Solved Partner has lost his OS

Fiery

Member
My old man is not the most PC savvy man on the block. He clicked on a URL that he thought his sister had sent him (her PC had been compromised), his PC started throwing up warnings about sys32 files being deleted. I told him to shut it down ASAP. Eventually he did.

He had MSE installed.

When he rebooted the only thing left on his PC was IE, no Windows Explorer just IE.

I thought rather than mucking around trying to recover the data, I would just do a reinstall of Vista.

On my machine and his I have always had the first boot device as the CD, I put the Vista CD in, rebooted, it totally ignored the CD and went on to boot into windows.

I shut his machine down and double checked that the first boot device was indeed the CD, it was. Rebooted, and once again it skipped the CD and booted straight into windows.

As a rule this wouldn't be a problem as I could open Windows Explorer and boot the CD from there, but this damn virus he has picked up has deleted everything including his Windows Explorer.

Once again the only thing that was on his desktop was IE.

I am at a loss, normally the CD is read first, but not this time. To eliminate the possibility of a faulty reader, I replaced it with a known working one.

I then got a different HD to put in his machine, I was being confronted with BSOD's, then all of a sudden his on board graphics decided they didn't want to play anymore.

I built the machine for him probably now four years ago, if not longer. He doesn't like spending money on PC's, and since I built and paid for the now non working PC, I have put my foot down, and told him you did it, this time you can either pay someone to fix your machine or buy a new one, I am not going to spend my money on your PC.

Because I love my PC's, I have a spare tower, I offered it to him on the proviso that he got ESET Nod32, he turned it down because it was going to cost him a whole $50. Because I am not a totally heartless biatch, I am letting him use my laptop :zip:.

Ideally I would like to be able to get his tower back up and running, it wasn't the fastest on the block, but it handled Vista well.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II x 4 965
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
    Memory
    4GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 TI
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Phillips 19"
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024
    Hard Drives
    1 x 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
    1 x 1TB Sata
    1 x 160GB IDE
    1 x 2Tb WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 1TB WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 4TB WD External My Book
    PSU
    Thermaltake 850W XT
    Case
    Coolermaster Storm Sniper Black Edition
    Cooling
    AC-ALPINE-64PRO ARTIC COOLING
    Keyboard
    12 year old Compaq, cant see any of the letters anymore :)
    Mouse
    Microflacid Sterile
    Internet Speed
    ADSL2+
    Other Info
    My husband and I divorced over religious differences.. He thought he was God and I didn't.
Welcome
Initially, I would question the boot capablity of the CD. Are you sure it does boot?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Welcome
Initially, I would question the boot capablity of the CD. Are you sure it does boot?

Yup, I tried it out in my tower, although at the moment because he is not into gaming, I have left him with just the on board graphics, it appears as though that is no longer working. I am in the process of trying to find my old GPU's, so I can at least see more than "no video input detected"

I have also done a Paragon backup of his OS, but at the moment with no screen display, it's kind of hard to see
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II x 4 965
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
    Memory
    4GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 TI
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Phillips 19"
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024
    Hard Drives
    1 x 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
    1 x 1TB Sata
    1 x 160GB IDE
    1 x 2Tb WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 1TB WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 4TB WD External My Book
    PSU
    Thermaltake 850W XT
    Case
    Coolermaster Storm Sniper Black Edition
    Cooling
    AC-ALPINE-64PRO ARTIC COOLING
    Keyboard
    12 year old Compaq, cant see any of the letters anymore :)
    Mouse
    Microflacid Sterile
    Internet Speed
    ADSL2+
    Other Info
    My husband and I divorced over religious differences.. He thought he was God and I didn't.

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Have you tried booting into Safe Mode by tapping F8 repeatedly while booting up, then going to System Restore and going back to before all this happened?

(Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools or Start > Run and type in rstrui.exe )
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
errr fellas at the moment I am getting a no video input, which kinda makes it hard to do anything at all.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II x 4 965
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
    Memory
    4GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 TI
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Phillips 19"
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024
    Hard Drives
    1 x 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
    1 x 1TB Sata
    1 x 160GB IDE
    1 x 2Tb WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 1TB WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 4TB WD External My Book
    PSU
    Thermaltake 850W XT
    Case
    Coolermaster Storm Sniper Black Edition
    Cooling
    AC-ALPINE-64PRO ARTIC COOLING
    Keyboard
    12 year old Compaq, cant see any of the letters anymore :)
    Mouse
    Microflacid Sterile
    Internet Speed
    ADSL2+
    Other Info
    My husband and I divorced over religious differences.. He thought he was God and I didn't.
Oops, sorry. Thought you might in Safe Mode perhaps.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
I have all but given up on trying to recover his PC.

As for building him another one I really cbf.

I will not let him walk into a retail shop and just buy one.

Where we live in Australia PC shops are as rare as hens teeth, which means I would need to order everything online, and then put it together for him (he would be paying for the build this time).

For the parts alone for a fair tower for him I have worked out it would roughly cost $500, including freight. Then joy oh joy I get to build it.

So I have been looking at getting him a semi customizable tower, nothing overly flash, but something that should last him.

I have found a couple of sites that do custom builds, please keep in mind he is a basic user, so I have chosen on board everything :p

Please take a look at the possibles I have chosen, and provide me with constructive help.

Cheers

Susan

pcshopper.jpg

pcbuilder.jpg

itsdirect1.jpg

itsdirect2.jpg

pcshopper.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II x 4 965
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
    Memory
    4GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 TI
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Phillips 19"
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024
    Hard Drives
    1 x 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
    1 x 1TB Sata
    1 x 160GB IDE
    1 x 2Tb WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 1TB WD External My Book Elite
    1 x 4TB WD External My Book
    PSU
    Thermaltake 850W XT
    Case
    Coolermaster Storm Sniper Black Edition
    Cooling
    AC-ALPINE-64PRO ARTIC COOLING
    Keyboard
    12 year old Compaq, cant see any of the letters anymore :)
    Mouse
    Microflacid Sterile
    Internet Speed
    ADSL2+
    Other Info
    My husband and I divorced over religious differences.. He thought he was God and I didn't.
At first glance that looks to be a good solid system for everyday use. I'm not a very good judge as I've never built a PC being lucky enough to be in a major metropolis in N. America, everything is handy but did order my current one custom built from Alienware, just before they got taken over by Dell.
I don't see anything that cries out as needing improvement and that should do a good job.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
Back
Top