Advice Needed After Scare With Pc Tonight!

ksh123

Hi
this could be a long one, please bear with me.

Used PC on and off today no problem. Switched it back on tonight and Windows wouldn't load (am on XP home). Attempts to reboot came up with a message saying either use previous successful settings or normal settings. Neither would work.
Then attempted to reboot using XP disc in recovery mode. It checked hardware and said Cdrive was CORRUPTED! (That was the bit that scared me).
Rebooted again and ran PC in safe mode. Ran virus check, none found. Took the opportunity to remove all cookies etc and a bit of software downloaded recently just in case.
After the virus check computer rebooted automatically and successfully - phew - which is why I am now writing to you! Strangely tho, Adaware didn't pop up as it usually does so has not run.....and my mouse is acting strangely, instead of scrolling it sort of moves down in waves, very odd for the eyes, same thing happens if I use the scroll bar.

Only other sign of something wrong was a few days ago when AVG programme suddenly stopped performing saying that it couldn't run because "the default language interface is not present".
After this happened a few times I downloaded new virus protection from the MSN security site - CA security centre.
To avoid possible problems of having 2 anti-virus progs. I have tried to remove AVG - but whenever I do it says "installation failed". Of course I want to uninstall not install anyway......

So I am now scared of turning PC off in case in case it won't boot again. This has all taken so long there are probably none of you techie experts up so late, but I am really hoping for some advice/reassurrance ASAP.
thanks in advance and sorry for length of post.

flybaby_2

Could I just ask what machine you have please?

ksh123

flybaby wrote:

Could I just ask what machine you have please?

errrr, I don't know! I bought it at a computer fair about 4 years ago (its always been great) so no name on the tower. I know it has an AMD processor and I think, from memory, 80gb.

Happy to say I am all booted up today so apart from the strange scrollling and AVG error messages all is well so far......

ksh123

albertross wrote:

My advice would be to back it up while it's working, using Norton ghost or Acronis Trueimage to DVD's if feasible, or external hard disk caddy if there is too much data.

you've lost me a bit here - are these programmes ones you can download? Or do they have to be purchased? Not heard of either before.
Will backing up help the running of the machine?

thanks

espresso

ksh123 wrote:

you've lost me a bit here - are these programmes ones you can download? Or do they have to be purchased? Not heard of either before.
Will backing up help the running of the machine?

I posted a link for Acronis True Image for free here

At least if you back up now while you can, you would be able to restore things to how they were and not loose your data.

HTH

ksh123

espresso wrote:

I posted a link for Acronis True Image for free here

At least if you back up now while you can, you would be able to restore things to how they were and not loose your data.

HTH

thank you. |I'll do that now.

A-Wing

If you are confident enough to do this, switch on SMART monitoring on the bios in the computer and search google for a free SMART monitoring program. This can predict a possible hardware failure on the hard drive. I'm not saying that is what it is, but better safe than sorry.

ksh123

A-Wing wrote:

If you are confident enough to do this, switch on SMART monitoring on the bios in the computer and search google for a free SMART monitoring program. This can predict a possible hardware failure on the hard drive. I'm not saying that is what it is, but better safe than sorry.

Well I might be confident enough if I knew where to find BIOS or SMART!!

ARRGH....BRAIN HURTING

A-Wing

OK, I am making a lot of assumptions here without knowing what is inside you computer, but here goes:
When booting you computer, and the first screen comes up (usually a load of text) press [DEL] (although it could be [F1] or [F2] depending on the computer. You will shortly be brought to a text based menu that usually has a list of keys you can use at the bottom. Now, the smart setting is usually in the Advanced settings menu, but have a browse around to see if you can find it (just don't change anything else). If you make a mistake you can always cancel and start again. After you have turned it on, press the key to save your settings and exit.

You should then have SMART switched on. If it sees a drive failing before the machine boots it will stop and warn you there. If this happens you need to change the drive as soon as possible.

The alternative method is if you find who made the drive (open the box and look at the label) you can go to the drive manufacturers website, download a diagnostics boot disk or cd (very small), boot the machine from that and it will test the hard drive (although it can take up to an hour).

jaws77

Boot to the Windows CD and chose "R" for a Repair. This
takes you to a screen that gives you two more choices,
the Recovery Console or a Repair Installation of Windows XP.
Choose "C" for Recovery Console.
At the Recovery Console prompt, run:
CHKDSK /R

ksh123

espresso wrote:

I posted a link for Acronis True Image for free here

At least if you back up now while you can, you would be able to restore things to how they were and not loose your data.

HTH

So I I downloaded and installed Acronis no problem (thank you). When I used the wizard to burn a bootable cd it just comes up with "error burning to CD". I have tried 2 different types of blank CD/DVDs and the same thing happens each time.

Any ideas?