Any computer wizards out there who can offer some help???

keets · May 20, 2004 11:01PM

Over the last few weeks I'd been having some problems with my connection and other goofy stuff going on. I had my PC set-up to do regular maintenance, but I tried to go in and do some unscheduled stuff to see if it would help. What i discovered was that I couldn't use system tools like Disk Cleanup, ScanDisk and the Defrag program. A guy at a local shop said I'd probably been hit with a virus so I downloaded everything I could that I thought needed to be saved, rebooted with the recovery disk and upgraded my anti-virus stuff.

Here's the problem-----I can't seem to get my coin inventory to read off the floppy. Is there any way to retrieve it?? There was never a problem reading/writing before. The bummer isn't necessarily that the inventory of what I have is gone, but 4+ years of auction sales are now unavailable plus what/who/how much i paid for my holdings. If it turns out that everything is indeed lost, I'd advise everyone to make a paper copy of stuff, something I hadn't done. I wrongly assumed that two backups to what was on the hard-drive would be sufficient.

Thanks in advance even if I can't recover the info.

Al H.

pontiacinf · May 20, 2004 11:04PM

you actually still use floppy?...anyhow theres plenty of help here as Im an unemployed wiz at the moment...so what your telling me is that the floppy isnt reading anything at all? can you still read other floppies?...have you gone into device manager to see if the floppy drive is listed as working or disabled?

Im going shopping in a few, and will be gone till like 11 am, but if you have big time issues I can call you when I get back and walk you thru some stuff..

let me know al.

CarlWohlforth · May 20, 2004 11:04PM

Can you try to read the floppy from a different computer? Sometimes the floppy drives go bad...

pontiacinf · May 20, 2004 11:06PM

al i misread...did you check the program (coin inv) to see if its trying to read from the floppy or is it trying to access a cd or other drive?

pontiacinf · May 20, 2004 11:07PM

check the programs properties to see where its looking for backup.

rottnrog · May 20, 2004 11:08PM

What format did you save you inventory to floppy with? If it was a program you had downloaded and isn't a standard windows format you will have to reload that program.

keets · May 20, 2004 11:15PM

it was in excel. the drive is working cause i've read other disks. the only thing i can figure is that when i wrote the floppys i did it through a shortcut which is no longer available. does that make sense?? if that's the case i assume all is lost.

hey Bill

i'm a bit retro with my PC!!! i have windows98 and Office95 which sometimes causes me problems when i get documents sent to me. i probably should get a CD-R/RW and eliminate the floppys. the real kicker is that my harddrive is 8 gig and i still have 5 available!!!! the guys at work just laugh at me.

al h.

poorguy · May 20, 2004 11:25PM

keets,

It doesn't sound like you've been hit by a virus. If your computer connection is running ultra-slow and things are "acting up" I'd go and download

Ad-Aware 6.0 from lavasoft.

Ad-Aware 6.0 Download Site

Download it, install it, and click the "Check for Updates" icon to get the latest spyware fingerprints. After it downloads them, do a normal system scan. It'l probably find several hundred tracking cookies and such but if you get alot of "malware" that might be causing you the problems about your PC acting "goofy."

After that I would run windows update and see if there are any critical updates to install. There was a worm virus that was out recently samosa??? dunno but it opens a big hole on your computer for hackers. the critical updates fix it.

About the floppy, there might be a problem. I PM'ed you what to do first. PM me back when you do this.

-Brandon

poorguy · May 20, 2004 11:30PM

Ok, so you are running windows 98? damn. Ok, there aren't any windows updates for that. You've been busted, disgusted, and your PC can't be trusted.

I build computers here at work and as side work. Not a shameless promotion or anything, but you DO need a new computer. I can build you one for 1/4 the price you would have to buy one at DELL or Best Buy or some other sham like that.

anoldgoat · May 20, 2004 11:40PM

keets - Try reading the floppy from Windows Explorer or DOS. Check that it has an xls extension. If so then when in Excel insure you're opening the file on the A: drive.

rlawsha · May 20, 2004 11:43PM

From what I gather, everything is now okay except you can't read a floppy disk that has an Excel file sotred on it. Is the problem that Excel can't read the file or the file can not be copied from the floppy? Leave Excel out of the picture for now. Just try to copy the file from the floppy to the desktop. The best way to do that on a questionable floppy is from a DOS prompt. Click STARt then RUN then type COMMAND. You could also use you MS-DOS prompt icon if you have one. Since you are running Windows Windows 98, get your self to the desktop area by typing CDWINDOWSDESKTOP. your prompt should now say C:WINDOWSDESKTOP> Now insert the floppy in the drive and try to get the file. Assuming the file is names coins.xls type the following: COPY A:COINS.XLS and hit enter. Substitute your actual filename for COINS.XLS in my example. You may get an error that says ABORT, RETRY IGNORE. Abort means forget it, I'm done. RETRY means try it again, this you should do. IGNORE is a bad thing and is only a last resort. IGNORE will get you a garble result as it copies parts of the file and this will not work for Excel Keep trying the retry feature, insert the disk a few times, turn the computer off and on. All these things may help you read that floppy. You only need to read it once and then make a new copy, many of them. After the DOS session is over, type EXIT and hit enter to gewt back into Windows.

poorguy · May 20, 2004 11:46PM

rlawsha,

I think his floppy is just corrupted. Alot of that happens here at work.

I suggested a file recovery program made for removable media such as floppies. If he is still running windows 98. I don't think he should be messing around in DOS.

BadCopy - File Recovery

rlawsha · May 20, 2004 11:50PM

He may not have any trouble with the floppy at all. The file may not even be on the floppy. He mentioned that he worked through a shortcut so it is hard exactly to see what he means. It could be a shortcut on the Desktop to Excel or a shortcut to the data file on a diskette.

Keets, if you go into Windows File Explorer and look at Drive A: what happens and what do you see?

poorguy · May 20, 2004 11:59PM

I'd be willing to bet the shortcut was to the floppy drive.

Although, If it was to a folder on the computer, I'd just use the Search function to find the file.

JrGMan2004 · May 21, 2004 12:06AM

I can't think of anything to try... Sry...

<< <i>Ok, so you are running windows 98? damn. Ok, there aren't any windows updates for that. You've been busted, disgusted, and your PC can't be trusted.

I build computers here at work and as side work. Not a shameless promotion or anything, but you DO need a new computer. I can build you one for 1/4 the price you would have to buy one at DELL or Best Buy or some other sham like that. >>

This is quite true... I'm running on a Biostar MI7VIG Pro Mainboard, Athlon XP 1800+, 256MB PC2100 DDR Ram, 40gig HDD, 56x CD, CD-Burner/DVD-Rom Combo Drive (That's a lot of the cost right there, $150 since I bought it a couple years ago), and a GeForce2 TI 64MB AGP Graphics card. The whole rig, including what I listed above, mouse, keyboard, and other misc stuff like CPU fan and greese, (Without monitor because I had one) cost me about $530 a year ago. Most of the parts were bought wholesale and me and my dad assembled it ourselves. So... if you are interested in a new computer... definately talk to one of us, we'd be happy to hook you up...

poorguy · May 21, 2004 12:29AM

JrGman,

Thats a nice setup. Just for Giggles, here's mine: I actually built it for my wife because she wanted a "Pretty" computer and hers had to be better than mine. The case is aluminum with Red case fan and red rounded IDE lights. I also painted the faceplates of the drives red so it looks pretty tight.

Motherboard: ABIT IC7-G Intel 875 Hyperthreading Enabled Canterwood chipset with 800 FSB
LAN: Gigabit Lan Onboard.
Processor: Intel P4 3.0 Ghz 800 FSB w/Hyperthreading Technology.
Ram: 1 Gigabyte Dual Channel DDR 400 (2 X 512)
Video Card: Powercolor ATI Radeon 9600SE 128MB DDR 400.
Video Input Card: ATI TV Tuner Card RCA/Cable Input. Works well with my security cams.
Harddrives: 250 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM on IDE, 120 GB Western Digital on Serial ATA raid.
Drives: NU 8X DVD-R/RW combo 48X CD-R/RW, Sony 48X CD-R/RW combo 16X DVD-R, Zip 250, and floppy.
Sound: Soundblaster Audigy ZX 7.1 Channel Surround sound with subwoofer and 7 satellite speakers.
Modem: 56k dial-up modem

. Yeah, I know (shut up about it)

The equivalent set-up (using dell parts so it's far from equivalent but as close as possible.) DELL computer costs in the range of $3,000 dollars. I managed to build mine for just over $1,200.00.

I built computers for all of my relatives and their families. About 12 in all. Everyone wanted to pay around $500 for their computers. Everyone is very happy with them. I used AMD processors with Epox motherboards, 256MB ram, Sony 48X CD-R/RW combo 16X DVD-R drive, floppy drive, and 80 GB harddrives with Powercolor Evil-Wizard video cards and DELL brown box monitors and keyboard/mouse setups. Equivalent set-ups from Dell run just over $900.

kranky · May 21, 2004 12:42AM

<< <i>I built computers for all of my relatives and their families. >>

And since doing that typically means you have to provide free lifetime 24/7 tech support, you have my sympathy!

nwcs · May 21, 2004 12:46AM

<< <i> I'm running on a Biostar MI7VIG Pro Mainboard, Athlon XP 1800+, 256MB PC2100 DDR Ram, 40gig HDD, 56x CD, CD-Burner/DVD-Rom Combo Drive >>

Not too bad. Right now I'm on a 3.06 Ghz 1GB memory, 40GB drive system. I miss the old days when I ran a dual 2Ghz server as my primary machine. But I work on servers all day so my development machine doesn't have to be as robust.

poorguy · May 21, 2004 12:50AM

Kranky,

That is absolutely correct. I do consider it a good trade off for experience in dealing with computer related problems, troubleshooting user-related errors, and actually building the computers.

I have never had a computer which I built need any hardware support since I started building them. I have however had to "teach" people basic computer skills, how to use Microsoft Office Producs, Scan pictures, Print, get pictures off of digital camera media, burn cds, play dvds, ect.

I think it is fun. I am only computer nerd in both my wife's family and my own.

maddogale · May 21, 2004 12:51AM

Al, for what it is worth, it sounds like you leave your computer on all the time from you statement concerning task scheduling. Running Win98 (or anything before win2K) I would advise you to shut the system down every night or at least once a week. Windows is notorious for "dirtying" up RAM with previously closed programs that leave instructions stored on the RAM. After a while, most of your RAM can be occupied with "garbage" making the system slow. Spybots and other web based "crapola" can also mess your system up. Nothing wrong with running 98, but you realize Microsoft no longer is supporting that OS with updates and such. Sounds like you have plenty of help with the floppy fiasco. Good luck!!

JrGMan2004 · May 21, 2004 12:52AM

I want this case!

$121 at www.tcwo.com

Definately prefer the above case, but I wouldn't mind this one and pimpin it out with lights and accesories...

$174 at same...

poorguy · May 21, 2004 1:05AM

maddogale has a very good point. Early versions of windows had very bad problems called Memory Leakage.

Memory leakage is when a program has allocated portions of the ram for run-time operations and never de-allocates the ram when the program is finished with the allocated memory. If you had a program use 10 mb (which is alot if it's not a photo program) and you only have 128 mb of ram and your system used up 80 mb of ram, just by running the program, you have used up 90 mb of a 128 mb ram system. Open and close the program several times, and windows will act "goofy" until you re-boot the system. Windows also used something called virtual memory which was also kinda underdeveloped for windows 98. Instead of using physical ram for the allocation needed by programs, windows directed the program to use space on the hard-drive for run-time operations. This made the computer run slower on older systems that had slow hard-drives.

nwcs · May 21, 2004 1:08AM

>maddogale has a very good point. Early versions of windows had very bad problems called Memory Leakage.

Non NT-lineage versions of windows had memory problems. And some NT-lineage ones as well. XP really helped a lot by getting rid of the last bit of DOS.

poorguy · May 21, 2004 1:11AM

I agree, I was a Windows 2000 user until windows XP came out. I happen to like it almost as much as Linux.

JrGMan2004 · May 21, 2004 1:29AM

They say XP is 100% compaitable with XP... but I don't think so... I've had some heat problems since changing to XP... maybe I should get one of those new Coolermaster JET CPU fans...

Fragmentum · May 21, 2004 1:43AM

Keets,
It sounds like you may have saved the shortcut on your floppy instead of the parent program.
I would do a search on your C:/ drive for the same file name to find the parent program.

keets · May 21, 2004 2:39AM

i was able to recover an old inventory file using the BadCopy program that poorguy suggested, but it wrote it all in binary text. now i have 5,000++ lines i need to figure out how to convert to Excel or something else that's useable!!!

al h.

maddogale · May 21, 2004 2:51AM

George, if you want to pimp your case out, maybe you need to try this.....Cooling Then again, maybe one of those "phase change" units for your processor....

can you say A/C??

meos1 · May 21, 2004 3:32AM

In a previous post Poorguy writes:

Memory leakage is when a program has allocated portions of the ram for run-time operations and never de-allocates the ram when the program is finished with the allocated memory. If you had a program use 10 mb (which is alot if it's not a photo program) and you only have 128 mb of ram and your system used up 80 mb of ram, just by running the program, you have used up 90 mb of a 128 mb ram system. Open and close the program several times, and windows will act "goofy" until you re-boot the system. Windows also used something called virtual memory which was also kinda underdeveloped for windows 98. Instead of using physical ram for the allocation needed by programs, windows directed the program to use space on the hard-drive for run-time operations. This made the computer run slower on older systems that had slow hard-drives.

While it is possible to be such a feable programmer as to not deallocate memory when cleaning up. The vast majority of these leaks occur when a range is allocated, say 10M and when the deallocation is perfromed only 9M is returned leaving a 1M "leak". This is usually encountered in a language like C or C++ but I have seen people manage to make this occur in almost every language with minor exceptions.

As for virtual memory. Its been around since the beginning of time and is still present. In unix is /dev/swap. Its a performance increase because it allows a near live copy of the memory location to maintain and reinstated as needed. This prevents the system buss requests for service to read the drive, write to mem, and then load onto the processor. When access to swap occurs the memory locations are placed back into memory and other non-used locations placed into swap. By avoiding the multicycle operation of disk read, file system access, handle creation, transfer to memory and the rereading that occurs we have a small perfromance increase.

Enjoy,

Dan

dbldie55 · May 21, 2004 3:35AM

XP is a piece of crap when it comes to memory management. 2000 is soooo much better than XP for this.

DominusDeus · May 21, 2004 3:49AM

I'm fairly certain that XP's memory management is the same as 2000's, given that they both use the NT core (2k is NT 5.0, XP is NT 5.1). If i were given a choice between 2k and XP, I would probably chose 2k simply for the reason that I am used to that OS, though I can use XP fine and dandy. Windows Server 2003, however... is excelent.

Also, if you're going to use an NT based OS, ALWAYS use the NTFS file system... I would assume your XP eXPerience sucked due to XP being installed on a FAT32 drive... If it WAS an NTFS drive, I would assume something else was wrong with the computer and/or a bottleneck was present.

Currently, I have two PC's hooked to a router to make a small LAN...

first (and primary) computer is a P3 @ 733 MHz, 256 MB PC133 SDRAM, 8 MB video card, 80+20 GB HDD, 40x and 4x CDRW.
2nd computer is a P3 @ 1.35 GHz (OC'd from 1.2 GHz), 512 MB PC133 SDRAM, Radeon 7000 64MB DDR RAM video card, 80+40GB HDD, 4x DVD-RW, 4x DVDROM.

both on 17" monitors. Primary is running Windows 2000 professional with sp4, 2nd pc is on Windows 98se, both installed onto 5 GB partitions, with norton ghost backups on seperate 10 GB partitions.

As for the floppy disk problem... it sounds like it has been corrupted, in which case, sorry for your loss. It also sounds like you've accidentally saved a shortcut to the actual file to the floppy, and deleted the actual excel file. In which case, if you havent emptied the recycle bin, or used Shift+Del (which will bypass the recycle bin), check the recycle bin for the origonal file. If it is in the bin, it can be restored. If you've emptied the bin, the deleted data CAN be recovered, so as long as you don't do a lot of downloading and file moving. The data that isn't in the bin has been marked on the drive that it is "safe" to be written over, so moving and downloading files will write over the existing file data on your hard drive. You can buy programs to recover files, or send them to a lab, which is extremely pricey.

dbldie55 · May 21, 2004 3:56AM

My XP is on a NTFS file system. Everyone I know has the same problems with XP. This is why all of our computers at work run Win2k, even though they are brand new and would normally come with XP Pro. Maybe it is a problem with Dell.

DominusDeus · May 21, 2004 3:58AM

[sarcasm]Dude, you've got a Dell?[/sarcasm] Yes, I would indeed say the problem is with the Dell... Could also be bad RAM, either onboard or modules, or it could also be an unstable install.

dbldie55 · May 21, 2004 4:10AM

<< <i>[sarcasm]Dude, you've got a Dell?[/sarcasm] Yes, I would indeed say the problem is with the Dell... Could also be bad RAM, either onboard or modules, or it could also be an unstable install. >>

Every install! I am sure I could replace my XP with linux and never reboot again. The other problem with XP is the stupid WPA, I tried to swap HD's to a bigger one, and it would not allow me to log in. I took the bigger HD and put it in my 2000 machine and did a dual boot with linux.

My little one person LAN consists of 4 linux boxes, 1 FreeBSD, 1 Solaris, 1 Win2kserver, 1 2000, 1 XP and my laptop which is a dual boot Win2k/linux.

DHeath · May 21, 2004 4:11AM

Al, most of the old Dos based recovery programs just read sectors from the floppy using the entries from the hash table, and store the results as text. For grins, make a copy of your recovered file, and rename it to the original filename and extension. Then open it with Excel.

JrGMan2004 · May 21, 2004 4:16AM

Win2k is much better in the work enviornment than WinXP... I was an aide to the Network Administrator at school this past year. She only got a couple new computers this year, since she was focusing on a bigger need, infrastructure... but the ones she got came with WinXP. We had so many more problems with getting things set-up with XP than with Win2k... and I think that in general, Win2k was designed more as a Workstation OS than XP.....

Any computer wizards out there who can offer some help???

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