Re: BIOS - COULD THERE A PROBLEM WITH MY PC'S BIOS?

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:56:03 -0700, InfoHungry
<InfoHungry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello KEN,
I shall insert my answers into your reply



That's fine. It's my preferred way of replying. I'm doing the same
here.


so I do not miss giving you any
info. and again thank you for your most helpfull advice.



You're welcome. Glad to help.


Please scroll down
to find my answers:

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:04:02 -0700, InfoHungry
<InfoHungry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Ken, thank you for your time and very helpful advice. Following is some
info about my computer. Hope it helps you help me.



You're welcome. Glad to help.

I don't see anything below that jumps out at me as being a problem.
However two points:

1. You say the system gets slower and slower. These days that's often
symptomatic of malware infection. You say you've run some anti-spyware
apps, but unless you are always protected with two or three, it may
not be good enough. I recommend that you begin troubleshooting by
going to MVP Malke's malware removal site at
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware and
following the instructions there.

Re 1.- I have actually printed out that page and I am following it step by
step because Malke actually responded to my first post in ExpertZone -
Windows Basics i think my post reference was "Steps before during and after
formating hard disc drive" and he


Malke is a "she."


directed me there. But when it came to
Backing up I ran into a lot of trouble and posted back more questions but did
not receive a reply yet, so i kept looking for answers in other posts and
ended up on this BIOS related post which now I think is the last thing I will
need to address. I shall go back to it and start again.
I was trying to copy my files to disc without knowing that I needed 3rd
party software to do that.



No, you don't necessarily need third-party software. You get extra
capability using third-party software, but depending on your needs,
just copying them is often fine.




so I created folder called COPY OF C DRIVE, COPY
OF D DRIVE on my Desktop. Clicked on the MY Computer, clicked on each of the
drives in turn and clicked copy ,


Two points:

1. If you are planning on reformatting your drive, copying *anything*
to it won't help you at all. Reformatting will wipe out anything you
copy. You need to copy to an *external* device or devices--CDs, DVDs,
thumb drives, external USB hard drives, etc.

2. For various reasons, you can't just make a copy of the C: drive
using standard Windows facilities. If that's what you want to do, you
need third-party software. However you *can* copy your data files that
way; just be sure you copy to external devices.



clicked each respective COPY folder one at
a time and clicked PASTE. Had a lot of warnings saying something to the
effect that "this file could not be copied" and at this point I had the "show
system files" "show hidden files" on. so That does not seem to be a reliable
back up.


No, it's not. See point 1, above.


so I opened the Drive file and the COPY file at the same time and started
comparing them and trying to copy folder by folder from one window to the
other. Result - by accident I CUT & PASTE some of my files including some of
my VIP bookkeeping files. MESS RIGHT?
So I went looking again for info on backing up. Installed windows back up
utility from the CD, got myself an external hard drive and ran a full back up
staight into the external hard drive, then
I copied both the COPY OF DRIVE C & D folders I had done into the hard drive
as well.
THOSE FOLDERS are still on my desktop as I am too worried to delete them
because I suspect I have copied the WINDOWS folder into them and if I delete
those folder from C & D I am scared that might delete the REAL windows and
other important files. BIGGER MESS, so I got kinda stuck here at this point
not knowing how to clean up this MONSTER MESS as I call it that I created
myself from NOT KNOWING WHAT I AM DOING properly.
This means that the PC got much slower now because of the above and reaches
CPU usage 100% most of the time.

2. You say "I have made matters a lot worse." It isn't clear to me
exactly what you've done, but disorganized random attempts to fix
things *can* make matters worse, and sometimes to the point where you
have no real alternative other than to reinstall cleanly. It isn't
clear to me whether you're at that point, but it's possible.

RE 2- As you can see from the above, I think it is quite possible or even
certain that the drives including the external drive will all have to be
formated. They are pretty messed up with my back up creations on top of
whatever was causing the problem in the first place.


I follow what you've said only partially, but certainly it's possible
that formatting is your only good solution at this point.



I really would much prefer to clean up the mess without formatting because I
am having problems retriving th BOOKKEEPING files which I am obligated to
keep for seven years for tax purposes,. I am not sure what went wrong with
these files but I have obtained a request for support form the actual program
manufacturers and should be ok to save the files to disc by the end of the
week I hope.


If you are having trouble retrieving the files, you will have the same
trouble whether you do nothing or back them up, reformat and reinstall
Windows, and then restore your backed up bookkeeping files. I would
think you could simply copy and paste those files to external media,
like your external drive, but I don't understand what you may have
done to damage them. Hopefully the program manufacturer can help you
with the details there.



Appart from those files there is nothing in my system that I can not replace
apart from the driver & software?? for one of my DVD-rom drives which i do
not think i ever got a disc for when I got the PC, unless it is included in
the disc called DRIVERS that came with it.


If you need a driver for the DVD drive, you should be able to download
it from the manufacturer's web site.


Everything else I have discs and
keys
In regards to Malaware, that is a positive I think, and I am now following your and Malke's advise and installing a few antyspyware programs.


If you decide to reformat and reinstall, you don't need to do that
now. But be sure you protect yourself adequately for the future after
reinstalling Windows.



So please give me the VERDICT = CLEAN UP???? or FORMAT???



Sorry, but I can almost never make that decision for someone else. It
depends on so many factors, most of which I simply can't see from
here. Besides not being able to see how badly your system is screwed
up, I can't tell how much trouble a clean reinstallation would be for
you, because I know nothing about what you have installed, how much
customization you've done, what your skill level is, and so on. Most
of the time I strongly recommend against reinstallation, but I suspect
that your situation may be an exception, and you *should* reinstall.
But please note the word "suspect." Suspect is all I can do, and I'm
afraid you'll have to make your own decision.

But for the future, whether or not you reinstall, I have two pieces of
advice for you:

1. Make sure that you are *always* protected against malware.

2. Make sure that you *always* have a backup of any data you can't
afford to lose, stored on external media.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
.

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