A Tale of Windows-based Woe

[cimorene]

My computer was doing this thing where, when I tried to restart/start it, it gave me the blue screen of death, and offered the option to start in Safe Mode if I wanted, except then the arrow keys didn't work (and, in fact, none of the keys on the keyboard worked), and it started regularly without my input, except that about half of those times it would freeze halfway through and I'd have to restart with the power button. This in spite of the fact that there had been no problems when shutting down. This wasn't all the times I rebooted  - maybe 1/3? - and I was always able to boot on the second try, but it had gone on for long enough that I was thinking of reinstalling Windows.

So I'd moved all my files to Wax's hd over the space of a couple of weeks, and have in fact been copying back and forth with Winscp every time I downloaded a picture or wanted to retrieve an episode of tv to watch. I hadn't actually gotten around to the reinstall yet because I wanted to make backups of everything I could (my preferences in Trillian, iTunes, & MS Office if possible) and a list of all the programs, utilities and codecs I'd have to redownload.

But anyway, before I got around to all that... I realised that my computer hasn't done the fail-to-boot thing in a week or so. Maybe reformatting the hd/reinstalling isn't necessary? I'm going to wait and see. Because if I can possibly avoid all the reinstalling hassle, I want to.

However, if I do have to, does anyone have any advice on backing up/reinstalling/getting back programs?

Comments

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

Intermittent errors that are that wacky suggest you've a bigger problem on your hands than Windows-related insanity - it might be a failing piece of hardware.

Before you do anything else, check the Microsoft knowledge base and see if you can find your specific problem. Also, I'd recommend running MemTest86 to check your RAM. And finally, this page is a great resource for possible causes of error and how to troubleshoot them.

As for fixing your Windows install with a minimum amount of pain, usually a clean wipe isn't required. If you do a "Repair install" of Windows (an option that the setup disk will give you), it saves 95% of your settings.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! Handy.