I think I killed my computer

[sestree]

I'm crossposting this from my Yahoo 360 blog.  

EDIT:  I tried rebooting from the start up CDs and I can't even get that to work. :(

OK so I have been having some computer issues for the last 5 days or so.  Something was lugging my system down and turning off my McAfee virus protection.  I scanned clean multiple times and AdAware and Spybot didn't find anything either.  Then starting yesterday morning it started locking up a LOT so I tried to defrag, got a HUGE error, and it booted up a couple more times after that.

C/P

Really I am only wanting one more bootup so I can recover my files.  This is the screen (verbatim) that I see when I turn the power on:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer.  If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.  If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows upodates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove (yeah how??) any newly installed hardware or software.  Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.  If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then Select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:

*** STOP:  0x000000ED (0x81AD6498, 0xc0000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I get this in safe mode, previous settings, and regular mode.   The only thing I uninstalled was a couple of programs that were never used.  For the most part yesterday I couldn't get the computer to stay up and not lock up long enough to do anything.  Remember I tried to defrag yesterday?  Well I got a hard error that shut down my computer.  When I turned it back on the error flashed on the screen and told me it had shut down and sent the information to microsoft.

Does this error message look familiar to anyone?  I think it stumped pyllgrum as well.

Any suggestions other than go get my flintlock?  I really do hate to lose all the info on there poor thing.  It's only 4 years old - my old 1999 HP desktop is still going and going and going LOL.

Comments

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

Give the steps listed here a try. Specifically the Damaged File System section.

[majorchaos.livejournal.com]

If you can get to it and download it, the Microsoft Windows Defender, does a decent job at checking the system and making sure the configuration files are correct.

The link provided by kmg_365 shows promise too.

Have you recently upgrade the system to Service Pack 2 and some of the recent patches that Microsoft put out?

There has been problems going around with one of the patches. Apparently it would wipe out any reference to the USB 2.0 drivers and that trying to fix it required what amounts to a rebuild of the system from scratch. I watched a friend go through this and it was ugly. He's a knowledgable person with WindowXP and he had to figure it out because the support at MS didn't have a clue.

You may end up rebuilding your system from scratch. :(

[sestree.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I"ll give that a shot.

A friend of mine over on 360 reminded me that I could possibly start up from my original disks (yeah duh @ me - accounting person not computer person here LOL) because it literally is NOT coming up.

I did find out talking to it (promising to be nice if it just loaded one more time) didn't work.

I just want my pictures and files ... at this point I'm through chasing my tail as to the wnys and wherefores that this happened. Strange though eh?

I printed out that page. I never thought (again - accounting person) about searching for the error code. I guess I should of though.

[sestree.livejournal.com]

We've pretty much decided to just get a new one. Everything started acting wonky after the last set of critical updates. Then McAfee acted stupid (kept shutting off) but that has happened before. THEN the system started lugging down and it took over 12 hours to do a virus scan. THEN it started locking up inexplicably and of course it was all downhill from there.

I'm going to try to get back in with my original bootup disk and if that doesn't work ... oh well.

I do know now to turn OFF the automatic updates.

Thanks though ... I suspected there was an issue out there with some of the windows updates.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

You could boot to CD, but there's not much you can do from there. I think in order to do the chkdsk suggested in the link, you have to boot via a floppy or CD.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

I suspected there was an issue out there with some of the windows updates.


There's always issues with Windows updates. ;-)

[majorchaos.livejournal.com]

That's what I've heard... though *knockonwood* i haven't encountered anything to bad. Most of the time I just have to go back and turn off all the auto update features and services I don't want running.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

I was being somewhat facetious. I've never had any problems with updates. I never install service packs right away, though - the scope of those fixes makes me leery. I wait a bit of time so any bugs can be hammered out.

Any critical updates would generally be offered separate from a service pack.

And I never have auto-update running.

[mdrf-lumpy.livejournal.com]

After reading all of the comments I see you have decided to get a new one. Not the worst choice you could make.
Don't get rid of the old one, you have two friends over here who should be able to get to the data you want (as long as it hasn't been physically damaged). Just let us know. ;)

[sestree.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you dear :) I'm hoping what I"ve read and what's been suggested will work to get back in long enough to retrieve my stuff. If not I may call begging and offering alcoholic beverages for suggestions.

You're a sweetie ! Thanks again.