Main PC Has Gone Clunk

[yawner]

So get yourself some disks Mr Y.

Nothing to lose with booting up a live cd. Then at least you can rescue the vacation pics.

Oh I've saved everything Chris matey  Got myself a SATA dock and that transferred everything nicely via USB  onto old PC / external disk.

[Matt]

Sounds like it will need a proper reinstall. Was there an error message or naps when the in place recovery failed? I'd give that another whirl.

Sorry

[yawner]

Was there an error message or naps when the in place recovery failed? I'd give that another whirl.

whats a naps Matt? 

No error messages IIRC

I did the chkdsk/r which took AGES

then did the fixmbr and fixboot, then rebooted - and its still exactly the same

Sorry

FFS Matt don't apologise - I reckon I've allowed a virus through the net.

But what do I do now? 

[Matt]

Have you tried taking out one stick of ram each time to see if it's the RAM? MS do a free RAM checker but you would need to burn a disk with it on ...

Try just leaving the plug and CMOS battery out for 10 muns as well
it's a strange fix that sometimes work.

If it doesn't work after that I think you will need to reformat do a full format to test the drive.

Was there an error message or naps when the in place recovery failed? I'd give that another whirl.

whats a naps Matt? 

No error messages IIRC

I did the chkdsk/r which took AGES

then did the fixmbr and fixboot, then rebooted - and its still exactly the same

Sorry

FFS Matt don't apologise - I reckon I've allowed a virus through the net.

But what do I do now? 

[yawner]

Have you tried taking out one stick of ram each time to see if it's the RAM? MS do a free RAM checker but you would need to burn a disk with it on ...

Try just leaving the plug and CMOS battery out for 10 muns as well
it's a strange fix that sometimes work.

But shouldn't I have tried all that before the fixmbr? Certainly all the accompanying warnings made it clear that fixmbr was the point of no return?

AFAICS we're taking a new install of Windows here aren't we? 

[Matt]

Fixmbr just writes a master boot record. If doing it fixes the issue uou can just log back in - if it doesn't other fixes have still worked for you. Afaik anyways 

[yawner]

Well I've achieved a fix. Of sorts.

I did a full fresh install of XP from the Dell emergency disk. When installing, it gave me the choice of 2 areas for the install - I'm presuming these related to the 2 SATA HDs in the PC. Anyway - when I selected the first (ie the "old" C drive, where windows was originally installed), I was told that there was an "other" operating system there, and it couldn`t be overwritten.  So, instead, I selected the second (ie presumably the old D drive, which I used just for data).

Anyway - everything installed, and booted up just like a fresh XP installation. I go into "my computer" and on disk D there are all my original data files  (plus a new Windows folder), while disk C looks the same as it always did (including the old Windows folder)   

Added to that, on bootup now I'm given the choice of 2 operating systems. You've guessed it, XP, or XP.

If I select the first, I go into my new fresh installation. If I select the second, the system hangs, just as it has been doing for days.

My next step is to invest in a new virus checker, and give everything a good scanning. Any other suggestions?

Oh, and presumably I can just delete the original Windows folder on disk C?

[Matt]

You cam delete the windows folder yeah glad you got it sorted

[Whatever]

If it was a virus it could be the one we've seen that recently totally fecked up a PC of a customer who decided antivirus software sowed his machine up too much 

[yawner]

If it was a virus it could be the one we've seen that recently totally fecked up a PC of a customer who decided antivirus software sowed his machine up too much 

  To be fair, I should've renewed AVG about 6 months ago.... 

[Charisma Bypass]

I just got hit by a nasty little fcker of a virus - wwwzuc32.exe 
If you get this one, I found a nice easy fix, @RogerKarlsson (twitter).

[yawner]

Installed new AVG and giving the system a jolly good scrub. All I'm getting now are viruses found in the c:\system restore folder. The only way I can get rid of these apparently is to disable system restore. Hurrumph. 

[Matt]

Installed new AVG and giving the system a jolly good scrub. All I'm getting now are viruses found in the c:\system restore folder. The only way I can get rid of these apparently is to disable system restore. Hurrumph. 

Is this on the new install? Turn off system restore will delete all the restore points to date, you can then do a new restore point.

To Switch it off/on My computer (Right click) properties, system restore tab

[yawner]

Installed new AVG and giving the system a jolly good scrub. All I'm getting now are viruses found in the c:\system restore folder. The only way I can get rid of these apparently is to disable system restore. Hurrumph. 

Is this on the new install? Turn off system restore will delete all the restore points to date, you can then do a new restore point.

To Switch it off/on My computer (Right click) properties, system restore tab

Thanks Matt - that confirms what I've just found via Google.  You sir, are my own little search engine.

[Haze]

and those Yawner Towers bedcam vids..... glad I aint stayed, no idea where this is going, so best stop whilst I am ahead.....

[yawner]

and those Yawner Towers bedcam vids..... glad I aint stayed, no idea where this is going, so best stop whilst I am ahead.....

my fave has to be the 4 dutch "ladies" - yours for £4.99 

[Haze]