[Big Mac]

My Dell started exhibiting strange behavior a while ago. Whenever I right-click in Windows Explorer, it crashes with a Data Access Error and then relaunches. This happens in all users. I cannot find anyone else experiencing this problem. Does anyone know what the cause could be?

[ghporter]

I think that means that something has hosed Explorer. Considering that Explorer is kinda important to everything Windows does, I'd say that it's time to do a repair installation. This should not do anything to your programs or user data; it just reinstalls the original XP OS files. A note: if Explorer is hosed, other parts of the OS could also be damaged. I'd do that reinstall NOW.

Instructions from Microsoft on exactly how to do this. And more stuff including some handy extra information. As noted in the second link, you MUST apply all the appropriate updates as soon as you finish the repair, because what you're installing doesn't have 'em. Lots of ways to do this-going STRAIGHT to Windows Update after the repair is finished is my favorite...

[Big Mac]

Thank you glenn - I counted on your response. I was hoping for a simple fix, but I guess Windows has to get reinstalled every so often, right? I don't know what caused this problem, but I don't remember installing anything before it occurred - it seemed to happen out of the blue. I have been ignoring it for a few months now and have been able to continue working, so I'd kind of prefer to ignore it. But if you say it's important to reinstall, I'll take your advice. I'm glad I bugged Dell to send me my restore discs.

[ghporter]

Windows has about forty gazillion files open all the time, and it writes and saves to them whenever it wants to. That includes the OS's important files, like Explorer.exe. One little glitch while writing or saving, and you have a damaged file. This is one of the primary reasons reinstalling Windows now and then is important. Another is that you can dump all those "NT Uninstall" folders in your Windows directory because when you do the latest updates, all the prior updates have been rolled into them. Talk about saving disk space!

But yes, Explorer behaving badly is "scary" on a number of levels, not just inconvenient.

[Big Mac]

Well, I borked the reinstallation. I was given two options by the Reinstallation CD provided by Dell - Upgrade and Erase/Install. I chose upgrade because I thought that was equivalent to repair. Big mistake. Midway through the installation the stone-age Windows installer crashed with a stop error. Now whenever I boot it goes straight back to setup and asks for the installer CD, and if I let it attempt to finish the installation it blue screens with the same error. Oh yeah, I have no backup either. My call to Bangalore Dell support yielded little help. The "administrator" level said I need to do a clean install because I corrupted my boot sector. I told him I don't like Windows and only use it for business, and he said "oh, you're a Mac user, right?" Yeah. Dude, I should have bought a Mactel.

I tried an Unbuntu LiveCD I burned to see if I could copy files over that way, and that was an interesting experiment. Unfortunately, while it showed my NTFS disks it either did not or could not automatically mount them. I read about how to mount an NTFS drive, but I assume that to do it properly I need to actually install Unbuntu on my drive.

I hate PCs and I hate Windows. I really, really do. What do I do now? Can I recover my files?

[ghporter]

OS X can READ NTFS partitions all day long. You should be able to recover your documents and other files by simply investigating that partition with Finder. Once you get everything you want off of it (check THREE times-I'll tell you why some other time, but twice is not enough), then use the Boot Camp Utility to delete the partition and start over.

I really hate the way Dell and other PC makers don't trust users to be able to follow the 4th grade-level instructions XP installation discs provide, (or at least that's the politically correct reason) and thus provide the "reinstallation" disc. It's stupid, it causes more problems than it cures, and it is more difficult and confusing than just putting in an XP install disc and letting 'er rip.

In any case, you've learned about backups and Windows, right? Very important! Image your installation and save that image somewhere safe, and after you've installed all the software you intend to, image again. If at all possible, keep the documents you're concerned about somewhere other than the Windows C:/Documents and Settings/Username folder-preferably not even on that drive. That way, if/when something gets stupid, you can restore your "all applications" image and be set in short order.

[Big Mac]

Okay, but OS X isn't really an option because the machine in question is a Dell. I'm amazed that you cannot boot XP off an external drive unless it's a hacked copy of XP because of the activation BS. So, I guess I'm hosed, right? I don't know how you can stand Windows, Glenn. Do you think this company is trustworthy?

If only Apple had put a real GPU in the MacBook line, I would have purchased one instead of this Dell, just run the few Windows only apps I needed and reboot into OS X as quickly as possible.

[seanc]

Big Mac, it's unfortunate that you're having problems, I have to wonder if these explorer issues and now this BSOD are caused by faulty hardware or RAM.

Anyway, lets see if I can help on the Ubuntu side of things.

When Ubuntu has booted to the desktop, go to the 'places' menu at the top and click the 'computer' item.
In this window, you should see a list of drives, as well as a list of them on the left. Your hard drive might be named something like 49.4GB Volume, right click on this and click 'mount'. This may work and allow you to access your files.

If this doesn't work then we'll have to try other things.

Go to Applications> Accessories> Terminal
type in:

Code:
ls /dev/hd*

If that reveals nothing then type:

Code:
ls /dev/sd*

Those commands should give you something like

Code:
/dev/sda /dev/sda1

You'll have to work out which one might be your hard drive, usually hda or sda.

Next, we need to create a directory to mount the drive to, these usually reside in /media/xyz.
In the terminal type:

Code:
sudo mkdir /media/XP

Now to mount the drive
Again, in the terminal, type:

Code:
sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda /media/XP

You'll have to substitute /dev/sda for whatever you worked out that your hard drive was.

That should now mount the drive. If it doesn't show up in the side bar then navigate to Filesystem/media/xp and you should be able to access and move your files. They'll be read only because Ubuntu can't write to NTFS partitions without the use of fuse-3g.

If you get a permissions error, then the naughty way around it is to launch the root version of nautilus, the gnome file browser

To do this, in the terminal type:

Code:
 sudo nautilus

Another file browser window will pop up, navigate to the same directory in there and you should be able to access your files.
Just be careful not to accidentally delete or rename anything.

Good luck, any problems, just yell.

[Big Mac]

Thank you for the detailed suggestions, seanc. Your help is very much appreciated. I'll try it out later on today. When I looked at my drive it actually said 0 bytes. Maybe the installation attempt wiped the drive out completely. Assuming that's wrong and I can get the drive mounted, would I be able to mount a USB flash drive to copy files over to?

[seanc]

A USB thumbdrive should mount automatically, my external HDD mounts by itself when i'm on a live cd.

I hope your internal drive hasn't been wiped out, you could follow Glenns much simpler suggestion and just buy/borrow an external 2.5" enclosure, take the drive out and hook it up to your G5 and copy the data off.

[Big Mac]

All the steps you provided in Unbuntu worked up until the final one, when it was reported that the drive was Busy. When I try accessing the drive in the Computer window, the error says that pmount failed. On the bright side I'm impressed with the speed and quality of the Unbuntu live CD. I wish I knew someone who had an XP live CD, but then again perhaps the data is ruined as it appears to be. I'm getting desperate enough to try out Spotmau.

[seanc]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

All the steps you provided in Unbuntu worked up until the final one, when it was reported that the drive was Busy. When I try accessing the drive in the Computer window, the error says that pmount failed. On the bright side I'm impressed with the speed and quality of the Unbuntu live CD. I wish I knew someone who had an XP live CD, but then again perhaps the data is ruined as it appears to be. I'm getting desperate enough to try out Spotmau.

Was it the mount command that failed?
What did you get for

Code:
 ls /dev/sd*

and

Code:
ls /dev/hd*

It could be that you tried to mount your CD drive and so the device would have been 'busy' because you were booted from it.

Hirens Boot CD has live XP on it: Hiren's BootCD 9.2 - www.Thanki.Tk

[ghporter]

Hiren's is a great troubleshooting tool. I've used it on a number of PCs with great success. It includes a number of tools that will let you see if your data is still there, and capture it if possible.

[Big Mac]

Okay, it looked a little dicey, but I'll try it if you guys recommend it. Thank you again for the info.

[seanc]

Big Mac, what model Dell do you have?

It really would save time just to pop the drive out and put it into an enclosure. Just buy an cheap one, plug it into OS X, get copying. Then you can just format the drive and re-install Windows on it.

[Big Mac]

E1505. I'm a little intimidated with the notion of laptop hard drive upgrading.

[seanc]

It's not a hard process, it just comes out of the side, unlike the PowerBooks etc.

Hard Drive: Dell Inspiron 6400/E1505 Service Manual

Just remember not to drop it or do anything silly with it and it'll be fine.

It may have a connector on the end that it uses to interface with the laptop, this should come off and then you can connect a standard 2.5" connector to it and hook it up to your G5.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, I was looking at that after composing my previous post. It's not nearly as hard as I had assumed based on my knowledge of contemporary Mac laptop designs. I guess I'll go to my local computer supplies warehouse and pick up a 2.5" enclosure.

[peeb]

Without wanting to sound like a dick, while you're there get an external backup drive.

[Big Mac]

You're right, I should have had one. I was going to put a FAT disk image on my G5's backup drive for that purpose. It just kind of slipped my mind because these files aren't vitally important to me and because I didn't think the Windows installer was so completely brain dead.

[Big Mac]

Partial success - I picked up an enclosure and transferred my user's Documents folders to my mini. The process was indeed easy. Now I have to deal with the reinstallation. I'm pretty sure it will fail again after I reformat the drive, unfortunately.

[seanc]

Glad you got your files off.
Try formatting and re-installing. If that doesn't work then try downloading a Windows MCE disc. I know saying that will probably be frowned upon, but you have a valid license key, and if you or your employer hadn't asked Dell for the installation media, you wouldn't have gotten them anyway.

I think there may be an underlying hardware issue, possibly RAM, but try formatting and see how it goes.

Any drivers you need can be gotten from Dells site. Pop in your service tag and it'll give you a list of drivers for your system.

[Big Mac]

I am happy I have gotten this far - with your assistance. I was thinking about the possibility of the Dell disc being bad and considering downloading the MCE installer ISO if it fails again. I don't think it's a RAM issue because aside from the Explorer right-click crash I didn't have any other problems. It always boots fine and runs everything I use reliably - except for Explorer. The Stop error (which I should have written down) said something about conflicting IRP (is that an IRQ thing?), and this always happens at the same point in the install - the point at which is it says "Installing Devices." Anyway, I'll reformat and it another try, although I think I'll just skip one step and download MCE so that I can rule out the bad disc possibility.

[ghporter]

Fortunately, RAM is easy to get at on the E 1505, as are a few other parts (under those panels on the bottom) including the wireless card (which is actually under the keyboard). Once you put a new drive in and reinstall, if you start to have problems you can start messing with those parts to see if you change the problem.

[Big Mac]

Good to know, thank you Glenn. If the installation fails I think the next step I'm taking is to send it back to Dell for repairs, assuming I do indeed have extended warranty coverage. . . . and that's a question I can ask you since I know you know Dell pretty well. I went online a few months ago and purchased what I thought was an extended warranty, yet the price for it was really cheap. I think I may not have chosen the right option. Now one full year since purchase has passed. Does Dell send extended warranty nag letters if you haven't already purchased coverage like Apple does?

[seanc]

You can check the warranty coverage on the machine on Dells website. It'll also tell you when it was built, what it's specs were etc.

[Big Mac]

Okay, I was able to get my system's information (the strange this thing is, last time I tried to do it through the service tag, and the identifier thought it was a discontinued European PDA; this time I just used my order number). It says I have 721 days left on my contract, which lists Technical Support and Next Business Day as my extended contract features. I'm guessing I do have an extended warranty then, although the site could be a little clearer in that regard.

[Big Mac]

I'm reformatting now. Can anyone explain to me why the XP installer still looks like DOS? I feel like I'm in the computer stone age. If Apple can make a graphically pretty interface to the bare firmware (haven't seen what EFI looks like yet though), why can't M$ make a Windows-like interface for its disc based installer?

[seanc]

Vista has a Windows full graphical installer. Apparently they didn't deem it necessary for XP.

[Big Mac]

Woot! It got past the part where it was crashing.

One comment I saw regarding MCE installations was that there's no way to repair MCE - you always have to reformat. That seems to be true.

[ghporter]

The XP installer runs in what Microsoft calls the "Pre Boot Environment," a scaled down, basically command-line OS. Vista has lots of bells and whistles, which is why XP fits on about half a CD and Vista needs a DVD. I do not see how a graphical installer (which will be hopefully used only once) is either needed or helpful.

Can't comment on MCE, but it IS a variation of XP Pro, so I'd expect that it should be fixable. Notably, the Recovery Console can help with a lot of problems. But it appears from my research that the "press 'r' to repair this installation" option is either hard to find or missing from MCE. Dumb, Bill, very dumb.

[Big Mac]

I like a graphical installer because it feels more pleasant to use. I don't see how a true GUI installer can take up so much room - Apple has always been able to accomplish that.

As for the repair option, when I booted from the CD one of the questions it asks was whether I wanted to press R for repair. I was going to try it until it said a repair was already in progress, which was a hint that the upgrade I performed was considered a repair and that it wasn't going to work.

Now the system is up and running, and I'm truly getting a taste of what managing a PC is all about. I really didn't realize it until now, but a Windows disc will just give a generic install of Windows without all of the important drivers. So now I'm downloading them off the Dell website. Ugh, I don't know how most people put up with PCs.

[seanc]

When you have it installed with all your programs and drivers, but not the data, make an image of the drive for future safe keeping.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Now the system is up and running, and I'm truly getting a taste of what managing a PC is all about. I really didn't realize it until now, but a Windows disc will just give a generic install of Windows without all of the important drivers. So now I'm downloading them off the Dell website. Ugh, I don't know how most people put up with PCs.

In about 95% of cases, unless the user goobers something up (by messing with settings and stuff he doesn't understand) then once the machine is set up, you never have to touch it until you upgrade the OS. The other 5% of cases come from incompatibilities between peripherals and components-it IS possible to have a combination of internal parts (drives, interfaces, etc.) that interferes with itself. A well integrated PC does not have that problem, but since anyone can get any PC part he or she wants, the integration is in the hands of the builder.

Getting the drivers for the hardware YOU have is indeed part of the deal with a PC, since, unlike with Macs, that hardware is not fairly well circumscribed. That IS something a PC user must put up with, but again, usually only once.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by seanc 

When you have it installed with all your programs and drivers, but not the data, make an image of the drive for future safe keeping.

I plan to do exactly that - I really don't want to go through this process again if I can avoid it.

The only functionality I don't seem to have anymore is hibernation mode, even though Windows thinks its enabled in the Power Options control panel. It isn't showing up in the shut down menu like it used to. At least stand-by is working now, but I'd like to have hibernation back too if possible because it has saved me a number of times when my battery level has become critical.

[ghporter]

Go to Power Options in the Control Panel and click on the Hibernate tab, then check the "Enable Hibernation Support" box. Click OK and you're done. It should hibernate properly, though the first hibernation will probably take extra time because the machine has to build the hibernation file.

If you do not have a Hibernate tab, then the installer goofed and selected the wrong HAL for your machine. Post back what happens.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, I did that and verified that the setting is on, but there's no menu option for it. I did, however, see it automatically hibernate after a period of time in standby, so I know it works.

[seanc]

If you have the welcome screen switched on, then when you go to start and shutdown, hold shift to get it to show you the hibernate option.

To turn off the welcome screen, go to control panel, user accounts and change the way users log on and off, uncheck use the welcome screen.

[Big Mac]

You were right, seanc. Thank you once again for all the help, both you and Glenn.

[seanc]

No problem. Glad you're back up and running

[ghporter]

Same here.