View Full Version : Windows Vista Laptop Problem
Alright. I walked into my room this evening to play Star Craft after spending some time in my room mates' room. When I walked in, my heart skipped a beat as my memory ventured back to May when I got the Blue Screen of Death the day before I had two term papers due. My computer was down for 2 months at that time. Now, on September 17th around 9PM, the very same screen was staring me cold in the face.
I restarted my computer, tears streaming down my face, pounding the table. I swear I was on the verge of turning into a Super Sayin, that's how powerful the experience was.
I was a little more fortunate this time around. Unlike last time, the computer actually did come back up. There's one problem. I'm stuck on a "temporary profile" as my user account was "not able to be properly accessed". I'm not sure what this means really. It's very inconvenient to do, but I am able to access all my files... other than having to go through the C drive to my actual directory, it's a lot slower loading them up due to whatever problem is preventing the account from loading properly.
The computer itself is going slower as well. I called my dad to let him know, in case I need a new one or something (can't exactly last too long in college without a computer nowadays). It turns out my Sony Vaio was apparently recalled a few weeks ago for overheating issues, so I assume that has something to do with the frequent blue screen of death (4 months apart). I'll probably look into getting it fixed or something pretty soon. I just have 2 questions/concerns.
1.) Does anyone know how I can restore my User Account? I can't save any settings or ANYTHING on this temporary one, so no passwords or anything can be saved or anything. Other than that, it's just really annoying to have to access all my old files slowly through the directory in the C drive.
2.) Is there a way to get my money back/get a different laptop if the model I have has been recalled? I know laptop's aren't ideal for gaming or anything, but the one thing this laptop is missing is the ability to have a graphics card apparently (integrated graphics chips ftl). Simply having a decent graphics card by today's standards would allow my laptop, which is exceedingly more powerful in every other aspect than my PC, to play games. This is only actually important because then I could play MB2 and continue mapping while at school (in the almost nonexistant free time that I scrounge together).
Thanks.
All I can say is when you get your new computer get an external and back everything up on that. For now try a system restore to yesterday. :\ Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore, or when you boot up there should be an option that says Restore which is like ESC, or one of the F# buttons. I had to do this the other day because my antivirus is a boon.
I did a system restore already. No luck. When I have free time again (Monday?) I'll create a NEW user account and cut everything over and delete the other one. Since the system restore didn't work, I'm going to guess something about the account was damaged in a way that's just not allowing it to load normally. It's gonna be annoying, and it's gonna be a bitch to set iTunes back up, but... I gotta do it I suppose.
Save your important stuff, call Sony because you have one year manufacture's warranty and then you should be able to send your laptop back for either repairs or a new one (of the same model), should be free, especially since it was recalled. DO NOT settle for paying, push hard because it is obviously a problem on Sony's end. And if you have the option to get your money back, do it and get an HP, Toshiba, or Acer/Asus/other, brand. Sony Vaios aren't very good for the money.
All I can say is when you get your new computer get an external and back everything up on that.
Yes yes yes yes yes.
Save your important stuff, call Sony because you have one year manufacture's warranty and then you should be able to send your laptop back for either repairs or a new one (of the same model), should be free, especially since it was recalled. DO NOT settle for paying, push hard because it is obviously a problem on Sony's end. And if you have the option to get your money back, do it and get an HP, Toshiba, or Acer/Asus/other, brand. Sony Vaios aren't very good for the money.
I've had it for over a year, so we're gonna have to rely on that recall being true.
I've had it for over a year, so we're gonna have to rely on that recall being true.
Well good luck on that. I heard the same thing about recalled Sony laptops.
Russian_Spy_Porque
19-09-2008, 10:13
(can't exactly last too long in college without a computer nowadays).
That is so much bull, you're just addicted to the computer.
As for your computer, if you still have your receipt, or if you have the statement, if you paid with a card, take it to the store, tell them about the recall and they should help you on what to do. Even if all they do is tell you to call Sony, you should do it from there to be more prepared. Even if your waranty is over, especially in the circumstance of a recall, they should still take it back. If not ask to speak with the manager and if you play your cards right you will not fail. Just remain patient, but don't give up.
Good Luck and, lol wth did you buy sony, they are so expensive and even more to upgrade. . .
That is so much bull, you're just addicted to the computer.
Ths is so much bull, you're just an idiot.
Maybe your school is behind the times. I have plenty of professors that require you to use a computer. Sure I could use the ones on campus, but it'd take me about 40 minutes to walk to the computer lab from my apartment, so that's terribly inconvenient.
Ok, MAJOR ****ing concern.
I made a new account. I was going to put EVERYTHING into it. So I did the old click and drag from one account to the other.
Well, I then went to the other... the stuff's not there... it's not where it was either... I checked the HD... I just picked up 60GB of space... um... wtf? I have a LOT of pictures and a LOT of music on there. Years of pictures, memories and ****. More years of gathering up a music base, too. I NEED those files. How do I recover them? System Restore? Need help ASAP. This is beyond urgent.
EDIT: I ran a search of my computer for some of the files. I found them, but the computer can't access them. Says it's there, but that it might be on a network or something and to make sure the disc is installed properly. I'm hoping it's a good sign that at least it knows it's somewhere, though it can't detect it anywhere on the hard drive... I'm hoping there's more good news and that I can, in fact, get it all back. Anyone know?
From the searching that I did, it looks like as long as I don't download anything else, the data should be relatively secure for the time being. Still have no ****ing idea how to access it, but I learned a little bit about file deletion (though I didn't delete these files, I'm assuming it's pretty similar). I don't know where the files are or how to get to them, but I'd appreciate some help with this like you wouldn't believe.
SpongerobertoSquarepantalones
19-09-2008, 12:42
I use this (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.HTML) and it works well enough for me.
if you have more than one HD, you should of course put that program on the HD that doesn't have the files. (would be silly to overwrite your files with the program you need to get them back, right?)
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!
I bought a 500GB external hard drive today. On it I downloaded that program, Sponge. It might be too soon to celebrate since the recovery is still in progress, but from what I can tell it's going to be successful! I ****ING LOVE YOU!
EDIT: Do I have to restore each file individually? I can't restore them in any kind of group? There's 60GB... over 30,000 files... o_O
The horror... THE HORROR!
EDIT2: Anyone know of any file recovery software that can be used to recover files in bulk? This is killing me.
Russian_Spy_Porque
27-09-2008, 08:47
Ths is so much bull, you're just an idiot.
Maybe your school is behind the times. I have plenty of professors that require you to use a computer. Sure I could use the ones on campus, but it'd take me about 40 minutes to walk to the computer lab from my apartment, so that's terribly inconvenient.
next your going to say that your math classes require calculators hahaha!
As for your recovery, be glad you were able to save it, even if it means having to buy a new mouse at the end of this. I would suggest restoring important files now and then restoring stuff as time goes, like you probably don't need to restore all of your music collection, but perhaps only 20 songs for now and then restore more as you desire.
Deathspike
27-09-2008, 11:05
Vista has its own user account security. Its really bad, though. You can access the files of another account, only you have to toggle hidden folders on and set permissions on the target folder. You should be able to access the files without problems.
Otherwise you can just connect the HDD to another computer and access from there. Its not like your HDD has blown up (yet), so you could just bypass silly Vista all together and copy the files. An external HDD would, of course, be fine - and did you know winrar can use a non-compression mode and still access "protected" (or "corrupted") files?
May this be a lesson learned to use partitions, and better multiple HDD.
Russian_Spy_Porque
27-09-2008, 20:12
May this be a lesson learned to use partitions, and better multiple HDD.
What exactly are partitions and how do they help?
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!
I bought a 500GB external hard drive today. On it I downloaded that program, Sponge. It might be too soon to celebrate since the recovery is still in progress, but from what I can tell it's going to be successful! I ****ING LOVE YOU!
EDIT: Do I have to restore each file individually? I can't restore them in any kind of group? There's 60GB... over 30,000 files... o_O
The horror... THE HORROR!
EDIT2: Anyone know of any file recovery software that can be used to recover files in bulk? This is killing me.
I did have one for a while, I might go fish the name of it out of my HDD.
Anyways, can you see the folder that held the file in your computer? I seriously doubt your file table is corrupted. Turn on the viewing of hidden files and system files, and go find your old user directory. Should be C:\Users\Pilo (or whatever your useraccount name was :P) If you can see the folder, you are in good shape. Right click on it, and set the permissions so that you have ownership over the folder. After that, set it so that "Everyone" has "Full Control". Now see if you can get in. If you can, I just saved you the trouble of 3 hours of recovery.
Also, partitions aren't the greatest thing in the world. They basically split your HDD into pieces. But the last time I did that, when I plugged it into another computer as an external HDD, it lost the partitions...
Good news. I'm home for the weekend for my best friend's birthday. I'm getting some music off my PC and my dad's My Book is plugged in (I have one now, too, so I plugged mine in). Not realizing this I open "F:/My Book" thinking I'm getting my My Book prepped for transfer. After a moment's confusion at the contents, I realize it's my dad's My Book. Before backing up to go into mine, I noticed a folder... MY folder, from the last time my dad wiped the hard drive (brother got a **** ton of viruses).
He hadn't deleted it since then, so everything up till 5 months ago (about 75% of everything I lost, possibly more) was backed up, including all my pictures (the truly priceless items I thought lost).
I'm currently copying that data from my dad's My Book to my My Book. Since I only lost music from the last 5 months, it's all recent enough for me to remember within reason (and if it's a song I downloaded in the last 5 months and I CAN'T remember it, it probably isn't important enough for me to care).
Lesson learned, $100 spent, 500GB backup space secured.
Deathspike
28-09-2008, 11:18
Also, partitions aren't the greatest thing in the world. They basically split your HDD into pieces. But the last time I did that, when I plugged it into another computer as an external HDD, it lost the partitions...
Surely they arent the best thing in the world. They don't just go "lost" as you describe them to do, tho. My vista PC crashed completely some days ago. I didnt lose **** because only C:\ went down (yea the HDD was intact but software got screwed), and i make a habit of storing files on other partitions/HDD's.
Surely they arent the best thing in the world. They don't just go "lost" as you describe them to do, tho. My vista PC crashed completely some days ago. I didnt lose **** because only C:\ went down (yea the HDD was intact but software got screwed), and i make a habit of storing files on other partitions/HDD's.
Meh, I might be an exception. Either way, I have 3 HDDs, so I don't really have a need for it ATM...
Russian_Spy_Porque
28-09-2008, 18:02
Also, partitions aren't the greatest thing in the world. They basically split your HDD into pieces. But the last time I did that, when I plugged it into another computer as an external HDD, it lost the partitions...
lol I guess I'll stick to external HD then. ( I just thought doing that might add extra safety.
Oh and Pilo T, for you wouldn't it have been easier to just run opposite to the earth's rotation so fast that you make earth rotate backwards so we travel back in time kind of like what Superman did so you could just avoid this whole thing or back up the files in their original state?
Powered by vBulletin™ Version 4.0.0 Copyright © 2012 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.