Advice on wiping out a harddrive and starting over...
 

I have a friend who is super computer illiterate and she pretty much ruined her laptop (3 years old)...I haven't had the chance to look at it myself but she wants me to try and fix it...says the computer won't turn on (which I think means won't load Windows) and that "cockroaches" appear all over the screen when she tries to turn it on...I think she's mildly reeruned but I told her I'd see what I could do...

What are my options? Could I re-install windows? What is the best way to try and savage the disaster she created?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If it'll read a CD, use the system restore CD. I've had to do it to mine when installing a new HD.

Note: It will reset the hard drive to factory settings, basically like straight out of the box. Wiping the hard drive completely clean.

did you paint her house yet? that takes precedence, methinks.

Well, first you douse the entire laptop with Raid....

Do a fresh install from an actual Windows install disk. The system restore disks come with so much useless shit its not even funny.

Make sure that you backup any docs that are important to her before you do so.

In exchange for all the work you do she should let you take nudes of her.

Take the pics, then post them.

If I were you:

Find a clean XP Pro torrent CD that will pass WGA. Burn that as a bootable ISO on your computer.

Remove her Hard Drive from the laptop.

Find a 2.5" IDE enclosure, put the laptop inside, and attach it to the USB port of your computer.

Pull of any necessary files if you can find them and burn them to DVD

Format the drive.

Reinstall the HDD, and then insert the burned XP ISO CD and install a new version of Windows.

Install any necessary secondary programs that she wants, and you're off and running.

Why pull the HD and format when the Windows install will prompt you to format the HD anyways?

Because by pulling and putting it into an enclosure you can possible salvage data even if Windows won't load, as it will just read it as an external HD. Formatting it afterward is not a necessity, but two wipes are better than one for getting rid of old data if you've pulled off all the stuff you need.

I've always booted in safe mode to do my data salvage.

6 of one and a half dozen of the other I guess. :D

this

If you can't boot, you can't really salvage data on the computer in question without a pretty high level understanding of computers.

I understand.

But before cracking a computer open, I would suggest trying safe mode.

If his friend is computer illiterate, I seriously doubt that has been tried. :D

Just seems like the life span on laptops is usually 3 years....

Oh come on dude, I'm not halfcan. I can have sex with this girl any time I want...she's a little too dumb for girlfriend material.

Hamas...

Sweet dude.

But I don't care about any of her files and neither does she...basically if I can get Windows up and running again I am going to idiot proof her computer...

I know how to do this:

Find a clean XP Pro torrent CD that will pass WGA. Burn that as a bootable ISO on your computer.

Assuming she just wants to start over, do I have to do any of the other stuff? She said she only uses her laptop for music and internet...I can put all of my music on her computer when I'm done fixing it...

What do you think?

No, you shouldn't have any problems at all. If you have a Demonoid account, that's the easiest place to find copies of XP that will pass WGA.

I usually use PowerIso for burning ISO's, FWIW.

Oh, and make sure that when you go to install windows that you change the boot priority in BIOS to make sure it loads from the DVD/CD drive first, then change it back after restart and install are done.

Damn.

We agree on all the basics but differ on how to go about doing things.

Hootie... I would *NOT* use Demonoid, even with Malboro Chief's IP address. It is a torrent site that is based in the US which means that if the government ever decides to conduct a raid, your user name will lead straight to you.

Use a torrent tracker like thepiratebay.org as it does not require any login information and the servers are hosted in countries where copyright laws are WAY more lenient than here in the US.

Also, if you are going to go the way of torrents, I highly suggest you install a program called peerguardian which will help protect you against unwanted legal action.

I use mininova...and I used to use PG2 but from what I've read it really doesn't do anything anymore...if they want to find you, they'll find you.

They are more worried about the uploaders than the downloaders...

Demonoid is based in Canada.

ok so...I have a recovery CD from a different computer...if I load it on this laptop...will it work?

Nope. Recovery CDs have drivers specific to the model computer that they were made for. If you don't have a recovery CD for that specific model, then you'll have to use a Windows install disk.

Gay.

Get new friends. Your current ones are obviously ****ing reeruns.

Every other day with these threads...

Not really. Recovery disks do what they were intended to do. Size restrictions and the wide assortment of different PC devices make "universal" recovery disks impossible. If you could reinstall everything with any random recovery disk, it would rather negate any need for a Windows install disk or driver disks. And that would create all kinds of licensing issues... M$ wouldn't make billions. The technology world as we know it would collapse. Herm would still be the head coach.

This is just a bump from the other day...

And you're probably right about them being ****ing reeruns.

Something that hasn't been mentioned... all these posts assume the hard drive is just corrupted, and not physically broken. Might check for funny noises on start-up, the thing may be outright broken.

3 year old lap top. Throw it away and buy a new one on ebay. Why waste the time and money for a new hard drive.

thanks for the help guys...

Figured it all out...had to roll the dice with an antiwpa.cmd crack and it worked...so far anyways...I'm running an Avast scan right now to make sure she doesn't delete it when it detects it as a virus...

I reerun proofed the shit out of this computer...hopefully I'll never have to touch it or look at it again.

No such thing as reerunproof.... unpossible....