Inland. I ran the scan, now should I be getting the information or if there was a problem will it just fix it? I would like to know the findings.

It will report any errors found, and fix them automatically - but... it does run by rather quickly, so watch it carefully.

You almost have to sit there and watch it as it is doing the scan. There won't be a "report" at the end.

You can get chkdsk results using Event Viewer.
Here are pictorial instructions for getting chkdsk results in Event Viewer:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/96938-check-disk-chkdsk-read-event-viewer-log.html

Beats sitting around waiting for chkdsk to finish.

I didn't know that, Jenny! Learned something new here again!

Thanks. I took a look and I'm sure you guessed that I had no idea what I was looking at but still found it interesting. Hopefully the PC will run more smoothly since running the scan, Yes?

If it reported that it found and corrected errors - you should be okay, but I'd keep an eye on the drive. Check it once a week for issues. If no errors were reported, you may have registry issues. Those can be difficult to repair. Generally the resolution is a system restore to a point prior to the problem occurring.

Hi. Smooth is not what I'd call the way my PC is running. I cannot use Mozilla, IE, AOL, CCleaner but was actually able to get to GB using Bing after a few minutes and 3 blank window pages popped up. I don't think this is a good sign.
I haven't checked anything else. The pc seemed to freeze up and I thought I was going to have to manually shut it down when finally the task manager came up.

Exactlly how far back can you do a restore?

Bing is not a browser - it is a search engine used by IE. So you must have reached GB using IE.

Depends on when the last restore point was made. If I'm remembering correctly, this has been going on for a very long time which probably predates any restore points. I wonder if this computer has a recovery partition where you can restore it to factory condition.

I use the Bing desktop, search box is on my destop and I love it as well as their desktop wallpaper.

This has gone on a very long time and can't believe that the scandisk didn't give a positive boost to my pc. If I do a complete restore and take it back to factory condition won't I loose all of my files, downloads, documents, games, favorites etc., etc.?I say alot, all!
I am so mentally exhausted with this pc problem and with my husbands recent medical issue. If there is an easy, stress free fix for the pc, please let me know.
I'm exhausted and not wanting to go to bed yet will get an iced coffee to keep me going a bit longer.
Thanks.

A simple fix for those items that you can no longer run might be to uninstall and then reinstall them. At least the registry entries would be recreated correctly.

What specifically happens when you attempt to run CCleaner?

And yes, you will loose all of your data with a factory restore.

I don't use the Bing desktop, but I do use the search engine. Do you know which browser is your default? Yes, you will lose everything if you do a factory restore, but it would still beat having a computer that doesn't work and causes nothing but headaches.

Just wondering, it's been a Long time since I had Vista, but does Vista have a Repair feature that Terri could try if he still has his Vista DVD?

She will have to verify, but if I remember correctly, this is an HP desktop and they do not ship the OS DVD with the computer.

No, but they do have a restore partition - at least all those that I've seen.

That's what I was hoping...

Strange, the pc seems to be working ok today. The disks that I've found thus far are the recovery disk I made P6115y 09/2009, 3 recovery disk, and something made 03/2010 Bootable Diagnostic media. There could certainly be more disks hiding around here somewhere. Please, what is a "restore partition", I've heard of it but not familiar with it.

The restore partition is what you create the restore media from - some PC's also allow you to restore directly from them without creating the media.

OMG Inland. I think it might be best if I quit asking questions pertaining to computers. That answer went round and round in my head. But thanks for the answer!

Some computer manufacturers set aside a portion of the hard drive and put an exact copy of your operating system and whatever else they included on your computer when it was new on that partition. They call it the "restore partition." If you ever need to, you can reset your computer back to exactly like when your first brought it home. In other words, you can reset it to "brand new." It's often the easiest - and sometime the only - way to get rid of viruses and other problems.

Does that help?

Yes it does. However if that's the case then why do they recommend that you make a copy when you purchase your PC? I think my pc's restore partition is FACTORY_IMAGE (D:).
Again I will lose all my information that I have stored on my pc, it will be like NEW! What happens if I've changed some of the hardware, how will that work? Next, won't my back up provide me with all my files, documents and downloads?

If you've taken a manual backup of your files, yes, you will be able to restore and reinstall them. Some OEM's (like HP) allow you to make a set of recovery discs to restore the PC, others let you restore directly from the recovery partition. The end result is the same, you get an off-the-shelf (like new) PC.

If you've changed hardware, like a video card, it may cause issues with the recovery - but, not to the point that it would be impossible to restore. You would have to manually install drivers for the new hardware.

Edit -

One other thing to consider is this - you will have a "ton" of Windows updates to apply after the restore

As Inland says, yest to restore files, documents and downloads. BUT you will need to reinstall any programs.

And, egads, the updates - I just did one and it took almost 2 days just for the updates with my slow internet connection!

I just thought of something... I assume you have the Vista SP2 update installed on this computer? I worked one one about a year ago that did not have the update installed and that was the cause of many of the issues on the machine.

If your hard drive goes bad, whatever is on the restore partition isn't going to do you much good. But you should be able to boot to the backup discs and restore from those to a new hard drive.


Depends on when you made the backup.

You guys must know by now that I do not use the correct wordage, ( I just call things what I think they are called) not to mention that I don't post everything I need to. The backup that I was referring to is the backup that goes into my EHD weekly. Or at least it did until it got full two months ago ! lol
I do appreciate the fact that you haven't given up on me in all these years.