XP not saving display properties

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Wright
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Steve Wright

I thought I'd try to repost this message with a little more information in
the hope of getting some help.

A few weeks ago, I was getting an error message when trying to use my
scanner informing my my registry was corrupted. I decided to perform a repair
instal to get over this problem (if you have any better ideas on how to
repair a live registry I'd be keen to hear them).

The repair installation failed and wiped my disk so that it was not usable
and I had to buy and install a new disk - how did the repair install fail?
I've no idea apart from I never got the chance to select the repair option as
Windows installed the core data set (you know - the standard new installation
files...) before it asked me to format the disk. When I took out the CD and
hard booted my machine BEFORE reformatting my machine, the disk was *crewed.
Silly me - but I thought not formatting the HDD would have saved it and put
the original load files in a folder somewhere....? Was the disk dead
already?????

Anyway - so I now have a new disk installed.

The problem is that my display properties are set to approx 1200 x 800 for
my MSI nVidia 7800LE graphics card, but when i reboot my machine, the
original 800x600 properties are displayed and I need to manually reset. This
resetting is intermittant - ever 2-3 reboots. I have installed the lastest
driver from the MSI website, along with monitor and motherboard drivers......

My machine is AMD dual core 64 bit processor. 2gig memory and a spanking new
500gig drive.

Any ideas?

Steve.
 
Steve Wright said:
I thought I'd try to repost this message with a little more information in
the hope of getting some help.

A few weeks ago, I was getting an error message when trying to use my
scanner informing my my registry was corrupted. I decided to perform a repair
instal to get over this problem (if you have any better ideas on how to
repair a live registry I'd be keen to hear them).

The repair installation failed and wiped my disk so that it was not usable
and I had to buy and install a new disk - how did the repair install fail?
I've no idea apart from I never got the chance to select the repair option as
Windows installed the core data set (you know - the standard new installation
files...) before it asked me to format the disk. When I took out the CD and
hard booted my machine BEFORE reformatting my machine, the disk was *crewed.
Silly me - but I thought not formatting the HDD would have saved it and put
the original load files in a folder somewhere....? Was the disk dead
already?????

Anyway - so I now have a new disk installed.

The problem is that my display properties are set to approx 1200 x 800 for
my MSI nVidia 7800LE graphics card, but when i reboot my machine, the
original 800x600 properties are displayed and I need to manually reset. This
resetting is intermittant - ever 2-3 reboots. I have installed the lastest
driver from the MSI website, along with monitor and motherboard drivers......

My machine is AMD dual core 64 bit processor. 2gig memory and a spanking new
500gig drive.

Any ideas?

Steve.
Click to expand...

If you have installed all of the motherboard drivers, and have the latest
Nvidia driver, maybe the card itself is getting flakey. Do you have another
known working video card that you can try?

Also, you can't damage a hard drive by botching an install of Windows. Try
slaving the drive into a working computer and see if any data is recoverable.
Assign the drive a letter in Disk Management if one is not given. Check the
condition of the drive with the drive maker's utilities; if it passes the
test, it's probably still good. Make an image of it with Acronis or Ghost and
reformat the drive.
 
Hi Mark,

With regards to not being able to toast a hard drive by reinstalling windows
- alas I wish this was true. However in some respect I agree with you - I
believe the problem lies with some part of the disk around the MBR as the
data should be OKM but the disk cannot self boot - and I indeed intend to
perform some form of disk recovery.
 
Steve Wright said:
Hi Mark,

With regards to not being able to toast a hard drive by reinstalling windows
- alas I wish this was true. However in some respect I agree with you - I
believe the problem lies with some part of the disk around the MBR as the
data should be OKM but the disk cannot self boot - and I indeed intend to
perform some form of disk recovery.
Click to expand...

No, you can't toast the disk by reinstalling Windows. You can toast the
Windows installation, but the disk is still fine. Delete the partitions,
recreate the partition(s) and reformat it. It'll be like brand new. Just make
sure you do your data recovery first or you will never recover anything.

Slave the drive into another computer. If Windows can see the drive, copy
the data off. If it can't see the drive, go into Disk Management and see if
it is listed there. If it is, and doesn't have a drive letter, assign it one.

You could also put the drive in an external USB enclosure and copy the data
that way. You can put the drive in a computer by itself and boot with a live
Linnux disk like Knoppix and copy the data off to an external USB drive.

There are software data recovery programs as well, just get your data before
you reformat.

If the disk really has failed, that's why you have a botched Windows
installation. Windows didn't kill the disk; the failing disk killed Windows.

If the disk is dead, there are data recovery services that can disassemble
your drive and put the platters into a working drive and recover your data.
This is very expensive, you decide if your data is worth it.
 
Hi Mark,

Excellent feedback. Thanks for that.

One last question: Disk recovery? Any products come highly recommended -
free is even better?

Regards,

Steve.
 
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