SYSTEM FREEZING

[Fred Pilgarlic]

I'm at my wits end!

My computer is freezing and must be hard-booted at
various times (i.e., there doesn't seem to be any pattern
as in program running etc).

I have an external hard drive (USB 2) and attempt to back
up the data with System Tools backup accessory but the
system freezes during the process. My intention is to
backup data and then reformat and reinstall as I think
there must be a corrupted file in the operating system.

I tried to backup in Safe mode in order to, hopefully,
avoid system freezing but can't with this utility so I
purchased Norton Ghost 2003 which I was told could. When
I try to install Ghost, it installs then "rolls back" and
uninstalls.

I also attempted to upgrade the operating system (i.e.,
reinstall Windows XP) and the installation is terminated
because "unable to create, locate, or modify critical
file (c:\boot.ini) parameter is incorrect".

Does ANYONE have any ideas that may help?

Many thanks!

Fred

 

[francis gérard]

I'm at my wits end!

assuming there are no issues with copying files to/from the external drive
with Windows explorer... (you may want to start in Safe Mode if the system
is that unstable)

don't use the backup utility, simply use Windows Explorer to copy
(drag/drop, NOT move) your data files (\Documents and Settings\YourName\) to
a backup folder on the external USB drive, it's not necessary to recreate
the same directory structure as the source, but you may want to do so to
remember where everything goes when you're ready to restore your data, once
you have verified that everything you need is backed-up (copied), dismount
the external drive. do not copy/backup operating system files and programs,
they are not important since you'll be re-installing them later anyway
(assuming you have the source disks/files for your programs)

shutdown/restart the system, boot from the Windows XP cdrom and do a clean
install of Windows (when the initial setup screen asks to repair the current
Windows installation, press ESCape key, you don't want to repair anything.
then you'll want to delete the current partition, which you'll see listed as
an option on a subsequent setup screen, then choose to install Windows on
the raw unpartitioned space, Windows setup will automatically create a new
partition and then prompt you to format the drive (accept the default NTFS
drive, not FAT, and do a long, not short, format)

Windows will guide you through the rest of the process after that, when the
setup has finished, you should install SP2 (service pack 2), restart the
machine, re-install your programs, tweak, configure, customize, etc... then
copy your data back from the removeable drive. however, the trend these
days is to keep your data portable, on external storage devices, so you may
want to consider just leaving your data on the external drive and work from
that.

when backing-up (copying) your files to the external drive, here are some
common directories to look for:

C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Favorites
C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Desktop
C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook
C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{YourUniqueID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

for simplicity, you may also choose to copy the entire directory tree

C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\*.*

which will almost guarantee you don't miss anything, but if you do that, you
must be *selective* when restoring the files later to a freshly installed
system, in other words, be careful that you don't overwrite certain
pre-existing files like NTUSER.DAT, etc. you will want to cherry-pick
individual files as you're restoring them from the backup.

 

[Guest]

System "Freezes" are typically one of 2 things. OS problem which are best
fixed by a complete reinstall (you can reinstall Windows XP without losing
your data and application folders by booting the XP CD, going through the
initial setup prompts for a new installation of XP, select your existing
partition to install to and chose to delete your existing Windows and install
fresh.).

If a clean install doesn't solve the problem, you're likely dealing with a
hardware issue. Start by disconnecting any non-essential peripherals and see
if the problem goes away. Next replace the memory. If that doesn't solve it,
try the motherboard.

Good Luck.

 

[Leif Nordmand Andersen]

Hi Fred,

In this case I would take the harddisk out of your friends computer
and put it in yours, which is presumeable more stable,

Boot your computer from your harddisk with his drive as a slave.

From there you can recover all the important data either by keeping it
on your computer or by burning it to CD/DVD, once that is done you can
reinsert his harddisk in his computer and try a reinstall on his
computer on his harddisk.

Regards Leif.