laptop network connections problem

March 13, 2007 6:51 PM

I'm having a problem w/my laptop; Acer, XP Home V2002-service pack 2, .99gb ram, 80GB hd (75% empty).... I had to prematurely stop a check disk in the middle, twice. Afterwards, my desktop icons were gone & I couldn't get on the internet (under network connections everything was gone (I cannot even setup new network connections, etc); internal wireless card, even the sprint external wireless card I use from time to time, wouldn't show up when plugged in). What do I do to get things back to normal

first, let me say that this mirrors my pc, so i am not going to loose any info.

When i start up in diagnostic mode I get my desktop icons, but still nothing in network connections...everything else seems to be fine.

When I restart in selective startup (with everything disabled), no desktop icons... excel & all my other programs pulls up, windows expl. doesn't...& when i click control panel, it then freezes but now, nothing works (none of my smart buttons (bottom left), not even the start button... I have to do a CTL-ALT-DEL..then in the windows task manger shutdown/restart from there.... when shutting down out of this mode I get like 3 or 5 "such & such" END PROGRAM & I have to hit okay to end now.....

When i start up in normal mode, I get no desktop icons, realplayer comes on, but doesn't work & I have to END Program, I also get a small error window titled MONITOR, that says eRecovery Error!... I hit okay it & goes away .... from here, it's identical to the above, all programs work, except Windows Explorer...& as soon as I hit control panel, I'm locked out of everything & have to do a ctl-alt-del. to restart.... sometimes during this restart process i get, "Windows cannot find '(null)'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search."

Any idea what's wrong/happend? & how do I fix this problem?

posted by foodybat to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

"Any idea what's wrong/happend?"

This: "I had to prematurely stop a check disk in the middle, twice."

You broke your filesystem while it was being repaired. You have a damaged filesystem.

"how do I fix this problem?"

The first thing to try is letting the CHKDSK utility actually run to completion. It's not an amazing disk repair utility by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be a good first step.

Assuming CHKDSK fails to return your filesystem to a useable state -- and that's a fair assumption -- you're looking at reformatting the volume and reinstalling.
posted by majick at 8:10 PM on March 13, 2007

In case you don't understand what "damaged filesystem" means, by the way: It means that it's extremely likely that some or many of the files that comprise the operating system are corrupted, possibly beyond repair. It also means that every time you've used the computer since the filesystem became damaged is likely to have made the problem worse.
posted by majick at 8:12 PM on March 13, 2007

Assuming CHKDSK fails to return your filesystem to a useable state -- and that's a fair assumption -- you're looking at reformatting the volume and reinstalling.

Are you referring to reformatting the volume & reinstalling windows? Do I need to reformat the hard drive & reinstall windows?
posted by foodybat at 8:38 PM on March 13, 2007

If CHKDSK cannot restore the file system, then there's an intermediate step between where you are and "nuking it from orbit".

The Windows install disk has a choice to "repair the OS". It won't recover things fully even if it works, but it might get you back to the point where you can look around to see what's left and maybe recover some of your data files.

But you're almost certainly going to have to reformat and reinstall.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:46 PM on March 13, 2007

Let's be clear, here.

foodybat says: "first, let me say that this mirrors my pc, so i am not going to loose any info."

In light of that, going to the trouble of attempting a repair install -- a procedure that in my experience has almost no chance of succeeding on a damaged volume, and that has a high probability of further mangling the filesystem -- sounds like a lot of extra work for very little reward.

Let CHKDSK do its job, and if it fails at it, yes, reformat the disk then reinstall the operating system and any applications you might want to use. Was there some reason you aborted the CHKDISK? It's pretty important to let it work.
posted by majick at 9:54 PM on March 13, 2007

(Sorry about that. And I just got through writing a post on my blog ranting about someone else who answered without fully reading first. Sigh.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:13 PM on March 13, 2007