CakeBlast

My wife’s computer crashed the other day, during a routine chkdsk. The Bios screen appeared and then she received a message saying “We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this…” The message then proceeded to offer options that did not work. Bec’s computer wouldn’t Start in Safe Mode, or Return to Previous Configuration Settings.

Pressing F8 repeatedly, upon startup, takes her to a boot menu, that eventually leads her to an error message stating that <Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe is missing.

Pressing F10 began a PC recovery, but then Bec received a message saying, “All files, including data files on the user partition will be lost and the original factory shipped files will will be recovered to the users partition.”

Trying to boot in safe mode, lead to a message stating that “A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.”

Bec didn’t want to lose all of her files, so I attempted to repair Windows XP from a disc. After several hours of frustration, we admitted defeat and reformatted her entire machine. Thankfully, most of her programs were backed up on an external drive, but her bookmarks and quite a few semi-important files were not. I cannot wait until we get an external drive big enough to back up all of our information. As it is, I am thankful for the 160 GB Simpletech drive we have now, although it is several years old (bulky) and doesn’t have enough storage for everything.

I have checked my drives for errors (chkdsc) many times in the past. In previous versions of Windows, it was called scandisc and was accessable from Programs/Accessories. Now, doing a chkdsc either requires opening Command Prompt in Accessories, and typing “chkdsc” or else selecting My Computer, right clicking C: drive (or whatever needs checking), then clicking Properties, Tools tab, then selecting Check-now, under Error Checking. Not only was it easier to check for errors, back in the pre-XP days, but apparently safer (I wonder how Vista fares?). I will continue to do periodic chkdscs, but from now on, I will be sure to back up all my important files first.