[Wolves] I hate Windows

[Andrew Lewis]

Mark Ellse wrote:

> Just a rant, but explaining my other post.
>
> As well as backing up my data files, I use Norton Ghost to copy the 
> hard disk from time to time just in case my system goes faulty. That 
> way I have a relatively recent backup system disk that I can put in if 
> there are problems. Belt and braces - safe whatever happens. But 
> you're not, and here is what happened.
>
> 1.    Windows tells me to perform automatic updates. I did.
> 2.    Windows then starts behaving flakily. So I think let's take 
> prevenative measures.
> 3.    Can't Ghost system disk - Ghost can't read from certain sectors.

there's an option in Norton ghost to force a ghost even if there are bad 
sectors. Will take longer though.

>
> 4.    Run Windows checkdisk utility. It takes all night and fiddles 
> with the disk. Then Windows won't boot. It says that a file is missing 
> from the system.

run windows over the top, don't repair from command line, select R when 
it's detected a previous installation

> 5.    So copy file to CD and put it into computer. Silly me, forgot 
> that disk is NTFS and can't be accessed with Win98 boot disk. (Why no 
> Win2k boot disk facility and ability to read NTFS I don't know.)

Use NTFS-DOS - read and write to ntfs partitions from win98 bootdisk

> 6.    No problem, I think. Simply put the disk with the missing file 
> into a computer with the backup hard disk. Boot the machine and copy 
> missing file over to the faulty disk. Yes, it worked and the original 
> hard disk will now boot.
> 7.    Now, since CHKDSK has run, and repaired errors, I should be able 
> to back up the original hard disk. Can I? Not likely.

get the DFT repair utility from your drive manufacturer. It will do a 
complete scan and probably repair the disk by swapping the bad sectors 
with spare sectors(which are on the disk for just that purpose).

> 8.    But never mind, I still have the backup disk with the system on 
> don't I? No I don't!!! Very often, when you put two NTFS disks into 
> one computer, Windows, in its great wisdom, decides to put the paging 
> file onto the opposite disk from which the system boots. There might 
> be good sense in that from the operating point of view. But then, when 
> you remove the second hard disk, the first one can't boot because it 
> has an inadequate paging file.
>
if you can get in safemode, disable and re-enable the swap from there.  
If you can't - run windows over the top, it will reset the page file. 
Linux does this sometimes as well, btw.

> So now I have one flaky hard disk I can't copy from, and one messed up 
> backup.
>
welcome to my world.

> AND PEOPLE PAY MONEY FOR THIS TO THE RICHEST MAN ON THE EARTH!!
>
actually, that's the bloke who owns IKEA.

> Mark
>
spline