Hi all, got a big problem.
I set up a 3 computer network at my dads office. One computer was recently removed, so there are 2 now. On monday, he called me and said one of the puters would not boot. He thought that the UPC backup had gone south over the weekend and corrupted the computer (the computer was not on over the weekend).
I got it to boot into safe mode, but still can't get it to boot normally. I ran the system file checker in safe mode which found some errors and corrected them, but still no boot. So far, I'm still believing that the UPC fried this computer.
On Wednesday, the other computer wouldn't boot. Same exact problem. Now this is sounding pretty fishy to me. Too much of a coincidence that 2 machines would crap out at the same time. They were not on the same UPC and there is no evidence that power went out over the weekend, just that one UPC backup.
They are both running 98SE. They share internet and have file sharing enabled (or did) but they really don't share many files on a regular basis. No exchange server or server programs of any kind.
Not sure what I should check now. So here are the questions:
1. What is the likelihood that this could be virus related? I set them up with virus software but I bet they don't update or scan very often (if at all). How could I check this out? Is it likely that a virus would spread to both machines even though they don't actively share much? Is it likely a virus when it took 2 days before the second machine acted up?
2. If it is virus related, can I move everything on the HD to a temp folder, reinstall Windows, pull the files they need to save from the temp folder then delete the rest? Or is this too risky if it is virus related.
3. Thought of removing the hard drive and installing it in the secondary of another, better maintained machine and running virus scans on it in that machine. How dangerous is this?
4. What the heck else should I be trying to get these to boot? Of course leaving a full reinstall as a last resort. Should there be a sequence of troubleshooting things to try? I don't know where to begin because I can't pinpoint where it is stalling in the boot process.
Thanks for any help. I could format and reinstall but I really don't want to do that in this situation if I don't absolutely have to.
I set up a 3 computer network at my dads office. One computer was recently removed, so there are 2 now. On monday, he called me and said one of the puters would not boot. He thought that the UPC backup had gone south over the weekend and corrupted the computer (the computer was not on over the weekend).
I got it to boot into safe mode, but still can't get it to boot normally. I ran the system file checker in safe mode which found some errors and corrected them, but still no boot. So far, I'm still believing that the UPC fried this computer.
On Wednesday, the other computer wouldn't boot. Same exact problem. Now this is sounding pretty fishy to me. Too much of a coincidence that 2 machines would crap out at the same time. They were not on the same UPC and there is no evidence that power went out over the weekend, just that one UPC backup.
They are both running 98SE. They share internet and have file sharing enabled (or did) but they really don't share many files on a regular basis. No exchange server or server programs of any kind.
Not sure what I should check now. So here are the questions:
1. What is the likelihood that this could be virus related? I set them up with virus software but I bet they don't update or scan very often (if at all). How could I check this out? Is it likely that a virus would spread to both machines even though they don't actively share much? Is it likely a virus when it took 2 days before the second machine acted up?
2. If it is virus related, can I move everything on the HD to a temp folder, reinstall Windows, pull the files they need to save from the temp folder then delete the rest? Or is this too risky if it is virus related.
3. Thought of removing the hard drive and installing it in the secondary of another, better maintained machine and running virus scans on it in that machine. How dangerous is this?
4. What the heck else should I be trying to get these to boot? Of course leaving a full reinstall as a last resort. Should there be a sequence of troubleshooting things to try? I don't know where to begin because I can't pinpoint where it is stalling in the boot process.
Thanks for any help. I could format and reinstall but I really don't want to do that in this situation if I don't absolutely have to.
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