So I’m primarily a Mac user, but I have this Windows 7 laptop. It’s been sitting here next to my Mac, unused for a couple months. It’s been plugged in, but closed. I’ve simply had no reason to use it for a couple months.
But yesterday, I decided to open it up and log into World of Warcraft (which I normally play on my Mac) … and was welcomed by an error screen telling me that Windows couldn’t start up because of … errors.
I did the initial “Try to repair shit” thing the error dialog offered me, and that completely failed. So I took the next step it offered, which was to restore the system to an earlier state, and attempt to save my personal data. No biggie, because I had installed nothing but a few games on this laptop, along with some antivirus software. No personal or credit card info.
I ended up completely wiping the hard drive in the process of restoring the system.
So WTF happened? The last time I used this laptop was back in March, and everything was fine. Then I leave it sit for a couple months, and everything goes haywire.
Its because its Windows. Period. I’ve seen stranger things than the OP reported, with WIN/7. I only use Windows at work and that’s because I have to. I won’t allow that crap in my home anymore. And I’ve been using Microsoft OS’s since MS-DOS 2.11 . Microsoft never got it right. Fuck 'em. Read again what Mister RiK (The OP) said. “I ended up completely wiping the hard drive in the process of restoring the system.” What other OS would make a user do that? Fuck Bill Gates right up the wazoo, the little prick.
I should add that, along with the laptop being plugged in (and thus “running but asleep”) it was still connected to my home WiFi network. Despite my user account being logged out, could it have still been trying (and failing) to install the automatic updates mentioned by rsa?
I was going to add this to post #4 in this thread after I bitched, but I timed out. Maybe others who stumble upon this thread can add more to the following.
What was Windows doing when you were asleep? Take a look at the System log in Windows EventViewer (type eventvwr from the command prompt or from Start) for a start. There will be logs showing all activity, but I don’t know which log file to peruse.
Well, if he’s already wiped his laptop’s ass, it’s too late to do a colonoscopy to see the system events.
I had a Winders machine that sat around, unused, for a few years. (It was XP, I think.) When I finally plugged it in, I found it wouldn’t connect to a network – said it couldn’t find any network drivers. And of course, being unconnected, I couldn’t download any (nor could I figure what I should have to download anyway). I mean, Winders comes with factory-installed network drivers, right?
I found a satisfactory resolution. Like the OP, I wiped XP’s ass off that disk and did a fresh clean install – of Ubuntu Linux. I’ve been happily using that for several years now, and am using it even now as I type this post.
What make of laptop is yours? I have an old (2008) Lenovo laptop (T400) running Windows/XP and wanna move it to Linux. My google-fu has been weak researching this. I dig SuSe. -Thx.
I have a Lenovo laptop (3000 N100) that dual boots XP and Linux. I’m using Fedora.
The only issue I had was that I couldn’t get the wireless network to work. The issue with Linux was that the wireless interface manufacturer wouldn’t release driver details without an NDA, and since Linux is open source an NDA doesn’t work. I know that some folks were working on reverse engineering the wireless driver to make one that worked for Linux but I don’t know if they ever succeeded. I didn’t need the wireless capability of it so I never bothered to go back to the issue.
Meh. I run several windows boxes, a couple of which run 24/7, and have never had a problem with the windows installation getting corrupted after a while. I’m not exactly a Windows fan, but the idea that all Windows computers rot after a while is just plain wrong.
I suspect that the OP’s problem was more related to the fact that the computer sat so long without being used rather than a problem with the OS that was on it.
I should also say that once I get a computer functioning properly, I turn off Windows updates. Some folks will disagree with this strategy. In my personal experience, automatic updates have caused more problems than they have fixed. YMMV on that one though.
ETA: I’ve also had Linux systems get totally hosed and had to re-install. Linux doesn’t handle hardware changes as well as Windows. And installing or updating software on Linux is sometimes MUCH more difficult than it is under Windows. I really like Linux, but in some ways they really do have a long way to go to catch up to Windows in terms of ease of use.