What the heck

[Parabellum]

Due to a horrible incident, I've had to re-format my new HD and re-install Windows XP. I've just reinstalled, and I've already got viruses! I can't believe it!

Also, for those of you who look to this (and other) forums for help, please let me share something with you: Take your PC to a local flesh-and-blood tech if you have questions or problems. Never take the advice of anyone online who claims to be a PC tech or guru. I took the advice of a member here when setting up my PC, and used multiple partitions. I also attempted to re-size those partitions last night using PartitionMagic to re-size the partitions. Two mistakes that may have cost me dearly, friends. Please, learn from my mistake. Do not take the advice of so-called 'experts' here or on any other internet forum. I have no idea how long (if ever) it will take me to recover all of the data that is on my other HD. It all could have been avoided if I'd followed my 'instincts' rather than the advice of a so-called 'expert' here on this forum.

[swartsz]

yes, that is also one of the main problems i encounter when i do a reinstall of XP, without all the patches and cricital updates it leaves your system open to all kinds of viruses. That is why i made myself a little cd with most of the patches needed to keep some of more nasty viruses out of my HD and i always install most of my programs,firstly my anti-virus before i connect to the web.

and in my mind the best way to partition your HD is still the FDISK command, can't go wrong there.

I hope you get everything working again, Para!

[NightCrawler]

While I understand where you're coming from Para, I've learned alot from so called experts here and on other forums. The thing I do that is different is check with others before I actually do it on my PC.

All PC's and users needs are not the same, planning and a bit of knowledge will prevent these kinds of troubles. So the moral of these posts is do your homework before you take any advice.

[pz3]

cd-r / dvd-r

or a 2nd harddrive usually works best

can reformat a lot with all ur data saved still =)

but truthfully, that sucks.......

if all my modding stuff one day disapeared i would probly implode.

[NightCrawler]

That's why with the prices of todays portable HD's, I don't understand why many who put in that kind of work don't have one and use it regularly for backups.

[Dilligas]

Sorry to here that Para.

That's why I always do my own research before I implement anything I learn here. My best friend is the only one I trust when it comes to my computers, but I've known him for more than 20 years. He's also a Network administrator for a medium sized bank.

[Specter]

Sorry to hear that you had trouble, Para.

#1 rule of anything PC: If it is important to you, or you have put a ton of work into it, BACK IT UP. That simple. Then you wouldn't lose anything.

As for taking advice from what you call 'so called experts', it is a personal choice. Not only that, but there are some very good experts here, alot of whom you could ask questions of.

As for using Partition Magic, I have never had issues. But before taking anyone's advice, even a flesh and blood expert, check around first and check your facts. Read the program's directions, and BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP ! ! Anytime you mess with the OS or the partition tables, you BACK UP ! ! Messing with either is a risk to your data, especially if you aren't familiar with what you are doing. Blank CDr's are cheap insurance. You could be taking it to a 'so called flesh and blood expert', who doesn't know a CD drive from an ashtray.

As for multiple partitions, it's still the best way to go to help insure safety of your data. BUT IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU UNDERSTAND FULLY WITH WHAT YOU MESS WITH ! ! IF you don't get someone to walk you through it, step by step. BUT STILL BACK UP ! !

I understand your frustration here, Para. But blaming folks trying to help you isn't the answer, and it isn't fair.

NO ONE can blame data loss on anyone but themselves, for not BACKING IT UP. Even if that 'flesh and blood expert' worked on it and lost your data, it's still YOUR OWN FAULT for not BACKING IT UP ! !

I don't know one expert, flesh and blood, online, or otherwise that will guarantee data safety. Too many things can go wrong.

But telling people that everyone who is trying to help them is a bad idea, isn't fair. Especially when your data loss boils down to no one but yourself for not backing it up.

I don't trust anyone, save one person with my computer, or my data, and that's because I know she is smart enough to ask questions if she sees something she doesn't know. And if an error occurs, she just flat out stops until she finds me to ask.

Partition Magic is a very powerful tool, and is designed to work on the heart of your computer, literally. It is designed to alter partition tables, partition sizes, and locations. It can also move data. But you had better understand what you are doing. If you don't, you ask someone. Even if they are your best friend, and they think they know, if you aren't sure, you ask. Because if you do it worng, you are fubarred.

Your drive should have 3 partitions, at least. Any more than three is totally personal discretion by you. But the three you should have are:

1)15GB for WinXP or 2K

2)Application Partition

3)Data Partition

The size of the last two partitions depends on your drive size, the number and size of apps, data amounts, and whether you want more than the three basic partitions I've listed here.

I'd be interested to know how you got viruses so fast. Did you go surfing without the security updates, or does someone really not like you?

IF you can, or if you have it already, get Norton Ghost or PowerQwest Drive image, and make backup images of your OS partition, and your data partition, and update them regularly. That is another backup option to getting CDR's, which is by far the safest, most practical way to go. CDR's are cheap insurance.

But please Para, let's be fair and not label everyone online a bad way to go, because you didn't back your data up. It isn't really fair, especially when people like Dannik, me, Snakebite and alot of others have helped countless people without even a crash.

And when everything is back up and running, reformatted or restored, BACK UP ! !

Then you are only inconvenienced for an hour or two.

But don't label everyone like that.

And if you need help, although I do realize that I am one of the 'so called online guru's or experts', get in touch with me, and I will be glad to walk you through Partition Magic step by step, explaining every step along the way.

PM me or EMAIL me with any questions. You can also reach me on MSN messenger.

I don't pretend to know all the answers. Anyone who says they do is NOT a professional, and you don't want to use them. There is simply too much information on computers to know it all.

But if I don't know the answer, I know where to get it, who to talk to, and most important, if I don't know, I know how to say 'Sorry Para. I'm stumped on that. Let's move on, and see what we can find on it.'

Edited January 26, 2005 by PhantmSniper

[Parabellum]

cd-r / dvd-r 

or a 2nd harddrive usually works best

can reformat a lot with all ur data saved still =)

but truthfully, that sucks.......

if all my modding stuff one day disapeared i would probly implode.

←

I'd been trying to back up my important data for weeks, but the burns to DVD kept failing. I had the keen suspicion that something was wrong, and that it was only a matter of time... Fortunately, I do have a second HD, with which I can start to get back on my feet. I probably lost a month's worth of work on VBS1 stuff, all of my dynacomp stuff, and all of the music and other things I've purchased online. I can only hope that the local PC tech, who is very good, can salvage the data on my other HD. If not, I'm not sure that I'll ever totally recover from this loss.

@ PhantmSniper: I'll say it again: I tried backups. They failed. Again and again. I have quite a few redundant backups that I've made over the months, including about 5 gigs of data that I managed to backup in December. For some reason, though, every attempt at backing up the data recently failed.

My issues with 'so-called experts' revolve mostly around advice given awhile ago, about setting up 3 partitions, with the C drive being about 5 gigs. Well, memo to me and everyone else: If you're doing a lot of CGI work, 5 gigs isn't enough, because most A/V aps won't let you specify a drive other than C for a scratch disc. That was one of the core issues; my C partition wasn't big enough, so I needed to re-partition and give myself more room.

I'm not blaming my situation on anyone here. I'm blaming the situation on myself for not following my better judgment, and doing what I thought was right, rather than listen to someone else. Had I simply partitioned that drive as one large drive in the first place, I wouldn't be having this problem.

Still, I don't totally discount the advice of others. There has been a lot of good advice given, but the fact of the matter remains: When in doubt, take it to someone you know and trust. The fault ultimately lies with me, because I kept feeling that I shouldn't do the 5/10/40 GB partition, but I did it anyway. Hopefully, my tech can fix the drive.

In the meantime, I'll toss this out there:

The other drive (We'll call it the old drive) is recognized by the BIOS. I haven't reformatted it, so the data is still there. When I tried to boot from the old drive, the machine hangs. Booting in safe mode causes a long list of drivers to be displayed, and it always hangs on one particular driver. I forget the actual error, unfortunately. If I connect the old drive and boot from the new drive, everything loads OK, but the old drive isn't recognized in Windows. I'm assuming that somehow, PartitionMagic failed to properly setup the partition tables, but I don't know for sure, and won't know until I take it to the tech. If anyone has had this issue, I'm all ears as to how your tech solved the issue.

[Specter]

cd-r / dvd-r 

or a 2nd harddrive usually works best

can reformat a lot with all ur data saved still =)

but truthfully, that sucks.......

if all my modding stuff one day disapeared i would probly implode.

←

I'd been trying to back up my important data for weeks, but the burns to DVD kept failing. I had the keen suspicion that something was wrong, and that it was only a matter of time... Fortunately, I do have a second HD, with which I can start to get back on my feet. I probably lost a month's worth of work on VBS1 stuff, all of my dynacomp stuff, and all of the music and other things I've purchased online. I can only hope that the local PC tech, who is very good, can salvage the data on my other HD. If not, I'm not sure that I'll ever totally recover from this loss.

@ PhantmSniper: I'll say it again: I tried backups. They failed. Again and again. I have quite a few redundant backups that I've made over the months, including about 5 gigs of data that I managed to backup in December. For some reason, though, every attempt at backing up the data recently failed.

My issues with 'so-called experts' revolve mostly around advice given awhile ago, about setting up 3 partitions, with the C drive being about 5 gigs. Well, memo to me and everyone else: If you're doing a lot of CGI work, 5 gigs isn't enough, because most A/V aps won't let you specify a drive other than C for a scratch disc. That was one of the core issues; my C partition wasn't big enough, so I needed to re-partition and give myself more room.

I'm not blaming my situation on anyone here. I'm blaming the situation on myself for not following my better judgment, and doing what I thought was right, rather than listen to someone else. Had I simply partitioned that drive as one large drive in the first place, I wouldn't be having this problem.

Still, I don't totally discount the advice of others. There has been a lot of good advice given, but the fact of the matter remains: When in doubt, take it to someone you know and trust. The fault ultimately lies with me, because I kept feeling that I shouldn't do the 5/10/40 GB partition, but I did it anyway. Hopefully, my tech can fix the drive.

In the meantime, I'll toss this out there:

The other drive (We'll call it the old drive) is recognized by the BIOS. I haven't reformatted it, so the data is still there. When I tried to boot from the old drive, the machine hangs. Booting in safe mode causes a long list of drivers to be displayed, and it always hangs on one particular driver. I forget the actual error, unfortunately. If I connect the old drive and boot from the new drive, everything loads OK, but the old drive isn't recognized in Windows. I'm assuming that somehow, PartitionMagic failed to properly setup the partition tables, but I don't know for sure, and won't know until I take it to the tech. If anyone has had this issue, I'm all ears as to how your tech solved the issue.

←

Maybe the old drive finally bit it and that is why the slave you had wasn't seen. If you have a drive go bad that is a master, depending on the type of drive failure, it wouldn't see the second drive, making that one look bad as well.

But without more details, I can only speculate on what you have going on.

Anyway, if you need help, look me up. I hope you don't get soaked too bad by the shop, like some others recently have been on here. Some 'flesh and blood expert' just took one of our other forum members to the proverbial cleaners for more than 400 dollars just for a format and mobo replacement, and didn't even get the ffr done right and had to do it again, and he is still having problems. You can read about it here in these very forums. So you see, flesh and blood makes no difference. Even then you still get guys that don't have a clue.

It sounds like a hardware error to me, and nothing to do with Partition Magic.

Even with no partitions, it wouldn't hang the PC at boot time.

Just because the BIOS sees it, doesn't mean the drive isn't failing. I recently had 2 Quantums that the BIOS saw, but Winblows wouldn't. Turns out the heads failed and wouldn't read the paltters anymore. No track 1 Sector 0(the boot sector).

So you see, it was BIOS recognized, but an HDD hardware failure.

As much work as you do Para, I would have gotten a cheap CDR drive, internal or external, and back up. DVR's are still iffy and being worked out as far as the standards go.

Good luck bud. Hope it works out for ya.

Edited January 26, 2005 by PhantmSniper

[NightCrawler]

Good God not the VBS stuff!?!?

[Parabellum]

cd-r / dvd-r 

or a 2nd harddrive usually works best

can reformat a lot with all ur data saved still =)

but truthfully, that sucks.......

if all my modding stuff one day disapeared i would probly implode.

←

I'd been trying to back up my important data for weeks, but the burns to DVD kept failing. I had the keen suspicion that something was wrong, and that it was only a matter of time... Fortunately, I do have a second HD, with which I can start to get back on my feet. I probably lost a month's worth of work on VBS1 stuff, all of my dynacomp stuff, and all of the music and other things I've purchased online. I can only hope that the local PC tech, who is very good, can salvage the data on my other HD. If not, I'm not sure that I'll ever totally recover from this loss.

@ PhantmSniper: I'll say it again: I tried backups. They failed. Again and again. I have quite a few redundant backups that I've made over the months, including about 5 gigs of data that I managed to backup in December. For some reason, though, every attempt at backing up the data recently failed.

My issues with 'so-called experts' revolve mostly around advice given awhile ago, about setting up 3 partitions, with the C drive being about 5 gigs. Well, memo to me and everyone else: If you're doing a lot of CGI work, 5 gigs isn't enough, because most A/V aps won't let you specify a drive other than C for a scratch disc. That was one of the core issues; my C partition wasn't big enough, so I needed to re-partition and give myself more room.

I'm not blaming my situation on anyone here. I'm blaming the situation on myself for not following my better judgment, and doing what I thought was right, rather than listen to someone else. Had I simply partitioned that drive as one large drive in the first place, I wouldn't be having this problem.

Still, I don't totally discount the advice of others. There has been a lot of good advice given, but the fact of the matter remains: When in doubt, take it to someone you know and trust. The fault ultimately lies with me, because I kept feeling that I shouldn't do the 5/10/40 GB partition, but I did it anyway. Hopefully, my tech can fix the drive.

In the meantime, I'll toss this out there:

The other drive (We'll call it the old drive) is recognized by the BIOS. I haven't reformatted it, so the data is still there. When I tried to boot from the old drive, the machine hangs. Booting in safe mode causes a long list of drivers to be displayed, and it always hangs on one particular driver. I forget the actual error, unfortunately. If I connect the old drive and boot from the new drive, everything loads OK, but the old drive isn't recognized in Windows. I'm assuming that somehow, PartitionMagic failed to properly setup the partition tables, but I don't know for sure, and won't know until I take it to the tech. If anyone has had this issue, I'm all ears as to how your tech solved the issue.

←

Maybe the old drive finally bit it and that is why the slave you had wasn't seen. If you have a drive go bad that is a master, depending on the type of drive failure, it wouldn't see the second drive, making that one look bad as well.

But without more details, I can only speculate on what you have going on.

Anyway, if you need help, look me up. I hope you don't get soaked too bad by the shop, like some others recently have been on here. Some 'flesh and blood expert' just took one of our other forum members to the proverbial cleaners for more than 400 dollars just for a format and mobo replacement, and didn't even get the ffr done right and had to do it again, and he is still having problems. You can read about it here in these very forums. So you see, flesh and blood makes no difference. Even then you still get guys that don't have a clue.

It sounds like a hardware error to me, and nothing to do with Partition Magic.

Even with no partitions, it wouldn't hang the PC at boot time.

Just because the BIOS sees it, doesn't mean the drive isn't failing. I recently had 2 Quantums that the BIOS saw, but Winblows wouldn't. Turns out the heads failed and wouldn't read the paltters anymore. No track 1 Sector 0(the boot sector).

So you see, it was BIOS recognized, but an HDD hardware failure.

As much work as you do Para, I would have gotten a cheap CDR drive, internal or external, and back up. DVR's are still iffy and being worked out as far as the standards go.

Good luck bud. Hope it works out for ya.

←

I actually do have a CD-R drive. I used to use it to back stuff up, but with the large volumes of work that I do, DVD seemed the obvious choice. I did manage to get a 5 gig backup done of most of the absolutely essential stuff awhile back, so it won't be a total loss, but it will be a heavy loss nonetheless.

Regarding the old drive, I've currently got my drives set up like so:

Primary Master: Maxtor 250 GB (New drive)

Primary Slave: CD-R drive

Secondary Master: Western Digital 60 GB (old drive, with all the important data)

Secondary Slave: DVD-R drive

Everything shows up OK in Windows except the Western Digital drive. If I were to boot from that drive, the machine would hang, and it's always on one particular driver. It was fine until I re-partitioned the drive, which is what makes me think the partition table is messed up. I know that's something that can be fixed in DOS, but it's beyond what I can confidently do.

[Parabellum]

Good God not the VBS stuff!?!?

←

All but the very latest of my SF stuff (which was the best I've ever done) is on my backup disc. If the local guys can't salvage my HD, I don't know that I'll ever be able to recreate the stuff I'd been doing.

EDIT - Hopefully someone will get a laugh out of this. I woke up Monday morning, and it seems that I've been stuck in a perpetual Monday ever since. My monitor died. My supervisor called and chewed my out for not accomodating a certain individual, and when I informed him that I was only abiding by his written policy, he chewed me again.

Then, I got to work yesterday, and my direct supervisor (beneath the one that chewed me) tells me that the boss is still ######. I'd been under the impression that the situation was over and done with. To hear that it isn't, makes me unhappy. On top of that, there was no paycheck for me when I went to get one. My wife and I literally don't have a dollar to our name, and there's no paycheck. Fortunately, there was actually a check for me, it just hadn't been pulled. Unfortunately, that check is short $100. I may not have the gas money to get to work. If I can't get to work, I lose more money, because I can't get there. I also sense another butt-chewing coming tomorrow when I get to work. To top it all off, my HD took a crap in the middle of the night, leaving me up all night trying my hardest to salvage what I can. Yes, ladies and gentlement, Murphy is very much alive and well. One can only give Mr. Murphy the finger and carry on when he shows up.

Edited January 26, 2005 by Parabellum

[Matt03]

That sucks. I will donate this to you so you don't lose too many brain cells.

[KRP 56]

Yes, ladies and gentlement, Murphy is very much alive and well.  One can only give Mr. Murphy the finger and carry on when he shows up.

←

Bummer! Mr. Murphy can give you all kinds of headaches and it sure sounds like you've had him pay you a visit as of late. Hope things start getting better as Mr. Murphy and his wife might come calling and that's what nobody needs. Good Luck!

[WP33]

Good God not the VBS stuff!?!?

←

All but the very latest of my SF stuff (which was the best I've ever done) is on my backup disc. If the local guys can't salvage my HD, I don't know that I'll ever be able to recreate the stuff I'd been doing.

EDIT - Hopefully someone will get a laugh out of this. I woke up Monday morning, and it seems that I've been stuck in a perpetual Monday ever since. My monitor died. My supervisor called and chewed my out for not accomodating a certain individual, and when I informed him that I was only abiding by his written policy, he chewed me again.

Then, I got to work yesterday, and my direct supervisor (beneath the one that chewed me) tells me that the boss is still ######. I'd been under the impression that the situation was over and done with. To hear that it isn't, makes me unhappy. On top of that, there was no paycheck for me when I went to get one. My wife and I literally don't have a dollar to our name, and there's no paycheck. Fortunately, there was actually a check for me, it just hadn't been pulled. Unfortunately, that check is short $100. I may not have the gas money to get to work. If I can't get to work, I lose more money, because I can't get there. I also sense another butt-chewing coming tomorrow when I get to work. To top it all off, my HD took a crap in the middle of the night, leaving me up all night trying my hardest to salvage what I can. Yes, ladies and gentlement, Murphy is very much alive and well. One can only give Mr. Murphy the finger and carry on when he shows up.

←

Damn, talk about kickin' a guy when he's down! Sorry to hear.

[Chems]

I found that a program called Phoneix NTFS/FAT32 can get back all but the most damaged data. My HD did physical on me, the read write heads went to far, but I managed to get all but the stuff that was on the latest sectors off. So there miite be hope for your stuff yet. Download it free, then Content removed.

[3.7] Warez : Links to warez sites or discussion of warez is not permitted. Breach of this rule can lead to legal proceedings against this site, and will not be tolerated. [Thing that should not be spoken of here] are against the Ubi Soft licencing agreement and are included in this rule - which is strictly enforced.

[Parabellum]

I found that a program called Phoneix NTFS/FAT32 can get back all but the most damaged data. My HD did physical on me, the read write heads went to far, but I managed to get all but the stuff that was on the latest sectors off. So there miite be hope for your stuff yet. Download it free, *edited*

←

I'll take the drive to the tech and have him do it.

[pz3]

Warez! .. busted!

Para your problem with the CD-R (DVD-R) stuff not working is probly your write speeds are set to high and the CD-Rs (or DVD-Rs) you are using dont record fast enough ....

just try lowering your record speeds in your CD drive properties. Should work no problem then.

Edited January 26, 2005 by Prozac360

[Parabellum]

Warez! .. busted! 

Para your problem with the CD-R (DVD-R) stuff not working is probly your write speeds are set to high and the CD-Rs (or DVD-Rs) you are using dont record fast enough ....

just try lowering your record speeds in your CD drive properties. Should work no problem then.

←

I had actually considered that possibility, but never got to try it out.

[Stalker]

Tzzzzz.

Great guess!

There's only one problem. You are totally wrong! Good job.

[ZJJ]

lol wimpy staff member didnt even leave there name so I know who did it, I guess Stalker thou. Place your bets.

←

Watch your cracks about "wimpy staff" and don't be making assumptions without knowledge. As Stalker as already pointed out, it wasn't him.

[Chems]

Ah ye all, I thought Stalker was the only one making the rounds these days. heheh Now yeah Stalker mite be wimpy but not half as wimpy as zjj

Only kiddin guys, you do a great job just your meant (its says so in Chems Darks Side Guide to Moderating) to leave the note so we know who it was edited by so I can come get ya lol

Like I said great job.

^^Im not sure why I wrote that bit now Ive posted but I will leave it anyway just to say again.

Im not one for using Cracks, Cracks cracks, normally but this program on trial model lets you see all your files but not recover them, and Im sure you could understand how fustrating that was specially when it took like 5 hours to scan the disk. So yeah I felt justified cracking the program that time. But on the whole cracks are BAD!

Edited January 27, 2005 by Chems

[pz3]

worst tease ever.....

how much does it cost?

[Parabellum]

I think I've found the cause of the problems: EZ Drive. It's some sort of drive-management software that's made by Western-Digital. When I received an error message yesterday while trying to run PM in DOS, I remembered that EZ Bios kept me from running PM on that drive quite some time ago. This drive has gone through two FDISK/Reformats since I installed EZ Drive, and yet the detestable software is still on and fouling up the drive. I'm going to attempt to uninstall EZ Drive as per WDC's instructions, and then see if PM can fix the drive.

[Specter]

Anyway, back to the original issue, before my thread gets closed.  I think I've found the cause of the problems:  EZ Drive.  It's some sort of drive-management software that's made by Western-Digital.  When I received an error message yesterday while trying to run PM in DOS, I remembered that EZ Bios kept me from running PM on that drive quite some time ago.  This drive has gone through two FDISK/Reformats since I installed EZ Drive, and yet the detestable software is still on and fouling up the drive.  I'm going to attempt to uninstall EZ Drive as per WDC's instructions, and then see if PM can fix the drive.

←

Do you see a non-dos partition through fdisk that is small, probably less than 20MB? If so, wipe it out.

If you don't, get with me this evening, and we will get rid of it.

I'm pulling heads on a 97 Taurus right now, because the joker at the garage wanted 1200 dollars to do it. What a joke when I've been a mechanic for 15 years, eh?

Edited January 28, 2005 by PhantmSniper