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Should I suplex my computer?

Dee KaeDee Kae Registered User regular
edited February 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
I've been having slight issues with my computer, mostly along the lines of having to boot from disk and running ubuntu temporarily. It suffered a massive heart attack or something like it after I tried cleaning it of a nasty trojan that messed with all search engine links, so now it just refuses to run windows XP which is what it has. I figured I'd back up the data and reinstall XP but it wouldn't let me for some reason, so I tried Windows 7 and still nothing. Yet Ubuntu works just fine.

So now I'm stuck with either just installing Ubuntu and trying to install Windows 7, or just leaving this whole issue to a friend that actually knows what he's doing.

Which should I do?

Dee Kae on

Posts

  • LoathingLoathing Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Complete re-format of the HD and a fresh window's image didn't work?

    Loathing on
  • Baroque And RollBaroque And Roll Every spark of friendship and love Will die without a homeRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    You should always have the ability to reinstall.

    Are the errors you're getting with backing up or with reinstalling?

    Baroque And Roll on
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  • Dee KaeDee Kae Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I figured something was off. I'm just going to have to have to get a techie friend of sorts to help me out, cause I'm fed up with this as is.

    The way I backed up my files is just transferring them over to a portable HD I've got, which worked just fine. It's just when I try to reinstall windows xp it runs into some errors. I've got no way of showing this aside from trying to do it again, but I really don't want to go through with that right now. I was just wondering if it would just be a smart idea to just let Ubuntu install then try and do the same with Windows 7, provided that would work at all.

    Dee Kae on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    are you trying to repair a windows xp install, or format and start over?

    if you can't even boot from the CD and format, that sounds like hardware failure

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
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  • Dee KaeDee Kae Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    If it isn't one thing, it's damn well another. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me, so I'll just get some chap to look at it, frown at me, and wonder what the hell I might've done to it.

    And if it's a hardware problem, how the hell am I posting right now? It boots up with Ubuntu but doesn't want to format with Windows XP, or even notice that a Windows 7 disk is even there.

    Dee Kae on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I don't know enough about hard drives to say, really, but my understanding was that the 'boot from cd and reformat' process goes on at a level "below" what any virus should be able to fuck with.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
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    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Dee KaeDee Kae Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Huuuuuh, well, thanks for the help anyways.

    Dee Kae on
  • EeveelutionEeveelution Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    If you Suplex, tape it, but a new computer, put it on youtube.

    Reformat though should help.

    Eeveelution on
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  • eternalbleternalbl Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    If you can, get that friend to help you out, but if the only thing that stopped it working to begin with was a trojan the computer hardware probably is fine. However, I could also see a trojan being blamed for the poor performance caused by a dying HDD also. Which still doesn't explain the inability to boot from your windows CD.

    Computers are finicky, and I don't know of any way to impart the gut instinct of knowing when a computer is just being finicky or actually has a hardware problem.

    I guess I'd start by running chkdsk or the linux equivalent to check that it's ok. The likelihood of anything else developing a problem is alot smaller because nothing else has moving parts. From there, assuming the HDD passes, I'd reset the BIOS to factory defaults, make sure the CD drive is set up as a boot device and has priority over the HDD and go from there.

    eternalbl on
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  • Dee KaeDee Kae Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I'll be sure to show my friend this thread for some reference, thanks for the advice.

    Dee Kae on
  • The Black HunterThe Black Hunter The key is a minimum of compromise, and a simple, unimpeachable reason to existRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I vote suplex

    The Black Hunter on
  • STATE OF THE ART ROBOTSTATE OF THE ART ROBOT Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    It depends. Are you thinking of doing a German suplex or Fisherman suplex? Maybe a northern lights suplex?
    (I am such a wrestling nerd)

    Real answer is I would buy your friend lunch or get him some booze and see if he can take a look at it and can tell you what is wrong.

    STATE OF THE ART ROBOT on
  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    You're able to run Ubuntu because you're actually running Ubuntu Live which stores what it needs into RAM and loads everything else from the CD. It makes no changes whatsoever to the HD.

    Can you open the HD in Ubuntu?

    SyphonBlue on
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  • fightinfilipinofightinfilipino Angry as Hell #BLMRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    i am very not understanding of why you're unable to format the HD and do a fresh install of XP. what exactly happens when you try to do this?

    or are you trying to do something else?

    fightinfilipino on
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  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Well, if his hard drive is dead he wouldn't be able to install Windows, or anything, onto it. It might start installing but just hang there on a certain % forever, or it might give him an error.

    SyphonBlue on
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  • Dee KaeDee Kae Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I can access my HD just fine. I already transferred my massive archives of porn and what not to my portable HD and it's just dandy. It just doesn't want to reformat at all really. I was thinking of just reformatting with ubuntu then trying to wipe it with a fresh windows 7 install.

    @SyphonBlue: Actually now that you mention it I only tried to repair windows xp, rather then reformat it cause I wasn't ready to part with all my glorious youtube links. I guess I could try that, and will later. I'll post the results of it too.

    Dee Kae on
  • ApexMirageApexMirage Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I think you're confusing 'format' with 'reinstall'.

    As in: booting into DOS to 'format c:' and THEN installing windows, as opposed to whatever it is you're trying to do.

    ApexMirage on
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  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    What did you try to run when you went into repair mode?

    SyphonBlue on
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  • fightinfilipinofightinfilipino Angry as Hell #BLMRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    if the HD is working, it should be as simple as booting your machine from the WinXP CD, deleting the old partition, and telling setup to start a new installation of Windows. you completely avoid whatever nasty virus is on the hard drive.

    fightinfilipino on
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  • Joe ChemoJoe Chemo Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Your Ubuntu LiveCD has gparted on it. Use it to reformat your harddrive. Install OS of choice. Profit.

    Joe Chemo on
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