XP Reinstall Issues:

  • Thread starter Thread starter Navyguy
  • Start date Start date
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Navyguy

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with XP SP3, 160G hard drive with DSL
connection. I have
Windows Firewall(set to notify), Avira Antivirus, Spybot, Spyware
Blaster and Hive Cleanup.

I recently had some serious issues with my computer e.g. MSN Live Msgr
stopped signing on automatically, and my login procedure was changed
via remote assistance; and was told my MFT was corrupted. I also
became infected with a Trojan Horse virus which I deleted but I felt
it still resided on its host program.

With all these considerations it was felt that the best course of
action was to reinstall XP. I successfully did this by deleting the
(C:) partition and created a new partition, formatted it, and
reinstalled XP, then uploaded 30+ updates from Microsoft, including
SP2 and SP3, and IE7 and MSN Live Mail.Then created a System Restore
point.

I noticed afterwards that I lost 21.06 GB on my (C:) partition, this
was because when creating the partition it asked how big I wanted the
partition to be and I just went with the highlighted number. So
there’s 21.06 GB unallocated in an un-partitioned space on my (C:)
partition. So have I lost this or can it be partitioned and formatted
for some use such as file storage? If so, can I use my administrative
tools to do this or do I have to buy a third party program such as
Acronis?

The system ‘seemed’ ok, and booted normally and MSN Live Msgr signed
in like it use to, however IE7 looked different, kind of like in Safe
Mode so I changed the screen resolution setting to 1024 x 768 which is
how it use to look somewhat although everything is now much smaller.
I’ve also noticed that in either resolution the web pages take some
time to load which isn’t the norm for this system.

I updated and scanned with Avira as soon as I installed it and it
still found (2) warnings although there use to be (3). This troubles
me since this is a new install and I did format the partition. The
warnings are as follows:

Starting the file scan:
Begin scan in 'C:\'
C:\hiberfil.sys [WARNING] The file could not be opened!
C:\pagefile.sys [WARNING] The file could not be opened!

I then did a chkdsk and it says that it found free space marked
allocated(referenced above) but also found problems with the file
system. To fix these run chkdsk /F
I did this and it completed 1 of 3, but when it started 2 of 3 it
seemed to be caught in a loop. I left it alone for hours and it hadn’t
changed % so I had to do a f8 to get out of it as pressing the
keyboard did not work to cancel the task. I tried it again and left it
going all night and it did the same thing and got hung on 2of 3 with
the % not changing much(never goes above 10%). Does it usually take an
abnormally long time for this and should I just let it run?

I also have minor issues with the following:
I can’t remember how to create an icon to show the desktop, I had this
before on the desktop toolbar and was very useful since I have
injuries, versus closing each window one by one. Can someone please
tell me how to get this back? I also had Word and Excel on the desktop
toolbar and I was able to put them there again but whenever I delete
the icons from the desktop itself they disappear from the toolbar
whereas before I don’t recall having them on the desktop but had them
on the toolbar. So could someone tell me how to put them on the
desktop toolbar without having them on the desktop?

Also, I keep removing the language toolbar and deleting items in my
desktop toolbar e.g. my computer, my documents, my network spaces but
they keep coming back. Is there a way to permanently remove these?
Lastly, can anyone tell me how can I get my Dell desktop wallpaper
back? It's blue and just says Dell in 3-D.



Thanks,

Robert
 
I also have minor issues with the following:
I can’t remember how to create an icon to show the desktop, I had this
before on the desktop toolbar and was very useful since I have
injuries, versus closing each window one by one. Can someone please
tell me how to get this back?
Click to expand...

First, know that the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + D is a quick and
easy way to show the desktop.

There are two methods to get that Show Desktop icon back on your
taskbar. But first I need to know if you enabled the Quick Launch
segment of the toolbar:

Right-click on the taskbar and select Properties. Is "Show Quick Launc"
checked? If it is, you should see an icon for Internet Explorer near the
Start button. If not, check it. Hopefully, both the IE icon and the Show
Desktop icon will appear. If not, there is a tweak:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Line 61, right-hand side:

Restore/Add Show Desktop to Quick Launch Bar
 
Also, I keep removing the language toolbar and deleting items in my
desktop toolbar e.g. my computer, my documents, my network spaces
but they keep coming back. Is there a way to permanently remove these?
Click to expand...

The proper way to remove the language toolbar:

"How to Disable the Language Bar and Remove CTFMON.EXE"
http://www.pchell.com/support/ctfmon.shtml

For your other question:

Right-click the taskbar and select Toolbars, then scroll down to
Desktop, which I am sure is checked, and just click it to remove the
checkmark.
Lastly, can anyone tell me how can I get my Dell desktop wallpaper
back? It's blue and just says Dell in 3-D.
Click to expand...

Hopefully, this will work:

Right-click any empty place on your desktop and select Properties to
bring up the Desktop Properties window. Click on the Desktop tab and
hopefully your old wallpaper will appear in that list.
 
The proper way to remove the language toolbar:

"How to Disable the Language Bar and Remove CTFMON.EXE"http://www.pchell.com/support/ctfmon.shtml

For your other question:

Right-click the taskbar and select Toolbars, then scroll down to
Desktop, which I am sure is checked, and just click it to remove the
checkmark.


Hopefully, this will work:

Right-click any empty place on your desktop and select Properties to
bring up the Desktop Properties window. Click on the Desktop tab and
hopefully your old wallpaper will appear in that list.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much! Everything worked except the Dell wallpaper; I
already looked, but you've help solve some irritating issues.

The main problem however still exists; I still have the 'problems with
my files' found when I did a chkdsk and I'm unable to do a complete
chkdsk /f to fix the file problem. As I said, I let it run all night
and when I checked on it in the morning it was still at 2 of 3 step
and had the same percentage as when I left it. It shouldn't take such
an inordinate amount of time to complete this and the percentage
should have increased or better still moved to step 3 of 3. Any
thoughts/suggestions?

I would also like some advice on if I can save my 20G of free
unpartitioned/unallocated space on (C:) partition. I believe its
possible for me to partition this and designate it Drive E: for
storage of files and documents using the administrators tools.
ICorrect?

With regards to the sluggishness I noticed; for some reason the
computer has started to run faster like it use to (as a point of
reference it never had any lag whatsoever when switching from one site
to another, it was instantaneous). I did download some recent updates
from Microsoft so this may have been the cause? Other than that I
haven't done anything that would cause it to become sluggish or to
become faster.

The 800 x 600 resolution still looks like Safe Mode and it may well be
I was using 1024 x 768 before but as I recall I thought I had been
using 800 x 600 but it didn't look anything like it does now, it
looked more like the higher resolution but bigger.


Thoughts/Suggestions,

Thanks,

Robert
 
Navyguy said:
I noticed afterwards that I lost 21.06 GB on my (C:) partition, this
was because when creating the partition it asked how big I wanted the
partition to be and I just went with the highlighted number. So
there’s 21.06 GB unallocated in an un-partitioned space on my (C:)
partition. So have I lost this or can it be partitioned and formatted
for some use such as file storage? If so, can I use my administrative
tools to do this or do I have to buy a third party program such as
Acronis?
Click to expand...

Right click on My Computer > Manage > Disk Management > right click on
the unallocated area and format it. Use quick format. Done.

Alias
 
Right click on My Computer > Manage > Disk Management > right click on
the unallocated area and format it. Use quick format. Done.

Alias
Click to expand...

Apparently this was already formatted when I reinstalled XP, when I
right click on it it only gives says New Partition, Properties and
Help. When I selected New Partition it took me to New Partition
Wizard, and it gives the following selections: Primary or Extended. I
decided not to complete the wizard because I didn't know which
partition I should pick and didn't want to screw my system up after
just re-installing XP. However, I'm guessing that I can create another
primary partition and label it (E:) to store files and documents. Is
this correct?

I tried running the chkdsk /f again and let it run all night but the
same thing happened. It completes stage 1of 2 - verifying files, then
goes to stage 2 of 3 - verifying indexes, and there it hangs between
0-6%, it never gets beyond this. Isn't there some way of doing this
to correct the file problem chkdsk identified? I'm worried that my MFT
files are permanently corrupted and eventually will crash my system. I
would appreciate any help.



Thanks,

Robert
 
Navyguy said:
Apparently this was already formatted when I reinstalled XP, when I
right click on it it only gives says New Partition, Properties and
Help. When I selected New Partition it took me to New Partition
Wizard, and it gives the following selections: Primary or Extended. I
decided not to complete the wizard because I didn't know which
partition I should pick and didn't want to screw my system up after
just re-installing XP. However, I'm guessing that I can create another
primary partition and label it (E:) to store files and documents. Is
this correct?

I tried running the chkdsk /f again and let it run all night but the
same thing happened. It completes stage 1of 2 - verifying files, then
goes to stage 2 of 3 - verifying indexes, and there it hangs between
0-6%, it never gets beyond this. Isn't there some way of doing this
to correct the file problem chkdsk identified? I'm worried that my MFT
files are permanently corrupted and eventually will crash my system. I
would appreciate any help.



Thanks,

Robert
Click to expand...

Choose primary and continue with the Wizard. That said, the results of
chkdsk are worrisome. What brand is your hard drive?

Alias
 
Choose primary and continue with the Wizard. That said, the results of
chkdsk are worrisome. What brand is your hard drive?

Alias- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Yes, the results of chkdsk are very worrisome.

I tried running the chkdsk /f again last night and let it run for 12
hours and it did the same thing again and hung up at stage 2 of 3
(verifying indexes) and didn't go past 9%. So I did a f8 > last
settings that worked, to return to normal operations and see if anyone
on here had any suggestions.

I believe it has a Seagate Baracuda 3.5 PATA/100 ST3160815A hardrive.
I don't know if this helps any but I have a disk utility cd -(internal
upgrade kit-software and manual) that came with it when I upgraded my
hard drive from 40G to 160G. I may have already run this though when I
installed the hard drive but I can't remember for sure.



Robert
 
I would get a new hard drive if I were you. You could try using the CD
for Seagate to do the long format (hours and hours) and see if that
fixes it.

Alias- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

You mean format my hard drive and start all over again with installing
XP and everything? I just bought and installed this hard drive less
than 2 years ago. Do you recommend any good hard drives? Also where
should I go an look for them Newegg?


Robert
 
I would get a new hard drive if I were you. You could try using the CD
for Seagate to do the long format (hours and hours) and see if that
fixes it.

Alias- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

I started to check the HD using the CD from Seagate and started to
download from the CD to my E: drive when Avira caught a malware from
the CD! It says contains HEUR/Malware Suspcious code so I cancelled
the process.

I guess my only recourse is to buy another hard drive. I would
appreciate any suggestions,.... since I went from 40G to 160G and
since I have to buy another hard drive I would like to upgrade it as
much as possible. Although I did it once I can't really remember the
in's and outs of how to buy or install it although I seem to remember
something about pins and that I had to use PATA. If I have directions,
I can follow them. Any help would be appreciated.



Thanks,

Robert
 
Navyguy said:
I started to check the HD using the CD from Seagate and started to
download from the CD to my E: drive when Avira caught a malware from
the CD! It says contains HEUR/Malware Suspcious code so I cancelled
the process.

I guess my only recourse is to buy another hard drive. I would
appreciate any suggestions,.... since I went from 40G to 160G and
since I have to buy another hard drive I would like to upgrade it as
much as possible. Although I did it once I can't really remember the
in's and outs of how to buy or install it although I seem to remember
something about pins and that I had to use PATA. If I have directions,
I can follow them. Any help would be appreciated.



Thanks,

Robert
Click to expand...

You can get both at NewEgg if you live in the States. www.newegg.com.
They deliver. How big a drive you need would depend on your storage
needs. I like Seagate.

Alias
 
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