I went home for lunch today and was trying to download a new program for my computer. It install spyware with it, so I attempted to do a system restore on my computer only to fall into the deepest abyss my computer’s ever been.
In the middle of the restore, it showed some partition problems. I’ve never partitioned my main hard drive that I know of… So, it reboots and brings up to the CMOS (?) screen asking me how I wanted to start windows. I try it in regular, last working, and safe modes. None work. They load up to a bit and then just stop.
So, what else can I do but reinstall Windows (back-up disk is MIA, of course). So I reinstall Windows XP and I think the harddrive is now partition, because when I rebooted, it gives me two options to load Windows XP, the top one works, the bottom one doesn’t.
So I’ve got a load of questions/problems/other things. I’ve got two hard drives. A 20GB that came with the puter that has all of the programs on it, and an 80GB that I store music on. I see that all of the files are still there on the computer but none of those programs are loaded. So, my iTunes that connects my iPod, yahoo messenger, and my music are still on the computer, but I have to reinstall them.
I attempted to reinstall my iTunes and that worked and reinstalled Musicmatch too. The problem is, iTunes doesn’t see my iPod. It recognizes it’s attached but won’t show me the tracks on it. I’ve got another program I bought that came with a .lic (license) file seperate from it. The program won’t recognize the license file.
I’ve got a sinking feeling that I’m making my computer worse by reinstalling this stuff, the partition still out there with XP on it as well, and well, just generally f-ing this up. Any and all advice needed on how to fix this.(except the back-up disk. I’m living that pain already ).
Bluntly, yes, you made it worse by reinstalling or even reverting before asking for advice. You completely over-reacted. There are tools for dealing with spyware, not the least of which is Add/Remove Programs.
Right now, you’re in a recovery situation. Forget the apps, what is important is your data. Reinstall from scratch - not an upgrade install - without formatting anything. Reinstall the OS and your apps and you should be O.K. You’ll lose all your settings etc, but that’s life.
Thanks Quartz. Yeah… I realize I overdid it, but doing the system restore worked so well before. (OK, someone smack my hands with a ruler).
I’ve reinstalled Windows XP and a lot of the progs. I had to get a new license for one of the progs from the manufacturer, but that’s already done. Everything’s good except…
My iPod. While reinstalling everything I left it plugged into the computer via firewire. The iPod started to reformat and lost all of the music. The problem is, I can’t get it out of Disk Mode no matter what I do. I’ve tried to reformat it but that didn’t work at all. It would get close to the end and then stop with the bar almost to the end, even after a couple hours. I’m at a loss as to how to fix it. (I’ve tried reinstall Apple’s software a couple times, tried to manually reboot the iPod, and reformat it a couple times as well. Nothing doing.
Try life on Mac. PearPC will let you get a taste of it without investing in a real hardware Mac (although you’ll still have to come up with your own copy of the OS, since it’s commercial property same as Windows is) or committing to it at the expense of your existing Windows world. You’ll still need to buy an actual Mac to use it at full-speed and full compatibility but it’s a damn good OS and it doesn’t have viruses or spyware.
Or try Linux (same prospect, except that it won’t cost you anything to try it out or deploy it in real life; it’s somewhat less advanced and developed than MacOS X or Windows XP but it works and it’s genuinely totally no-strings FREE and you don’t even need to change hardware). Again, absolutely no viruses and no spyware.
In either environment you can emulate a PC and/or Windows to whatever extent you find you really need it.
They load up to a bit and then just stop.
).