HELP PLEASE HELP

[J.C.T.]

I am trying to help someone with their computer.. after she updated some software (tax preparation stuff)

her computer seems to take literally 45 minutes yes 45 minutes to boot up.. it just sits on the windows cloud screen for like ever!


Have tried everything... even safe mode all of which is with the same end result..

I am thinking the only answer is to add a second HD make the new one master and get it booting up normal with win98 then re-install all programs, then copy all data from old HD to new one..

gonna suck!

wish I could find someone with a similar situation and maybe a solution!

Thanks for your time

[stu]

welcome to sysopt....... what op system are u trying to fix...?

u can try and do the selctive startup type thing via msconfig.....
once u boot up eventually it seems... go to start ... run .. msconfig... and mess around with the selective start up until u find the program thats taking forever to load ...... it cud well be windows and u might need a clean install......... back everything up first .....

[J.C.T.]

Thanks for responses, but I tried EVERYTHING.. autoexec has nothing unusual (just sound card set blaster etc..) config.sys has nothing...

even tried (once booted) selective starting (removing all checkmarks) still takes 45 minutes or so...

also tried to start in Safe-mode.. but that also takes 45 minutes as well..
heck It even took about 45 minutes with a floppy win98 boot disk!

I even tried to regscan and recover the registry in case that was the prob!

NO LUCK SO FAR!!!!!
Looks like time to re-install...
Only prob is she does not have all the install disks for all her programs... also her data IS REAL IMPORTANT being a CPA and all!

thanks again for your reply.... and for any future ones :o)

[Smadguy]

Have you tried un-installing the tax software? - you haven't said that you have tried this just to see if it overwrote any Windows system files when it was installed.

Also - try checking for temp files, if there are any - delete them.

Check the virtual memory settings - see if Windows is set to manage it automatically. If it isn't - try setting it.

A rebuild is quite a desperate thing to do - if its Windows95/98 - try re-installing over the top. Usually works and would replace any damaged system files.

If its Windows NT/2000 - just try re-applying the latest service pack.

See what programs its trying to load on startup. Remove them....

Let us know how you get on.

[J.C.T.]

Well the software.... the CPA lady did some weird things... it was an up-date (for the new tax year) the install of that program (i guess) had some kind of error about not being able to execute some .Bat file during the install.. however there is nothing in the add/remove to uninstall what she "installed"

also nothing starting up anywhere (start folder etc..)

Virtual memory controlled by windows....

is win98

also there are Temp files... have not tried to remove them yet

I would think tho that starting in safe mode or in selective startup (msconfig) with nothing starting would fix any bad stuff...

also in the Reg there is nothing 'ruun' or runonce or any of that...
but still takes 45 minutes to boot!

I had a similar situation long time ago on an old 486/66 that turned out to be the hard drive...

So I am planning on installing new hard drive... then use the Maxtor software Maxblast to make a mirror image of the old hard drive onto the new one..
Hopefully this will fix the prob...if Not then I can try to re-install win98 over the old windows.. hopefully with keeping all her programs and data working properly!

if not the I will have to format. install win98... then re-install all software.. and move with Norton (clean sweep i think) programs that she no longer has install disks for from old drive to new drive.... and also move all data files etc... (good thing she's paying for this!)

Thanks for your replys..... always appreciated.. I will keep you updtated as to how it goes!

:)

[userserver]

Does your friend have a cable modem or DSL. Is she on any kind of network?

Look in the root directory and delete any .CHK files. Make sure there aren't files in the root that could be placed elsewhere (there is a limit to how many files root can hold).

Since windows is managing the swapfile, if the computer doesn't have enough free space occasionally (because of tmp files) you can see a very log boot because of inadequate virtual memory.

Is virus protection up-to-date and worm-aware?

[J.C.T.]

COMPUTER IS FIXED...

she has a IOMega Zip drive installed in the system..

when she downloaded the software update for her tax program.. the tech support person at the company told her to compress the disks (the download would be 4 disks they told her)
so she ran drivespace etc.. and compressed her Zip drive!!!

I am not sure if that is a good Idea.. I was always told not to compress removable media...
anyways what I did to fix the prob...
first her data is really important seeing as how she is my tax person and she is a CPA she does a lot of bookkeeping for businesses etc... so I did not want to mess arounnd with her data etc.. so I installed a 13 gig hard drive as drive 1, hers as drive 2 then booted with floppyfrom MAXTOR called MaxBlast which setup the new hard drive and copies the old drive to the new drive..
well anyways to make long story short while the new drive was booting it said to insert disk into drive B and hit a key! well... there was no drive B I thouoght that was weird... but after hitting a key it booted fine!... the only difference was that there was 2 hard drives and no zip drive (zip not hooked up at moment)
after in windows I continued to check through to make sure everything copied to the "new" drive from the old drive.. then I shut down... unhooked the "old" drive and plugged the Zip drive back in (IDE 1 slave)

when I tried to boot it did not ask for a disk for drive B however it stayed at the windows cloud screen for ever.. so I ctl+alt+del and did F8 then step by step.... the first option was to run drive space... I said NO and yes to everything else...
IT WORKED!!!

then I realized why it ws asking for disk in drive B before.... the zip drive is drive B and when it was not there the drive spacee program was asking for it.. also for some reason with the zip drive installed the drive spacec program just hung there for 45 minuter while booting up... so I went to the root C: and deleted the system/hidden files for drivespace.bin drivespace.ini and dblspace.bin.. did a reboot and WHAM everything worked perfectly!!!!!

Like I always say DO NOT COMPRESS YOUR DRIVES ESPECIALLY REMOVABLE ONES!!!

I think the lady at the software company ment to "compress" like Zip the files not "compress" the drive!!!

Well thanks for all your responses.....

I sure am glad that is fixed....

that was a quick $120 for 3 hours of work!!!

Thanks again!

[regrob]

:) Learn something new everyday:)


Reg.......