Hello

Even though I told a friend to leave her Vista laptop running to install long-standing updates (she never updated since she got that laptop), she still turned her computer off in the middle of an update.

Predictably, the computer is now hosed: It's in an endless boot/BSOD loop.

I read the sticky "Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions", but can't download and run the EXE since the computer crashes before getting to Windows.

I asked her to provide any information she might have, especially any error number that might be displayed.



Until then, I was wondering what is the right way to cure a computer that is in that state of affairs: Will hitting F8 -> "Last good known configuration" solve the issue? If not, should she try booting off the DVD (in case it was provided by Toshiba and she can find it...) and choosing Repair?

Thank you.

Thanks for the help.

It's a Toshiba Satellite L350.

I was trying to avoid this, as this means having to spend time extracting all her data, reinstalling Vista, reinstalling her apps, and reinstalling her data :-/

Thanks. If there's no other way, we'll do a system recovery.

Such a pain... :-/

Thanks for the idea. I'm actually working on a recovery USB keydrive to sell for this very purpose :-)

Getting back to a fully working PC as it was before the crash is still quite a bit of work. No wonder people use web-based apps as much as possible.

Originally Posted by richc46

It would not have been difficult, if you used the free Macrium, for a back up.

Yes, but users who don't run Windows Update are even less likely to bother cloning their partition every week so they can be back up and running in a few minutes.

Incidently, is there a reliable way to check an NTFS partition for...
1. executables
2. last time they were ran

... so that I could get a list of applications they most often use, so that I know which applications might need to have their data (user data + configuration data) recovered by booting with a CD/USB?

Currently, I have to rely on them to remember which applications they use and google for where the data might be saved. Last time, it didn't go well for Thunderbird (the folder I saved didn't help).

I'll go at her place tomorrow with a Vista Home Edition Premium, and, in case F8 + Last Good Known Configuration doesn't do it, I'll see if the Repair option on the DVD solves the issue.

Hopefully it will, and I won't have to reinstall the whole thing with the rescue DVD provided by Toshiba :-/