What's up folks. Just got a call from my Dad. His computer is really acting up. R2K, if you can help me out, I'd appreciate it. Basically, he said his computer boots up to the "enter profile" on XP. Once you click on either one, it says that there is not enough memory to log on and they'll assign a temp ID. Then it says application failed to initialize. 0X800106BA. A problem caused windows defender not to start. Next pop-up is low disk space warning, and everytime you try to clear that up, it eats even more space. He still has access to internet. 145 gig computer is now showing 5 megs of space. Any advice?
As of now, we're more concerned about getting the computer back up and running rather than saving anything. Is there a program to reformat/reinstall?
The Windows Installation disc really should be all you need to get it formatted (NTFS). But, in the case that it doesn't do the trick, and you have a damaged boot sector or partition or something, Norton PartitionMagic is a good utility for moving/resizing those partitions and such. There's also Maxtor Maxblast for some reliable formatting.
He's got the XP home edition. There are several disks. Do you know which one reformats/reinstalls? And do you just put it in when you boot up, or do you need to do something specific? As of now, he's seeing if he can save anything prior to doing this.
I got a little spare time I can use, but not much. Is it a big rush? If not...bring it on. you know where Im at. I can easily save the data, but cant guarantee not having to reinstall in the end....so be sure to bring the disks. Did I forget to answer your last email? Im not at my main machine right now so I cant check , but I thought I remembered.
No worries, bro. My Dad said he just has some Word docs he wants saved, so if he can do that, he'll be good. He did find the formatting disk. Should he be able to reformat the computer with that? If not, you'll definitely be getting an email!
I cant say for sure if that disk will allow him to repair the install. Some will and some wont. try to start the install from within windows and see if it gives you an option to repair the install. I dont have alot of experience with XP Home (tons with Pro), so Im not positive what it will allow. if that doesnt work, save the files you need and boot from the install cd to start the reinstall...let it wipe out the existing partitions and redo them and format to help ensure nothin viruslike survives. if it ends up being too much...holla.
I'm going to take a shot in the dark here and say that your dad might have a virus infected computer that turned it into a zombie that is serving out viruses. It's to a point where the viruses are taking up too much space, which isn't allowing him to log on to his profile. I've seen this a couple of times with kid's (teenagers) computers that run limewire.
and you would be right. the space problem is more than likely occuring from a virus who's specific purpose is to write a bunch of garbage files to eatup all the space on the computer. it probably is also serving copies of itself, but that doesnt take space since it just sends out copies of itself iirc.
