Computer question

Factual Questions
1

I went through the sticky on computer questions and couldn’t find this.

A friend of mine’s computer won’t work–happened after he got back from a trip out of town----all he gets is a message to insert start up disc. He tried starting in safe mode—doesn’t work.

His original start up disc has a crack in it and won’t work.

We both have Windows ME. Both about 5 years old. I think I could just loan him mine-----but I can’t find mine.

He has the original registration # for his computer. Can he just get Microsoft to send him a new start up disc? Does it cost anything? Can he get one over the phone since his computer doesn’t work so can’t do it on-line?

If so what would that phone # be?

Thanks for any help on this.

PS-------could this type of problem be related to a virus?

2

I did manage to find my “system restore” disc. Could loan him that to see if it helps----but sounds like he doesn’t have a system to restore right now.

Also------if his computer is infected by a virus----could loaning him my discs possibly infect my computer later on when I use my discs again?

Sorry for possibly stupid questions, but I am pretty much computer illiterate.

3

You can download a boot disk image from bootdisk.org. Simply run the executable file, insert a blank floppy, and away you go.

Alternatively you can create a boot disk from within Windows ME. Go to your control panel, in Add/Remove Programs, and the last tab should be “Startup Disk.” Follow the instructions and you can create a startup disk that way.

Neither of these will fix his problem however, as they will only allow you to get down to a command prompt. You can probably run scandisk from DOS and have it check the hard drive for any problems, and that might help. Otherwise you may be faced with a reinstallation of Windows ME. If you cannot find yours and his is cracked, you can still legally borrow someone else’s disk (if you know someone who has one) and he can use his own CD key to install it.

4

“System restore disks” supplied with OEM computers won’t work on other people’s machines – not exactly, anyway. A restore disk is basically an image of your computer’s Windows installation, drivers and all. If he doesn’t have exactly the same computer as yours then most of the drivers your restore disk will install probably won’t work. Understand that restore disks don’t technically install Windows in the proper sense; they uncompress and copy a hard disk image to the hard drive, so it does not go through the usual stages of discovering and installing drivers for hardware it finds on the system it’s being installed to – it doesn’t even bother looking. It just dumps a prefab Windows installation ideally tailored specifically to your computer on the hard drive.

And no, there would be no risk of virus transmission if you loan him CDs. Viruses typically transmit by attaching themselves to files on the computer. Since CDs are not writable by any standard means they cannot migrate to a CD in order to infect another machine. The only way that can happen is if you burn a CD containing files that are already infected.

5

Thanks for the info.

Got to go to work now. Will relate to him what you have proposed.

6

This might be a dumb question, but did he check the floppy drive for a disk? The computer might just be trying to boot from the floppy.

7

Nowadays, you also need to check CD drives and USB ports as some PCs will happily attempt to boot off the first thing that they see that resembles a disk, and that includes USB drives.