Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
Today, after installing Norton Anti virus 2001, I created a rescue disk set. It said to leave the first floppy in the drive and reboot to test them. Well, I did as instructed and rebooted the computer. It started out fine, until I got to the introduction screen. It was some kind of welcome screen to the norton av thingy for using the floppy. I took out the floppy disk and pressed enter. I have used the norton in the past, and when I took the floppy out and pushed a key, windows would continue to load up normally. Well, I pushed enter(maybe this was the problem?), and it asked me to insert the floppy disk to go to dos. I couldn't get it to leave that screen, I tried pushing escape and enter. So i reinserted the floppy. I clicked ok. It went to Dos, which I didn't want to do, since I don't know how to do anything in DOS. Then it had a A:/ RSTART or something like that flashing. I pushed escape a couple of times, but all it did was put a couple of these / on the screen. So I called HP and he didn't know how to get me out of there, either. I tried typing in windows and WIN and exit, all to no avail. It would just say the computer was trying to read the A drive and ask if I wanted to abort, retry, or fail? I couldn't even make it choose one of those options using the arrow key. It would just keep flashing the same thing up over and over again. The guy at Hp finally had me turn off the computer and restart it and begin tapping the F1 key, then when it got to entering setup, he had me push the F5 and F10 key to reset to factory default. Could I have messed up something on my A drive? If so, would resetting the factory defaults as he had me do, fix it? I know this is the place I go when they have had me do an fdisk reformat, so now I'm worried that it may have rewritten something about the A drive. How can I test it to see if it is functioning correctly? And how in the world do you test that rescue set and get back to windows? I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!
dianna, i had a similar experience with the floppies. the only difference is after not wanting to proceed i removed the floppy and ctrl alt dlt twice to restart windows. no problems had ocured after. also i have never tested the rescue diskset so i dont know the answer to that. The only thing i can tell you is to keep email scanning enabled and be careful what you download. even at trusted sites make sure to read the download prompt to make sure your getting what you want. also keep important data backed up on a regular basis as even the best antivirus software wont always protect your system.
0 
Do you think it is possible that i messed up something on my computer by entering anything in DOS? I know this is where you go to do an Fdisk reformat, only it was the A drive instead of the C drive. Normally, I take the disk out and press a key, like the space bar, instead of enter. I think this is where I messed up. It took me to DOS. Now I am worried that i have reset or messed up a setting for my floppy drive by continuing to press enter at the A prompt.
0
When you have recovered from your problem, remember to create a manual Restore point BEFORE you create or update your Rescue Disks or do anything else that will alter your system.
Also, never use Sys.Rest. to restore your system while you have NAV auto update running, disable it first, apparently, according to Symantec, the two conflict and cause a 'misalignment' of your Virus Defs.Lesley
0
Dianna, i have no realy way to be sure. As long as you can load windows without any noticeable problems i wouldnt worry too much about it. If you do however experience trouble try redpeppers suggestion with the restore feature. If for some reason you did destroy everything (which i doubt but possible) and system restore doesnt correct it reinstalling windows would be my next step. Others would have you go thru a series of fix its but in my experience having limited knowledge of how windows really functions, formatting and reinstalling windows is the best way to go as it gives you a chance to start fresh. I make a point to keep all of my data (anything i download-setup files or create-txt and images) kept In perfect order and backed up to CD-R as well as stored on an extended partition D:. this makes formatting a breeze as i dont have to worry about what im losing if i do it. Hopefully all is well and you have nothing to worry about.
0
When you get the message 'failure to read:drive A', the expected response is the letters A, R, or F for abort, retry, fail. As to why you fot the failure to read, I don't know. This may be a drive malfunction, but i doubt that you caused it. I also doubt that the problem lies in software. A floppy written on one drive may not read on another - this is due to sloppy quality control in the drives or the floppy itself. A floppy should definitely be readable on the same drive it was written on. If Windows is working okay, insert the disk and double-click drive a under my computer. It should open. Here's another catch. Floppies come pre-formatted these days, but NOT ON YOUR MACHINE. Do a full format on YOUR machine before using them. Right click drive A under my computer and select format. The re-create your rescue disks.
Shutmedown's respose was correct as to getting out of the screen. Give it the good old 3-finger salute. Ctl-Alt-Dlt is always the way to reboot when your at a DOS command-line prompt.
0
I would think that the reason it was having difficulty reading drive A was because I took the disk out after getting into DOS. I didn't know what to do at this point, and I took it out of the drive. After calling HP and he couldn't tell me how to get out of DOS, I put the disk back in, but it still kept telling me abort, retry, or fail. The tech finally had me turn off the computer and reset factory defaults in the bios. Since it seems to be functioning correctly, I guess maybe I didn't hurt any settings in DOS. Wouldn't it have asked me if I was sure I wanted to do that if I had given it a command? I loaded something to my documents after this happened just to see if the A drive still worked and i was able to load the information off the disk to my computer. Should I worry about this and if I may have inadvertently messed up a setting or anything? thanks for all you guys help!
0
I don't think you messed up with something...
Your floppydrive still works, maybe you can format the floppy that you used for the norton-stuff to be sure.
Normally, you can't mess up much in dos, especially if you don't know any commands.
You should type format c: or del *.* or something to mess it up. The "/" that appeared on the screen are normal if you press escape. this is where you would type the commands. But as you didn't type anything, nothing happened.
That thing with the abort,retry or fail, If I see this, just put a floppy in the floppydrive and press f from fail. If that doesn't work, try a. r wont help much.Hope you now see that you didn't do much in dos.
Johan
0  |
 can't connect to internet...
|
defrag win me cause crash
|
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
