from: Barrister on October 16, 2009, 01:32:46 PM
HOnestly I think this forum has already generated more threads and posts than those other forums...
Well, sir, you are quite mistaken.
I gots me a freebie Fuji Stylistic ST4000 tablet computer. With a whole p3 933 processor.
I loves it. I can pretend to be a Drug Rep douchebag now.
Good Hod, my new work computer has a GTX 285 in it.
Quote from: Grey Fox on October 20, 2009, 08:23:46 AM
Good Hod, my new work computer has a GTX 285 in it.
What kinds of work do you do?
I test Machine Vision software.
We're trying to develop GPU optimization for our algorithms probably why it has that card. Altho, I haven't been assign to that Project yet.