I’m galled by the fact that my system needs to have XP re-installed. Then I discover that all the news is about Microsoft. Sigh.
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#31 – You are!
# 32 Judge Jewdy
Like I said. I would be proud to be that courageous young man.
While you might think it is insulting to be equated to a brave and accomplished Special Olympics athlete you would be wrong. I consider it an honor!
#33 – Aw come on J, you’re starting to worry me:
http://tinyurl.com/26nb23
J, enough said – you win!
http://tinyurl.com/yqtnow
# 34 Judge Jewdy
Swing and a miss!
What? Now you are attacking homosexuals? Did daddy beat you when he got drunk?
Is this all because you take that retarded issue personally? You can’t make Vista work? It is too complicated for your little brain? Don’t have the money to spend on real equipment?
Just because you are not man enough to discuss the issue at hand doesn’t mean you should start picking on the mentally handicap or homosexuals. Well Buck-up little boy! Deal with the fact that you can’t get Vista to run correctly and run XP or ask for help.
It is possible to replace the corrupt SYSTEM file without doing any kind of reinstall. Windows keeps a backup of the SYSTEM file and some others in the c:\windows\repair directory. To replace it you can:
1. Boot from a Windows XP CD.
2. When the option comes up go into “Recovery” mode.
3. Login with an Administrator account.
4. Once at a command prompt type “copy c:\windows\repair\SYSTEM c:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM”.
5. If it prompts whether to replace it choose yes.
6. Reboot back into the Windows installation.
Whatever J – I do think Vistards should be clubbed like baby seals. I have no desire to run Microsoft. I guess all you can do is point and click, right mouth breather? Go look back out mommy’s basement window.
# 38 Judge Jewdy
“I have no desire to run Microsoft”
Ok great. So what? I guess that lack of desire makes your input here usless seeing as how this is a discussion about XP and a system error.
“I guess all you can do is point and click,”
No I can flip too.
http://tinyurl.com/23qljj
“right mouth breather?”
I guess breathing through ones mouth is better than ones ass like you do.
“Go look back out mommy’s basement window.”
Is that your problem? They locked you in the basement?
let me clarify a few things on todays Tech5…
after i digest all this material
*39 – Is this your IQ:
>No I can flip too.
>http://tinyurl.com/23qljj
Or number of white parents?
ESAD!
To All – I apologize for the above altercation with J, or as his buddies know him – BJ. After switching to Apple a few years ago I have had little use for anything MS and there are a large number of people making the switch. I merely suggested to JD that running OS X may be a better alternative than this ongoing aggravation with major impacts to productivity. As for J, I would have been his daddy if that dog hadn’t beat me over the fence.
The corrupted file you mention is easily fixable – but not while Windows is running because it IS the Windows registry.
I admit I was surprised at your rant; I guess I expected someone with your long experience in this industry to have technical ability to use system recovery tools. Call your buddy Leo Laporte next time you have a system problem – I bet he knows the answer to this one off the top of his head.
#43,
Man, about once every 3 years I lose a computer that I haven’t been religious about backups on. Man that sucks. Oh boy does that suck.
But this problem has nothing to do with windows, other than windows is broken because of the problem.
He describes CLASSIC hard disk failure. Hard disks die in one of two ways. The first way is rare, you your drive totally implodes and never works again. The other way a hard disk fails is intermittent failure, 99% of all hard disk failure I see happens this way.
He can fix windows, either with the hacks and work arounds, or reinstall (although I bet the reinstall has issues or fails outright) and his computer might work find for a couple of months. But that doesn’t change the fact that his hard disk is failing.
My suggestion is copy this hard disk onto a new one immediately. Use the tools that come with the replacement drive to do that. Then work through the microsoft hack to fix windows. XP keeps a backup of your registry to fix this exact mode of failure, and if he bothered to call Microsoft tech support they would walk him through it.
But my guess is, his windows install is aleady hozed, and there is no fix.
Also, It will be interesting to see the OSX Time Machine or whatever it is called actually is successful in fixing broken OSX installs… Because so far, all I have heard is lots of claims, but I am not seeing any reported successes. The huge unreported OSX story is how OSX has such a crappy half life, and all the OSX users are gaining mastry at reinstalling OSX the way windows users did back in the day.
#45,
You are shaking my confidence in your expertise. Because Vista comes with a tool that auto-magically runs through all the fixes suggested on this page. Ive used it twice now.
What is more shocking is that I am the only one who has enough experience on this entire blog to diagnose Dvoraks problem. So far all the advice given him on this thread has been bad, except for mine, which is, he needs a new hard drive. Because this problem will resurface without a new hard drive.
That realization has me rethinking my life of reading and commenting on this blog for the last few years.
#45 #46: I’ve run through a boot repair on Vista once; Vista picked up the problem on its own when I started my laptop, and asked me whether to do a Startup Repair. I said Yes and about 15 minutes later everything was fine. So far, Vista has been pretty stable, and there have been no blue screens. I’ve had more trouble with WinXP. Incidentally, even though I program on a Unix box at work, I’m underwhelmed by the Mac OS (wife has a Mac laptop that occasionally gives her grief, and I work out of town right now).
Just my two cents:
I’ve been using one XP install for 4 years now. And also went through several hardware tweaks: new HDs, new DVD recorders, New Graphics cards…And even a mobo and processor replacement, from athlon to dual pentium. And the most trouble I’ve been was being forced to do a repair install (obviously when changing mobo’s).
I really can’t stand all those whiners (that means you too John C.) complaining about windows. Sure it’s a convoluted quilt all made of patches, but if a guy like me, that is not that savvy, can still be working day in day out on a box with more than 3 years of installs and uninstalls…
# 41 Judge Jewdy
*39 – Is this your IQ:
Actually no. I belong to Region I of Intertel.
“Or number of white parents?”
What? Are you mentally ill? Does that question even make sense to you?
# 42 Judge Jewdy
“To All – I apologize for the above altercation with J, or as his buddies know him – BJ”
and the bear!!!! You dolt!
“After switching to Apple a few years ago I have had little use for anything MS”
Good for you. I bet you feel all smug and conceited
“and there are a large number of people making the switch.”
Well the world is full of dumb shits like you.
“I merely suggested to JD that running OS X may be a better alternative than this ongoing aggravation with major impacts to productivity.”
It’s just J. JD is someone else on this board.
First off you never said anything even close to that. You just attacked the users of Vista and mental handicap people.
Better? Hah! I own 3 Mac Pro’s 2 with Leopard and 1 with Tiger and there is nothing they can do that my Vista PC boxes can not. As a matter of fact the list of software that OSX doesn’t run is much larger than that of Vista. The Vista boxes are just as if not more stable than the Leopard ones.
“As for J, I would have been his daddy if that dog hadn’t beat me over the fence.”
So you had sex with the dog just because it jumped over the fence first?
Apparently a lot of people didn’t install Vista because they couldn’t open the package.
John,
Just run SpinRite. I’m sure Gibson wouldn’t mind if you borrowed Leo’s copy.
#49 – No, I attacked you. Re-read my message moron or maybe your lips get tired when you read.
[Hey you two… get a room. – ed.]
# 45 pedro
“people running vista without problems are a) lucky and b) very lucky. or c) a mac user that doesn’t need much.”
I disagree. I know tons of people that use it in the production environment and have no problems. I can only speak with confidence on my own experience. I have had zero problems with Vista Ultimate 64. On 5 different boxes. Then again, I buy very good hardware and I am not cheap with RAM.
All of the problems people claim exist I have not run into using the same procedures they used. I think most of it is crap hardware and or user malfunction.
# 46 GregA
While I agree with you that it could be the beginning of an inevitable hard drive failure I didn’t hear anything in John’s description that would lead there first.
“So far all the advice given him on this thread has been bad, except for mine, which is, he needs a new hard drive. ”
No no no. Why spend the money if it is just a fluke bad write. That does happen. Giving him advice to backup the fresh install as soon as it is complete is not bad advice. It could be reinstalled on a new duplicate drive. He would need to re authorize but that’s about it. It is never bad to have a drive image.
“Because this problem will resurface without a new hard drive.”
There is nothing conclusive about that in what John said. You may be right but you are a tad bit too sure about it. That’s easy when it isn’t your money your spending. What about people who can’t afford a new HD every time there is an error with Windows?
John is right. Despite the fact that he rarely has problems with XP BSOD. Windows is designed like shit when it comes to issues like this.
# 50 NappyHeadedHo
I have to laugh because that is the worst package design I have ever seen. One of my employees took a good 5 min trying to figure out how to open it. LOL
# 52 Judge Jewdy
“No, I attacked you. Re-read my message moron or maybe your lips get tired when you read.”
Fine you were attacking Me, Vista users, and Metal handicap people in addition to homosexuals. You still never said anything about OSX being a better alternative.
J – as requested by the editor, I’m dropping this. My apologies to you, I was a little bored today and got carried away. Peace!
# 55 Judge Jewdy
“J – as requested by the editor, I’m dropping this. My apologies to you,”
No need to apologize to me. You didn’t say anything about or to me that that I was offended by.
“I was a little bored today and got carried away. Peace!”
I know exactly what you mean. Peace.
John,
This KB article might help:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
I was going to suggest the same as #17 dirtboy: linux bootdisks don’t seem to suffer all the same limitations that Windows does. But of course yes there’s a good chance of creeping hard disk failure, so appropriate measures….