Software still installed and intact yet not usable in any way, why?

November 13, 2009

Lets start from the top:

I was using my computer as I normally would have. Same thing, different day.

My windows got corrupted and was unable to boot. I inserted my windows XP SP2 disk and attempted to repair the windows installation yet the disk recognized the drive as practially annihilated so i’d need to reformat.

Defiance is my middle name.

I decided to delete the windows folder manually (long story made short) then continue with a fresh installation.

I’ve done so but now when I boot up, I still have all my files, games, programs, and everything intact YET things like my drivers, and installed programs set to run on startup do not appear.

For instance: I have Office XP, but my computer acts as if I don’t have it on my computer. I have zonealarm firewall, yet that does not start up.

I figured that it was the USER that was the problem, yet there’s no way to log onto it via the "switch user" option.

Help?
what i i ment by t by i have zone alam firewall but it doesnt start up was that it is supposed to start up when you boot up but it doesnt
besides having to reinstall everything (which can be done easily but will be a time conusming task) is there a rememdy which i’ll be able to salvage this mess?

My 1TB EHD is acting up (symptoms inside); Can you help identify the problem/solution?

September 3, 2009

Hi, TLDR below.

Hard drive took a little spill off the desk the other day. I plugged it in, a few beep noises came FROM the HD, not the computer, and now it isn’t loading up when I try going into it. I hear the disc(s) inside running smoothly and there isn’t any abnormal sounds (other than the beeping when I first plugged it in).

Every once in awhile, it will boot up very, very slowly. Other times, it will show the make shift directories I made inside the Terabyte but nothing inside them. And as of now, it will say it is unable to find or load up the HD.

So what sort of problems am I looking at here? Is there any way I can back up some of the criteria on the HD? Is there a type of diagnostic software I can use, buy, download to scan for problem and solutions?

It is under warranty, but I would hate for me to ship it out and lose all my files without at least doing my best to fix it myself. I plan on reformatting it if I can get an unfortunate solid answer of not being able to salvage my stuff. If that doesn’t work, then I suppose I’ll just send it in.

TLDR version: HD is beeping, discs sounds like they’re running fine. HD not booting up. Has weird nature to it, sometimes it loads (very slowly) sometimes directory doesn’t exist. Need help

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