Scandisk , Restore Problems and Upgrade to XP

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Novice in Bank Land - 29 Dec 2005 16:07 GMT

I'm a novice of most novices. I had to replace my hard drive a year ago.
Since that time my scandisk and and restore will not work. Now I have
purchased MP3 players for my daughters and found out afterwards that I need
to get Windows XP to make them work for me. My 40 G Dell Deminsion 4100
does not have a burner. I have lots of music files and photos. Will
changing to XP solve my scandisk and restore problems? Will I lose my music
files and photos?

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Mike M - 29 Dec 2005 16:45 GMT

Since you provide no details of your problems it is difficult to comment
other than that installing XP will mean running a new operating system
with its own set of quirks albeit an operating system that is not only
robust but also far more advanced than Win Me.

Depending on the details of your scandisk problem this could indicate a
hardware problem which if the cases, is likely to persist regardless of
the operating system in use. As for your restore problem, any suggestion
or comment that I might make would have to be based on guesswork and
therefore pointless.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> I'm a novice of most novices. I had to replace my hard drive a year
> ago. Since that time my scandisk and and restore will not work. Now
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> music files and photos. Will changing to XP solve my scandisk and
> restore problems? Will I lose my music files and photos?

Reply to this Message

Novice in Bank Land - 29 Dec 2005 17:26 GMT

Thanks for your reply. The scandisk will begin but it will keep restarting
and never finish. I have tried it in DOS and managed to get it to work.
The restore has no restore points and always ask me to restart my computer
everytime I try to establish a restore piont.

As for the other part of my problem, how can I save my photos and music
files if I'm forced to get a new hard drive or new computer without a burner?

> Since you provide no details of your problems it is difficult to comment
> other than that installing XP will mean running a new operating system
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> > music files and photos. Will changing to XP solve my scandisk and
> > restore problems? Will I lose my music files and photos?

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bob94030 - 29 Dec 2005 17:38 GMT

hi....buy or borrow a usb plug in cd-writer and burn them onto cd....

> Thanks for your reply. The scandisk will begin but it will keep restarting
> and never finish. I have tried it in DOS and managed to get it to work.
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> > > music files and photos. Will changing to XP solve my scandisk and
> > > restore problems? Will I lose my music files and photos?

Reply to this Message

Novice in Bank Land - 29 Dec 2005 17:50 GMT

Thanks

> hi....buy or borrow a usb plug in cd-writer and burn them onto cd....
>
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
> > > > music files and photos. Will changing to XP solve my scandisk and
> > > > restore problems? Will I lose my music files and photos?

Reply to this Message

Mike M - 29 Dec 2005 17:44 GMT

Scandisk.

You already know the solution. Run in DOS. Alternatively boot to Safe
Mode and run Scandisk. The problem is that you have some other
application running that is modifying files on your hard disk thus causing
scandisk to start. This is often the result of having a single large
partition and running scandisk whilst connected to the net with firewall
and AV application and other application the crate logs running at the
same time.

System Restore.

First check that you don't have a wininit.ini file in your Windows folder.
If you do, rename this to wininit.old and retry System Restore. If this
works then you possibly have a program that creates a wininit.ini file
each time you boot your system. One known example is tgcmd.exe, another
is a program called "ACCESS DENIED". If you have tgcmd.exe I understand
that disabling it in MSConfig | Startup will have no adverse effect on
your system but enable you to use System Restore. Likewise ACCESS DENIED
needs to be "switched off" whilst using SR to either create or restore to
a previous checkpoint. McAfee's Spam Killer also seems to create a new
wininit.ini file each time the system is booted likewise CCleaner if in
"clean at boot" mode. See also MS KB 274092 - "Error Message: System
Restore Cannot Run Until You Restart the Computer"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=274092).

If this isn't the reason for your problem then try running
SCANREG /FIX
from a command prompt such as Start | Run. Note that the system will
re-boot so don't have any applications open when doing this. I suggest
this because the same message is also displayed when the registry has been
corrupted in some way. scanreg /fix attempts to repair that damage.

> As for the other part of my problem, how can I save my photos and
> music files if I'm forced to get a new hard drive or new computer
> without a burner?

By either:
Networking your PC with another and copying the files to the other
machine, or,
Borrowing and using an external storage device such as External hard
drive, USB thumbdrive, CD burner, etc.

If all else fails and the size of the files is not too great by copying
them to a web site (or using G-mail where storage is 2GB per account) and
then downloading to a new PC.

If however you upgrade your current system to XP rather than clean install
then your current data will still be available to you in XP.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> Thanks for your reply. The scandisk will begin but it will keep
> restarting and never finish. I have tried it in DOS and managed to
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> music files if I'm forced to get a new hard drive or new computer
> without a burner?

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Novice in Bank Land - 29 Dec 2005 18:47 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I did not find an wininit.ini file and scanreg /fix
did not correct the problem either. I think I will get a burner and copy my
pictures and music and get a new system altogether. I've never been pleased
with Windows Me.

> Scandisk.
>
[quoted text clipped - 54 lines]
> > music files if I'm forced to get a new hard drive or new computer
> > without a burner?

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Mike M - 29 Dec 2005 19:02 GMT

> Thanks for the advice. I did not find an wininit.ini file and
> scanreg /fix did not correct the problem either.

Check again. It is extremely unusual for one or other of those solutions
not to fix the system restore problem you are seeing.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> Thanks for the advice. I did not find an wininit.ini file and
> scanreg /fix did not correct the problem either. I think I will get
> a burner and copy my pictures and music and get a new system
> altogether. I've never been pleased with Windows Me.

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Novice in Bank Land - 29 Dec 2005 19:41 GMT

I did find a wininit.err file and a wininit.bak file but no wininit.ini.

> > Thanks for the advice. I did not find an wininit.ini file and
> > scanreg /fix did not correct the problem either.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> > a burner and copy my pictures and music and get a new system
> > altogether. I've never been pleased with Windows Me.

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