The 10 Worst Things

The 10 Worst Things: That Can Happen to Your PC and What to Do about them

If, as you are reading this, your computer is operating normally, but you do not have a current backup of any irreplaceable files on your computer, consider yourself lucky, then stop reading this and go and make copies or backups of the important stuff. If you don't know how, look it up in the user manual, probably under “Copying files” or “Making Backups.” Don’t erase or replace any existing copies or backups you might currently have, but go and back your important stuff up now and then create an emergency toolkit as described below. Everything else — including reading the rest of this article — can wait.

Your Computer Emergency Kit should contain the following:

A bootable floppy disk. This is a floppy disk that can start your computer in case your hard disk won’t start someday. Windows 98 can make one by opening the Control Panel (Start>Settings>Control Panel) and selecting Add/Remove Programs. There, just click on the tab that says Startup Disk, insert a blank floppy and click “Create Disk.” If you don’t use Windows 98, you may have some additional steps to do. Consult the documentation and disks that came with your computer. It is easiest if the startup disk you create can load files from a CD-ROM, as the startup disk Windows 98 creates can. In fact, you could use a friend’s copy of Windows 98 to download or make yourself one of these disks, even if you use an older version of Windows. Newer versions of Windows 98 and its successors can boot from CD or supported systems.
If you are a DOS user, you’ll want your bootable floppy disk to include up-to-date copies of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. If you use Windows 3.1, you should also copy the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files from your Windows directory to the floppy. If you have created custom icon groups (e.g., “Main” is a standard Windows group) or installed many Windows programs, you might want to copy *.GRP to this floppy disk, too. Then, write-protect this diskette and make a label for it that says “Emergency Startup Disk.” It should also list the current date, DOS and Windows versions.
Mac users should make sure they know where the System Disks — including the diskette called Disk Tools — that came with the Macintosh are. Newer Macs can boot from the System software CD.
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If you have an anti-virus program (compatible with your current operating system, of course – the old anti-virus program bundled with MS-DOS 6.2 is not suitable for use with Windows 95 or 98), make sure that you have a copy of the floppy disk it prompts you to create, too. We recommend Norton AntiVirus 2000 or McAfee VirusScan. (For the record, we switched to Norton AntiVirus 2000 from McAfee here at PC Buyer's Guide and have found it superior.)
If you want to be really prepared, consider getting a disk utility package such as Symantec’s Norton Utilities or Norton SystemWorks (etc.). These packages include more advanced diagnostic and repair utilities than those provided with even the latest operating systems. However, you may find that such tools can sometimes cause system stability problems, too. The data recovery tool we've had the best success with is PowerQuest's inexpensive Lost & Found, which we highly recommend.

Here are some common problems

1. Your operating system won’t start. If your computer won’t start, there could be several reasons. Chances are good that your important files are still intact. So don’t panic.

First, check all the connections. It might be prudent to power down, disconnect everything and reconnect it again. Is there a power light? Is it a fuse? Assuming that the power checks out, can you start the machine up with your emergency disk? If so, can you see the files on your hard disk?

2. The computer will start, but all your data is gone (or at least seems to be). Start up with the Emergency Startup Disk. Unless you performed the very time-consuming FORMAT command (it is rather unlikely you could do this unintentionally), you probably haven’t lost everything on your hard drive. The best solution is to run one of the aforementioned Disk Diagnostic and repair utilities, such as Lost & Found or one of the many other disaster recovery tools available. Lost & Found recovers lost files from disks with errors on them; programs such as Norton Utilities will also tell you what’s wrong and either fix it or advise you on what to do.

If, after booting from your boot floppy or another drive, you can see your hard drive and the files on it, but the OS won’t start normally, there is no harm in re-installing it to get up and running again. It would be prudent to run ScanDisk (CHKDSK if you’re running DOS or Disk First Aid if you’re on Mac) to check the drive when the system is functioning again.

3. Your hard drive doesn’t show up or goes away when you start or restart. Hard drive problems can be caused by electrical problems including dead batteries on-board your PC or a defective power supply in your computer, hard-drive mechanism malfunctions, or a defective ribbon cable between the computer and the hard drive. It is also possible that a you have simply set an incorrect configuration option in the battery-backed parameters controlled by the computer’s BIOS — basic input/output system. Your dealer should be able to correct many configuration problems.) First, determine whether the drive is still recognized by your system’s BIOS. This usually entails pressing the DEL key immediately after you hear the “beep” when you turn the computer on. A configuration screen will appear, where one of the listed items is usually a Hard Disk Autodetection utility. This tool is the easiest way to probe your system to find out whether the drive is still functioning or not. While you’re here, check the system’s time and date, too. If they are wrong, your computer’s battery might need replacing. This, too, can cause hard drives to seemingly disappear. Have a computer dealer replace the battery and the re-run this drive autodetection, and you’re back in business.

If the drive is visible to the BIOS, but just doesn’t boot, then the drive is probably fine, but the operating system or so-called “boot blocks” on the disk may be damaged. The easiest way to fix this is to simply re-install the operating system. If you reinstall it to the same directory, all your existing files and settings will be maintained.

If, however, you want to clean out all (and we mean ALL!) the old settings, and completely start afresh, you can install the new OS to a different directory – say, C:\Win instead of C:\WINDOWS

4. You encounter a fatal disk error (usually while working on an important file!) and/or the drive reports a “Write error,” perhaps accompanied by the infamous Windows “blue screen of death.” This is not so good. Try saving to a different disk, with a different name. The most important thing to remember is: do not replace your only good copy of a file (or your only good set of backup disks!) with a damaged version.

Some diagnostic and disk repair programs (e.g, Lost & Found) can recover damaged files. Hopefully you have a backup of all your important files. The best plan after a serious write error occurs is to run ScanDisk. If it cannot fix the problem, it will advise you to back up your files and reformat the drive.

5. You have reason to suspect a virus attack. Strange, funny or rude “hacker” messages or computer behavior while using your computer may indicate a virus on your system. The safest course of action is to immediately obtain a current version of a good anti-virus program and check your system. If it is not a virus, contact the company that produced the program you were running and ask them about the message. To prevent against virus attacks, never write-enable your Emergency Startup Disk.

6. Windows 95 or 98 can’t run. The first thing to do is boot from the Emergency Startup disk and reinstall the operating system. Just follow its recommended advice, if it prompts you with choices. If a Windows 95 or 98 reinstallation to the c:\Windows directory fails to solve a problem, reinstall to an alternate location, and be prepared to reinstall all your applications. As a consolation, you may be comforted in the knowledge that all your data files will still be intact (some files may be in the old system directory, however) after this procedure.

7. Your application(s) won’t operate or print normally. First, restart your computer and try it again. Sometimes a computer’s operating system gets messed up internally and causes temporarily erratic behavior that can be cured by a reboot. If that doesn’t work, uninstall the application using the Add/Remove Programs control panel and restart your computer. Then re-install the software. All software companies have technical support sections on their web site to help you solve common problems. They will need to know the type of computer, hard disk, how much memory, what version of DOS you have, etc. It’s a good idea to write these down — perhaps on the label of your Emergency Floppy Disk. If you don’t know the answers, ask your dealer.

8. Have you ever had a program or an annoying “please register now” dialog run whenever you started up your computer and you didn’t know why? Here’s how to disable it. In Windows 95/98 or NT, there is a Startup folder. Items placed here will automatically run. See the Windows Help item on this subject for details. Alternatively, device drivers and other programs (especially older ones) that start up automatically may be loaded by the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. You can rename these files to some other name —

REN CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.OFF
REN AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.OFF

and see if the problem goes away. If so, restore the files from your Emergency Startup Disk or read the Help section on how to edit these files. You might want to load the two versions of each of the files into a text editor to see if you can figure out the line that is causing the problem. A third place to look for and control startup processes is in the MSCONFIG utility. Access it via the Start menu's Run... command and enable or disable items in the Startup section of the utility by checking or unchecking their respective entries. We'd recommend making a note of changes you make, just in case some other aspect your system's functionality is affected by incorrect use of this powerful tool.

9. Your computer and/or software is stolen or destroyed. Ouch. Hope you were backed up and had insurance. You DO keep the backups somewhere separate from the computer, don’t you?

10. Your computer/network/printer etc. breaks down or blows up. Unfortunately, if this has already happened, there’s not much point in telling you to never plug in or unplug anything connected to your computer with the power turned on. Computers are sensitive to static electricity, power surges and power failures, too. If the unit suffers a catastrophic hardware failure, you will probably have to have the motherboard or main circuit board replaced — although, if you are extremely lucky, it may only require a new fuse.

Consider getting a power bar that promises protection against EMI, EMF, RFI and power surges. Some units even offer a guarantee against damage to your computer.

For Further Reading

Here's a collection of links to disaster recovery tools.
WinMag: The Seven Painful Truths of Windows Computing.

IT Library

The Techno Zone

User Account

The 10 Worst Things

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