[pchelpers] Re: Computer won't boot

Hi Jo

> What you described sounds likely.  The HD was wiped out - there was 
> nothing there to repair - thats why when I hit the 'R' option, it 
> took me to a DOS screen telling what the Recovery Console does and 
> tells me to type 'exit' at the C:\.  When I type 'exit' it starts 
> over with the boot option screen.  What is strange though, I had a 
> spare 80GB drive that I had replaced with a 120GB in his 
> computer......I hooked it up and It did the same thing, just the 
> initial DOS screen, telling me the boot sequence had changed and to 
> go into Setup to check it - which I couldn't do.  I also switched the 
> graphics card since I only got a blank screen, but again it was the same 
> thing.

On the contrary; there is no reason to believe that more than a few 
initial bits in Windows were corrupted. Everything else on your HD was 
most likely still intact.

Scott explained what to do when you get into the geeky recovery console. 
What he forgot to say is that this is essentially DOS. What he also 
didn't mention is that you should not press R if you want to repair 
Windows. Microsoft has once again shown its disdain for normal consumers 
and their most basic right by hiding the repair process behind the next 
screen.

Only geeks who do this regularly know that when in fact you want to 
repair Windows you have to first answer "No, i don't want to repair 
Windows; i want to reinstall it" (which many rightly fear will empty the 
whole hard drive because this, in fact, is what happens with many as 
arrogantly misnamed "Windows recovery disks"). Once you press Enter for 
reinstall, you get a new screen where this time, completely illogically, 
the same command R does not open the recovery console and instead 
repairs Windows.

> I wasn't sure that it would allow me to reformat.  It took almost 30 
> min. to do that before Windows began to install the files.  Thanks 
> for all the help.....I am installing AV as we speak.

There have been many cases of members of this list reformatting before 
others got a chance to help. Many times, people don't seem to care 
whether they lose some or even many files that they didn't get a chance 
to back up, but many are quite upset about the prospect at least at 
first. Since no one got a chance to ask you whether you have FAT or 
NTFS, you never found out how to see if almost everything was still 
there and how to at least make backups or perhaps even repair Windows.






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