The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[Plankton]

Originally Posted by crukster

I damaged my laptop, and after the startup screen I get "Boot from AHCI CDROM: Operating System not found" any key I hit repeats the same thing, if I try recovery on startup I get this message still, the only thing I can access is F2 setup.


Is there anything I can do to have a go at fixing it, or is it physical damage? cheers

Go into your BIOS and set your HD to be the primary boot device.

If that doesn't work you may need to do a startup repair. A quick Gugle should get you going in the right direction.

[crukster]

Cheers guys I changed the bios, I made a recovery disc and run startup repair, so now I've got basic recovery options but the diagnostic says "a hard disc could not be found. If a hard disc is installed, it is not responding."

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by fazstp

Yeah this one was well borked but I don't have any Windows disks to start fresh and he got the laptop off ebay sans disks. He reckons he just clicked on a Facebook link and it killed his computer. It was one of those fake antivirus viruses so I think he mistook it for his own AV software and okayed it without thinking anything of it.

Download/install/run Malware bytes on the machine in regular and safe mode, deleting anything it finds, then download/install/run/do a full startup scan with Avast Antivirus in both regular and safe mode. Delete anything it quarantines.
In both scenarios, let the programs update themselves while connected to the internet, and before running the scans, disable the internet connection.

Both programs are free.
If either/both of them don't solve the problem, get a look at one of the fake antivirus virus popups if possible and google it, as they usually have specific fixer programs for some of the more entrenched viruses like that.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend randomly deleting stuff from the registry unless you are 100 percent certain that the keys you're deleting are not detrimental to the operating system. If you get the virus defeated with the above methods and want to clean the registry, download Ccleaner (free) and run the registry cleaner on it, which will get rid of any issues and keys that don't have any function.

Originally Posted by crukster

Cheers guys I changed the bios, I made a recovery disc and run startup repair, so now I've got basic recovery options but the diagnostic says "a hard disc could not be found. If a hard disc is installed, it is not responding."

In the bios, if you do not see the hard drive listed, the drive is either dead or not connected. If you do, it's possible that the partition table or master boot record on the drive is corrupted.
If you don't see the drive listed, reseat the hard drive and try to boot. If you do see it listed, assuming that the file system is not corrupt on the hard drive, you can connect it to another computer and access it like you would a secondary drive, and salvage any data, then wipe the drive and reinstall an operating system on it.
Also, you can download a program called MsDart or ERD Commander, (not free, but you can get it pretty easily or use a trial version with a 30 day limit) as a .iso, and burn it to a cd (as a bootable cd) and inside the program after you boot to it, there's an option for Disk Management that will let you mount the hard drive and explore it.
If the drive is unmountable, there is a problem with the MBR or partition table. If that is the case, you may still be able to retrieve the data by choosing not to mount the drive but exploring it anyway. If the file system is intact, you will be able to browse the contents and back up any data straight to an external drive.
If you can't even explore the contents of the disk, you're likely not going to be able to retrieve any data, and should just wipe the drive, format it with NTFS, and see if you can access it normally on another computer. If so, then that's your option.
If you can't format it/doesn't show up in Disc Management in Windows, the drive is dead and will serve the rest of its purpose as a paperweight.

Good luck.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Download/install/run Malware bytes on the machine in regular and safe mode, deleting anything it finds, then download/install/run/do a full startup scan with Avast Antivirus in both regular and safe mode. Delete anything it quarantines.
In both scenarios, let the programs update themselves while connected to the internet, and before running the scans, disable the internet connection.

Both programs are free.
If either/both of them don't solve the problem, get a look at one of the fake antivirus virus popups if possible and google it, as they usually have specific fixer programs for some of the more entrenched viruses like that.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend randomly deleting stuff from the registry unless you are 100 percent certain that the keys you're deleting are not detrimental to the operating system. If you get the virus defeated with the above methods and want to clean the registry, download Ccleaner (free) and run the registry cleaner on it, which will get rid of any issues and keys that don't have any function.

Thanks for the tips. I did manage to disinfect my friends laptop but I will look into these. He is running Microsoft Security Essentials but it seems to have a pretty big performance hit and it did allow him to install this virus so I'm not sure it's the best option for him. I don't know that anything will actually stop a virus once you choose to install it though.

I might give these a try on another friend's computer. He has a persistent memory stick virus that has been pretty tough to remove. It auto-installs on any stick plugged into the computer and adds an auto-run to the stick so it infects any other computer it's plugged into.

[crukster]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

In the bios, if you do not see the hard drive listed, the drive is either dead or not connected. If you do, it's possible that the partition table or master boot record on the drive is corrupted.
If you don't see the drive listed, reseat the hard drive and try to boot. If you do see it listed, assuming that the file system is not corrupt on the hard drive, you can connect it to another computer and access it like you would a secondary drive, and salvage any data, then wipe the drive and reinstall an operating system on it.
Also, you can download a program called MsDart or ERD Commander, (not free, but you can get it pretty easily or use a trial version with a 30 day limit) as a .iso, and burn it to a cd (as a bootable cd) and inside the program after you boot to it, there's an option for Disk Management that will let you mount the hard drive and explore it.
If the drive is unmountable, there is a problem with the MBR or partition table. If that is the case, you may still be able to retrieve the data by choosing not to mount the drive but exploring it anyway. If the file system is intact, you will be able to browse the contents and back up any data straight to an external drive.
If you can't even explore the contents of the disk, you're likely not going to be able to retrieve any data, and should just wipe the drive, format it with NTFS, and see if you can access it normally on another computer. If so, then that's your option.
If you can't format it/doesn't show up in Disc Management in Windows, the drive is dead and will serve the rest of its purpose as a paperweight.

Good luck.

Cheers for that man, I already sent it in to get looked at. I'm pretty sure the hard drive is dead, because it was being listed as unknown, but if it comes back unfixed I'll have another go and try that.