Recovery

[Dsherm112]

I've gotten pretty good at solving hardware problems and have built a couple of PC's.

But I'm clueless when it comes to solving software problems. When I have a system crash I try a few fixes that never seem to work and inevitably reformat and reload.

There's got to be a better way. Can someone please direct me to some good sites to learn how to troubleshoot and fix crashes. Everything's ok for now, but I take care of 4 computers in the family and sooner or later something will crash. I'd like to be prepared.

Thanks,

Sherm

[Staz]

well I can't tell you how to trouble shoot and fix software problems. But I can help you out (I think). Norton Ghost is a great program. After you get your system configyered the way you like and all of your programs loaded use Ghost it make a disk image on CDR disk. That way if you ever have problems you don't have to reinstall everything. Just reformat and do a disk recovery.

I got Norton ghost 2000 as part of Norton system works 200. I got it in Feb 2001 from a software surplus store for $19.95.

[shadowdr]

Use System File Checker.It's overlooked as one of the best features windows has included.in 98 go to help,index and type in system file checker and click on run system file checker.read the help file first as in 98 it has a couple of ways of proceeding,but basically on a healthy system you can check the box to ignore updated files(there are alot) and it will check for corrupted system files and ask for the 98 cd to replace them.it normally does this on startup using cached files however if its corrupt in windows the cache file be also.

In 2000 its alot easier,it is done from the command prompt.you just type in sfc /scannow and it will also ask for the cd.see the help file for the other switches.

This is not included in win me as it runs constantly in the background using the cached files and hogging memory resources.

I don't have xp but check in help.It is probably alot like 2000.