HELP !! 'Blue screen' has me blue...

Okay ... in UD thread I mentioned my problem ... The DELL tech told me that I will have to reload the OS !! ... I know this means I have to 'back-up' my system first, and I KNOW I will hear it from Gary and others about this, but I've NEVER backed up my system (except that my song/registration.midi/ files are on the hard drive of my ketboard) ... The DELL tech said that the least expensive way to do it would be to pull the hard drive from the PC, put it in another PC, copy it, put it back in my PC and reinstall the OS ... I would appreciate knowing how others might back-up their system - external HDs, CDs, what??? any advice on how I should go about this will be appreciated ...
thnx,
t.

You absolutely SHOULD back up your stuff. HOWEVER I have reinstalled my OS on various computers for years and never lost anything. I do have some critical files backed up, but far from everything.
DonM

I use and have used Drive Image for the last 5 years. It is a program you buy that takes a snapshot of your whole hard drive. You can then reload the whole drive or just parts of it.
When my sytem used to crash it would usually takle a whole weekend to reformat, reload and then 1 by 1 reload all the software.
Now 20 minutes.
Through corporate buyouts I guess now it's called Norton Ghost.

DonM ... I fully intend to back it up before re-installing the OS ... I am just wondering how some of you might do that ...

mike ... thnx for the info ....

Another question I have is, if something is corrupt on the HD, how do I know I'm not copying that when I back up the system and then reload the 'backed up' stuff ?? ....

t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 01-18-2005).]

Tony.....I bought a 160 Gig External hard drive which I conected to my computer through the USB port and put everything of value on it...I do this every day...this way, if the computer crashes, I can unplug the external H/D and take it to another computer and I have everything I need in a portable unit until you can reinstall the OP in your computer then just drag and drop whatever files you need to back to your computer....hope this helps...BTW, do a search and you will be supprised at how cheap they are...

I have a folder on my desktop I call "work" I put all "MY" files in it. All my midi files not the sequencer program just the files I create with it. Same with word processor not the program just the files I create. When I save a file, in the file menu, I goto save as and save it to my work folder. Inside my work folder I have other folders for midi.pictures, etc.
This folder has all my personal files, music, pictures, documents, MS money backup files.
Then once a week or whenever I save that folder to a cd or DVD or to another drive.
Now If I have to reload my hard drive I reinstall windows and all the programs from the original disks. I still have the files I created saved somewhere and can start again.

I've done that for years also, it costs nothing, it's safe, and easy.


[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 01-18-2005).]

... again, thank you ....
I just spoke to one of the 'techies' in the office and he suggested just taking the tower to PC World, explain the problem and let them handle the back-up, restore of the OS, etc. ...
When I mentioned that I was un-installing sp2 his comment was "you're a braver man than I .... " .. hopefully I didn't do too much damage ...
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 01-18-2005).]

I basically do the same thing mikeathome1 does. When I save to CD, I also make a copy, in case the CD goes bad. I learned this the hard way, when my first PC went bad.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-18-2005).]

Hi Tony!
I back up to DVDs and CDs. It is easier. It's been a few years since I needed an external HD. There's way too much hardware in my office to bother with extra drives. I need elbow space!!!

Now, as most wise ones I only back up the files that I've created and downloaded. Basically everything but the OS, the drivers and the programs. I only back-up system and programs when I'm sure that it all works fine. In your case (considering the damage to the OS) just stick to backing up the files that you've created yourself.
IT will be impossible to sort through all the programs , drivers and system files in order to find out which ones work and wich ones have gone bye-bye.

But I'm glad you have things under control. As easy as it may sound re-installing OS and programs is a rather time consuming process. It is always good to find somebody else to do it for you.

-ED-

I wish I could have found somebody to backup my system for me when I first had trouble a few years ago.
The problem was Best Buy or one of those places wanted 300 dollars to do it. This is when computers started getting cheaper so I decided I'd better learn about a simple solution myself.
Especially the way Win 98 used to behave 4 or 5 times a year I had to wipe it out and start over reformat and everything.
SO bottom line if you can afford it great. But I would still back up all the files you created before you take it anyplace.

A quick and easy way to do that would be to get a pen/jump/flash drive, connect it to your USB port and copy your work to it. You don't need to copy windows files and program files to it, just copy your work files to it. OfficeMax or Staples or Best Buy have these with rebates for 30 to 50 bucks.

Most PC's come with built in network/ethernet card these days, so if you have another PC, just copy all files you want to save to the other PC.

I use a homenetwork since years, works great.

Downside of it;
the whole familly bring their PC's to my place to get a back up..

tony,

Don't be too quick reloading the OS. Oftentimes support people will hide their lack of knowledge (or lack of interest to help) by telling customers that the only way to fix things is to reload the original software image. It is easier for them to say that than to actually delve into the problem and solve its cause.

Don,

DriveImage from Power Quest is a competition of Symantec's Norton Ghost. Both work well when the problem is with the hardware; however, if you had an virus-infected disk, or some other software issue, restoring the disk from the image will bring the problem back as well.

Regards,
Alex

I use drive image and when I reload the system I start making backups of the clean system, and as I install software I make various backups along the way when I know things are working right. Of course
when I bought a new pc I started right out backing up to an image, before I could get infected with anything.
But you're right once you're infected you can only backup your files not the OS, which is why if you have to reload everything thats a good time to make a backup plan for the future.
Symantec bought Powerquest and according to the website "Product has been discontinued" and since symantec also owns Norton, Ghost is now the software they sell. I have powerquest 7.0 which was the last one they sold.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 01-18-2005).]

All of my data is periodically backed up on CDs. They're cheap and reliable. As for restoring your keyboard, you may be able to just reinstall windows and not loose any of the data. In all of my computers, there is also a recovery feature that allows you to restore the system to a particular date, which I found very useful in the past. However, there will come a time when you have to start from scratch, format the HD and reinstall everything--it's the nature of the beast.

Bottom's up,

Gary

Gary ... My PC has the restore capability as well, and I've used it in the past ... However, when I tried it recently, it went through all the motions and when it re-booted I got a message "Restore Incomplete" ... System would not allow a restore to (date) ...
Looks like a "save all files" and re -install OS is in order ...
t.

The problem I have with the restore feature is it's part of windows, just when you need it most it doesn't work. Thats why I found another backup solution.

Tony....have you tried to refrag the hard disc???? I just a simular problem with restore....when I tried to refrag, I was presented with a window that said the H/D
could not be refraged because of bad sectors within the H/D....if this is the case with you, you might have to try a repair of the H/D and if that don't work, rplace the H/D
which is what I now have to do...Just bought a replacement H/D off of e-bay 40 gig for under $35.00 with shipping....this is the computer I use for my customers and web-cam
so I have to have it running 100%...it would not restore because of the bad H/D....

Tony Rome,

I got the same message, however, when I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows everything worked just fine. Sometimes the HD is so loaded with junk files that are severely fragmented that the program can no longer defragment the HD, which in turn creates that message.

When the restoration program does not restore to an earlier time, that's a symptom that it's time to backup the data, format the HD and start from scratch. In my case, this took the better part of two days because of all the data and programs that had to be reinstalled.

Good luck,

Gary

Gary.....I had three different computer tec's
lookat it and try to restore...it still kept
going to blue screen....tried to reinstall the os...kept getting a window that said it couldn't find drive c.....go figure....it has bad sectors...we couldn't repair it and we couldn't stay in a working mode for very long to continue before....Blue Screen...
last night I bought a replacement on e-bay and should have it here on the 2nd of Feb...
that's life here in Cozumel Mexico....I'll keep you posted....BTW, I will get my new PSR 3000 tomorrow at 11:30 am...waited almost 4 weeks for it to get here....Thanks
Gary....how's the weather up there...
Tony Rome