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Yeah, probably best to just not trust the windows install at all,... I'm not sure exactly how they're doing it but it would be easy for WIndows to just intercept all web queries made from any program. (Not just IE)
It's pretty easy to make a bootable linux flash drive or DVD if you need to browse privately on new laptop.
Or if you're pretty tech savy and/or daring just install Linux directly on your machine (Debian is pretty awesome BTW).
Knoppix is still the general go-to for random booty tasks. It looks like you have a Pentium III there, which is plenty fast for what you're needing even with a modern distro. It'll work well enough for doing an lspci and getting hardware info.
Before you dig into that it might be worth trying http://rh-software.com/ first and seeing if it gives the info you need. Also check Device Manager and see if you even have anything missing - Win98 might have come with enough.
Lots of other options to try.
Boot into Safe Mode and try deleting the files.
Boot from a Linux CD/UB such as Knoppix and try deleting the files. This option will guarantee nothing is running that could be locking or accessing the files.
PowerShell - open an administrative PowerShell prompt and run
Remove-Item –path c:\testfolder\ remove-item * -include *.jpeg –recurse
Hope these ideas help.
Why don't you try Linux? Its free, and you can download it and try a live distribution without even installing it (although a live distribution will be a bit slower than an installed one).
This is my favorite live distribution, you can put it in a USB pen drive and try it out. Nothing lost if you don't like it.
You can put the computer together and get it turned on to make sure it boots and completed POST successfully. You can even boot off your CD/USB for Windows installation to make sure it all goes well, although it won't find a suitable installation location yet.
A liveCD like Knoppix would allow you to use the computer for basic browsing and such.
Knoppix was the first fully-feature-packed popular distribution to allow you to run an entirely different OS just by booting from a CD; nowadays, lots of Linux distributions require creating a live image via DVD or USB in order to try out OR install the Linux OS. If you check out the ranking on the right side of the page at distrowatch.com, you'll see that Linux Mint and Ubuntu are the most popular. You may stop using Windows when you realize how Linux can turn every one of your aging Winboxes into a brand new and more secure machine for no money spent. Now, I once rebooted a university computer workstation into Knoppix, and was up and using Firefox in no time; however, the moment the university's monitoring agent on this machine stopped talking with its momma, one of the admins was at my side looking to see if I was trying to walk off with the machine. So, heads-up; they'll notice.
These kinds of problems are normally solved using a bootable CD. That approach works for Windows installs too, in fact it's the standard approach for both Windows and Linux.
Do you normally drag the gas station to your car to fill it up?
Try Knoppix, as just one example.
The only thing I can add to the earlier suggestions is GET A LINUX LIVE BOOT CD.
I recommend Knoppix Linux
Boots from CD without writing to the hard drive. Gives you a full graphical environment with all standard linux tools letting you fix any PC (I've used it on Windows and Linux computers).
It's especially useful if you were trying to fix something and you screwed up an important configuration file and you can't even boot to copy your backup back into place.
It's FREE
It's Open Source
It contains all standard gnu/linux utilities - you can do just about anything you conceivably could need to fix a computer whose hardware isn't broken.
Just download and burn to a CD.
This, plus USB thumbdrive with useful software on it (antivirus etc.), screwdrivers, some spare thermal paste and the ability to order parts as needed covers basically everything.
- i recommend you use Live Linux Knoppix on a USB thumb drive. (Knoppix 'can' be installed to a hard drive but it is NOT recommended, it is meant to be a Live Linux.
- It will allow you do do all you want to (a) obtain any hardware info (b) if Windows was shut down from 'restart' shutdown, then it will read installed drives for all documents files etc.
- I have used this to do first info trawl of computers I recondition to a normal Linux system. I also format the hard drive for Linux use in Knoppix GParted before Linux installation so I get a maximum swap file and a definite "root, /" and separate "/home" partition.
- Link to English version of Prof. Knopper's site:
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
What year Macbook is it? If it's older than 2006, you probably need the PowerPC version of OS X to boot from the external.
If it's newer and you have access to another computer (any computer, mac or Windows) that can burn a DVD, then download and burn this Linux Live disc: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Hold the option key until the boot menu shows up, put in the the Linux disc, and select the disc from the boot menu. It should boot to a desktop where you can open the Mac's hard drive and copy files to a USB drive.
Is it a laptop or a Desktop?
This sounds more serious. You could try to boot from an USB drive and try to access your files, copy them and than try a complete install from scratch.
There are two main methods to access your files:
1) Pull the drive out and install in another location (USB enclosure, etc). 2) boot your system using a Live CD, e.g. Knoppix.
If you want to go the Live CD / USB route I generally prefer Knoppix for my usage. Another good alternative is the installation disk for Windows. There is a repair mode available which can be used to copy files to another drive.
If you are unavailable with Windows DVD or Live CD or afraid of using Repair CMD you can follow the "Launch Start Up repair trick" where you can copy files to USB / external HDD as well.
Steps: 1) Get "launch start up repair by force shutdown 3 or 4 times" 2) Select start up repair then after some time you will get restore option cancel it. 3) After a couple of minitues of advance repait you will get a pop-up "Send the information" or "dont send". 4) Dont close it check the details below you will find a .txt link click it. 5) Go to file->open then start copying the files Thats it..
Knoppix is better for a live solution, use the DVD version unless your thumb drive is smaller than 5gb or so, as DVD's are 4.7gb. It is optimized for running off of bootable media, and comes with tons of software. Including shit tons of open source games.
You still could have recovered your documents before re-installing windows. Using something like this http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html to boot the computer and then copy the files to another drive.
You could try downloading a distro like Knoppix
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Burn the image to a CD/DVD and boot to it. It should auto-mount the device (as long as it is hooked up pre-boot) and let you access it. I use it for work from time to time - if it shows up let me know and I can give you step-by-step on how to turn off read-only and get your data.
Whenever you boot up, there's usually a key you hit to get into your BIOS, before you actually get into Windows. F1, or delete, or F10 seem like the usual keys...
Anyway, when you're in, look for an option that says default. I don't know how it will be worded exactly, but it should basically say that it resets your BIOS to default options.
As for a live linux disc, KNOPPIX is a worthy live distribution to see if your USB ports work at a software level. Just burn the image you download to a CD and boot to it. Do not worry; it will not install a new operating system or overwrite anything you have on your hard drive (unless you explicitly tell it to).
Keep this CD handy in the future as well. You never know when you'll run into a similar problem, or have a friend in need.
If the recovery machine is a regular PC, you might try booting a Knoppix CD or DVD and seeing what it might do. Do read samurai77's note about noises. Good luck.
The traditional answer would be Knoppix, which has been around for ages and is designed specifically for your use case.
Tiny Core Linux is another good one - and is so tiny that I usually keep it around in my EFI partition as a recovery environment (in case I do something exceptionally stupid to my main OS). Again, designed specifically for your use case of having a self-contained Linux install on a thumbdrive.
Hard to say if it'd work today but back when I took a driving school test (got a speeding ticket and taking the course would avoid me getting points and have to pay higher insurance), I was able to take an online course from home, I think late 90s or early 00s.
This enabled me to run a bootable Linux live CD (I believe it was Knoppix) and its Konqueror browser to take the course. The course itself I believe was written in classic ASP with some ActiveX controls and scripts and other stuff that leaned a bit heavily on the Windows side of things to try to prevent sneaky users from bypassing things like copy and paste, word searches, etc.
There is an popular Linux-Live-System called Knoppix which includes a "Audio Desktop Reference Implementation and Networking Environment", ADRIANE. I think, it's still part of the system, but I haven't checked back now. It offers a wide variety of functions for blind people. IIRC, the name Adriane is derived from the name of Klaus Knoppers wife, who is blind. Klaus Knopper is the maintainer of Knoppix and developer of ADRIANE. If you guys click the link, you can see a braille device between the keyboard and the laptop.
And these devices (or the otherwise mentioned screen readers) are a main reason, why we all should use less JS for shiny websites and spend some brain cells for accessibilty: They read information (aka text) as a stream. As OP pointed out: The typing is done as usual - with the fingers.
You can start Knoppix on most computers without altering the currently installed operating system. A special boot option start directly into the ADRIANE environment.
EDIT: Added a URL for Knoppix itself and added a few sentences.
If the drive is sounding normal you probably only have some minor logical corruption.
Have you tried connecting the drive to another working computer as a secondary drive? Depending upon how bad the corruption is it might just show up and you can copy your data off with nothing special.
Or using a live boot disk? ( http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html )
Just be careful that if a dialog pops up if you want to initialize or format a disk that you hit no or cancel. As this will make recovering data harder.
Check out the latest version of Knoppix, it comes with a utility called PhotoRec that you can use to recover some file types like images. You don't need to install Knoppix, it's just an image you boot from to give you a working Linux desktop.
You've lost at least half of your data based on what you copied already, but you should be able to recover a decent amount with software scanning every sector of the disk and looking for metadata associated with these file types (which is what that commercial software is doing.) Also, keep in mind that file recovery is dangerous, you will want to buy another disk to recover your files to (otherwise you can end up in a much worse situation than the one you were are currently in.)
Looks like a faulty GPU. Try booting into Knoppix and see if you have the same issue doing the same tasks (mostly looks like YouTube videos giving you issues.)
Last time I did a knoppix install it was like this.
[1] download ISO
[2] Set to bootable USB
[3] Boot live knoppix
[4] Choose hard disk install from menu.
From here I see that 8.1 and 8.3 are available.
8.1 is stable release version available for download
8.3 is available as Knoppix 8.3 USB-Stick at TUXEDO Computers (16GB, USB 3.0)
avast is as good as any other software. i use it also BUT when i think i got a virus, trojan, malware, keylogger, etc. with viruskiller installed then i would get me knoppix linux (you can boot and start the full linux from cd, dvd or usb), boot my windows pc with it, use the viruskiller from it and update it before i let it check my harddisk, after that i would remove the cd/dvd/usb and boot my windows
Ah, if you're going to fix something, you need the right tools for the job! http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html What you're going to do is on another computer, burn the Knoppix ISO image to a disk and then boot your computer off of it.
That will help determine if you're having an OS or hardware issue
I use the Linux command "sha256sum" (or "md5sum") to check checksums, and the command "gpg" to verify signatures. I'm not sure that those two commands are installed by default in a Linux OS distribution, but if they are not, you can install the packages that contain those two commands with the package manager program "Synaptic" for example.
You can very likely use the same two commands (sha256sum and gpg) in a Microsoft Windows command prompt too, but I don't know how to do that on Windows. If you're new to Linux and just want to make a few experiments and fool around a bit, you can install a Linux live-cd on a USB stick first (or burn it to a physical CD if you prefer). Then you boot your computer from that stick instead of booting from your c:\ harddrive. Then you'll have started a temporary Linux OS that is running until you turn the power off.
It won't install anything on your harddrive unless you explicitly tell it to do so. So it's good for experimenting and playing around.
I used to use the "Knoppix" live-cd for testing stuff before I decided to use (Ubuntu LTS) Linux permanently on my main computer.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
If you want to test a Linux distribution but are too lazy to keep rebooting your computer in between testing and using you Windows OS as usual, you can also try to download the "Virtualbox" program from Oracle. That program can load a .iso-file and run that OS in a Windows window as if the whole OS was just one program.
You can also search for "knoppix gpg" or "knoppix sha256sum" or "knoppix md5sum" or "knoppix verify signature gpg" on youtube. Odds are that someone has made a video of what they're doing, that you can watch and learn from.
Alright, if you want to mount an XFS partition you'll need to use a linux environment.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Connect the drive via USB and share it to a VM running this live cd ISO.
Or you can use this tool to convert it to a more common FS.
https://github.com/cosmos72/fstransform (Not sure how to use it I'm afraid.)
I'd go XFS to EXT2
> Just to be clear you were able to enter the BIOS but when you tried to do a mem check of some kind it was not installed so not positive on RAM. If it were me sitting on idle hands until my hard drive came in I would boot from a live Linux DVD/USB and take your PC for a spin. No need for a hard drive. Something like knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
I thought this was referring to the Hard drive, the ram seemed untouched and was on the opposite end of the case...
Just to be clear you were able to enter the BIOS but when you tried to do a mem check of some kind it was not installed so not positive on RAM.
If it were me sitting on idle hands until my hard drive came in I would boot from a live Linux DVD/USB and take your PC for a spin. No need for a hard drive. Something like knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
If it's a mechanical failure there is not much you can do on your own, but if it's not mechanical you might want to try Knoppix. Knoppix is a linux distro that you can boot the computer from either by usb or cd. I have had drives that freeze the computer or simply don't work and using that distro I have been able to access the drive easily and copy data to a flash drive. Try it, I hope it works for you, it has for me many, many times.
Steps I would take next. Do you have another PC you could put the drive in as a secondary drive? Do that first. If you don't have one disconnect the ribbon cable from the HDD (give it a blow for good luck) and reseat firmly. Try booting again. If no joy create a bootable Linux CD/USB and see if you can access your HDD from that. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html If no bueno and really need the files you could get an external enclosure and try from there. http://www.newegg.com/Hard-Drive-Enclosures/SubCategory/ID-92
Turn it off and don't boot into windows. The more you run this temp profile, the less chance you have of recovering files.
Use a bootable recovery drive, like http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html, http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/ or http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage to check for files and, if necessary, dd them over to a new drive.
Sounds good. It's unfortunate that it requires a little trial and error when it comes to hardware.
On the software end, the only thing I can think of after a clean install is that AMD's software is buggy, but it seems unlikely it would be that buggy. If you would like to investigate it further, check Event Viewer for any information you can. I imagine you'll only see the catalyst driver not responding.
One thing that could help nail it down as a hardware problem is trying to boot into a live linux distro, such as Knoppix. It's not the most excellent way to test it for two reasons: If it fails, it may be because Knoppix isn't perfectly configured for your system and if it works, it may be because Knoppix is utilizing the hardware in a different capacity. (It wouldn't be using the drivers provided by AMD.)
All the same, if it did work I might be more inclined to investigate software deeper, though I'm not sure what more I would do. If it failed, I would feel more confident it was hardware.
If you do try Knoppix, I recommend the DVD over the CD because it's so featureful and so handy to have on hand in case you do have a software problem and want to be able to use your computer until it's fixed. It can also give you some experience with Linux if you want it. (The ISO can be booted off of USB drive also.) Just don't judge it by the ridiculous sound clip it plays when it boots. I'm always so embarrassed.
edit: Link to knoppix: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
I'm not a Windows guy, but saw this recently, which seems to be what you want to do.
My solution would be to put a bootable linux distribution (ubuntu, knoppix) on an USB stick, and boot that. You can then access all files on the harddisk etc, but need to know where to look if you want in-program data.
Good luck.
Do you have multiple sticks of RAM? You can boot on one stick if you suspect one of them is faulty. You should remove one, and attempt to boot. Then, try again with the next stick, etc.
Anyway, if you want to pull your stuff off in a hurry, you should use a live distro such as Knoppix and pull all your important data off.
before you rush to buy a HDD, see if booting Knoppix gives you problems (use the 64bit option). If it does, you got bigger hardware issues than just a HDD. If not, it is probably your HDD.
you can put it on a USB stick too.
For starts, what is the make and model number of your laptop? What operating system are you running, including version? are you trying to connect via WI-Fi, Modem, or using cat5 cable?
That's what I usually do. I boot from a Linux live CD like Knoppix then gparted to copy and resize the Windows partitions. I also use partimage to run full-disk backups too. I especially like taking a full disk image as soon as I get a new system and/or once I'm done with my initial setup of it.
Well you can do a little testing of your graphics card with Knoppix and glxgears if you try something quick. Its so simple though I can't imagine it using enough memory on a modern card to be considered much of a test. Its worth a shot though since its a 700mb download away.
If anyone knows of a quick bootable test for graphics cards I'm all ears. That be a useful add to thumbdrive.
Point taken. But hopefully you can understand my skepticism that an intact drive short of being caught in an explosion wouldn't be recoverable.
My typical procedures:
Use an enclosure. Plugging the drive into USB makes the entire process easier in case the OS hangs attempting to perform an operation. If the drive is failing you're beyond the point of caring about proper mounting+disconnection.
Linux boot disk, namely Knoppix. You would be amazed at how many failing drives are unreadable by Windows (especially if you're getting lengthy delays and cyclic redundancy errors), but will mount and read under Linux.
Linux has a few commands to aid retrieval, such as dd. If the file browser won't accept it or the disk is in bad enough shape that it may not last long enough to perform many operations, creating an image to another drive may be the best way.
There are free recovery tools, but to be honest when I'm dealing with the risk of losing data and without a couple hundred dollars to spend I will pirate the software. Then I'll run both and while freeware like Free Undelete works in most instances the commercial software (such as Ontrack's Recovery Pro) works even better. This has a few options such as recovering the files with or without the use of an intact file system (ie raw data).
If all else fails, apply percussive force. You won't be needing the drive any longer. Giving it a good smack can be enough to get it going long enough to pull your data off.
I think that covers most failures from corruption due to numerous bad sectors, to severe 'click death'.
Stuff can break even when it's a day old. Not very probable, but you never know.
You can download an ISO of KNOPPIX and burn it to a CD/DVD. Then just reboot your computer with the CD/DVD in the drive, and if your BIOS is set up accordingly, it will use the CD/DVD to boot instead of your HD.
> Question: What might be causing my computer to freeze consistently at the same point in a disk check?
That's easy to answer -- you're running Windows. Burn a bootable Linux CD disk on another machine, boot the problem machine directly from the CD, and run a non-windows disk repair utility.
Just one example of a Linux distribution that has a bootable CD image: Knoppix
if it was a memory issue it would beep on boot up. i think it might be the Master Boot Record, or the OS is corrupted.
When it boots up and you get to the option window failed to start up.. can you choose Safe Mode or Command Prompt?
Also like xIr0nMa1deNx mentioned you can use a linux cd can be found here (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html) easily burned to a blank CD. It contains all the tools you will need to determine if it's the hard drive, corrupted MBR.
Problem solved. Download PortableApps. Everything will reside on your flash drive, including resources/temp files. I use it all the time on my work computer.
Another possibility is to boot with a Knoppix live CD.
Are you dual-booting this box into windows to run your test? If so, I would try downloading a live-cd of Knoppix or something to see if the same problem persists.
Even better than just Linux, knoppix:
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
It's a bootable Linux CD. Because it runs from CD / memory, it doesn't store anything permanently. That's good for his browsing privacy, but also good because it means that nothing nasty (in either sense) will get permanently installed to the drive.
You might also want to find some way to get him some condoms too. He might use them for fapping (easier cleanup, good for everybody), and by doing that be comfortable with using them with a girl. If you don't want to have him think you were buying them for him, you could always say they were a gag gift from someone and you certainly won't be using them, or they were from some kind of secret santa thing, or some promotion from something else you ordered.
This may sound like a stupid question, but where does one acquire a LiveCD? And do you have any recommendations to any particular one?
EDIT: I remember reading a lifehacker article about LiveCD's, and checked out one called Knoppix So how do I use it? Download it, burn it to a disk and then pop it into my CD Drive and go from there?
safemode.. or end the process so you can delete. Maybe get a live linux and delete the file from your computer using it. I've used Knoppix before, but that was a while ago...