My Sisters PC = Fubured?

MadGamer · 20-08-2006, 17:31

Hi all having looked at my sisters PC today, i did a virus scan with AVG Free. Now as you may know (the people that use the product) AVG scans key areas of the system, such as the boot sector and the MBR. Now when i looked on screen at the scan i could see that AVG had trouble scanning these and because my sisters PC (our old one) which is an Advent 3309 was shop bought from PC World. Now the PC contains a "Smart Image" or "Ghost Image" if thats what you want to call it, my question is will it still be intact if the Boot sector and the MBR are damaged if i do a reformat?

MovedGoalPosts · 20-08-2006, 19:21

Be careful what you reformat. If you reformat the partition on which windows is installed you may be OK. If you reformat the whole HD, such that you delete partitions you could easily wipe the recovery stuff.

Too late now, but whenever you buy a PC, always get a master CD for reinstalling windows together with driver disks rather than this recovery stuff. As a minimum burn a CD of the recovery files so you can,. as you now need to, mess with the PC without loosing the whole lot.

Make sure you back up everything you can, before you even think of reformatting. But if the HD is on the way out, format may or may not solve the problems even temporarily.

MadGamer · 20-08-2006, 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob C

Be careful what you reformat. If you reformat the partition on which windows is installed you may be OK. If you reformat the whole HD, such that you delete partitions you could easily wipe the recovery stuff.

Too late now, but whenever you buy a PC, always get a master CD for reinstalling windows together with driver disks rather than this recovery stuff. As a minimum burn a CD of the recovery files so you can,. as you now need to, mess with the PC without loosing the whole lot.

Make sure you back up everything you can, before you even think of reformatting. But if the HD is on the way out, format may or may not solve the problems even temporarily.

She has recovery media for the PC so thats not a problem.

Strzelecki · 20-08-2006, 20:03

If you stright format the whole drive then the smart image will be lost. If you want to clear the machine and start again then why not use the smart image (recovery) to do just that? Just pop recovery CD1 into the drive, reboot and boot off that CD . If the smart image is lost then you will need to order an update CD from PC Servicecall on 0870 901 3000, not sure of the prices now it they have stock, ask nffc.

MadGamer · 20-08-2006, 20:35

Im going to use the recovery media, as formatting the drive using the commands will obiously wipe the HD anyway.

20-08-2006, 20:46

I personally wouldnt I would format the drive delete all the bloat and start afresh

MadGamer · 20-08-2006, 21:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I personally wouldnt I would format the drive delete all the bloat and start afresh

I havent got an XP Disk though, anyway it only puts the OS and Cyberlink, Works and Nero back on there

nffc · 20-08-2006, 22:19

Don't do anything yet. There's a way to back up the smart image, i will look for you, if I don't have this info at home i'll look at work tomorrow.

Update CDs to restore the SI are currently ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£30 for licensing, S+H so if you can do it yourself it's easier.

Formatting using the recovery CD should be OK, but always nice to back up the SI. The 3309 uses a different recovery from the 9306.

nffc · 20-08-2006, 22:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I personally wouldnt I would format the drive delete all the bloat and start afresh

What bloat? That's the nice thing about Advents, unlike PB no **** is installed.

20-08-2006, 22:21

thats something at least.

nffc · 20-08-2006, 22:23

To Copy the Smart Image to a CD
1. At the ‘Press R to display system recovery options’, press ‘R’. Once in the System Recovery screen, press ALT + D to access the WinPE command prompt
2. Type COPYSI and hit Enter. This will unhide the smartimage (this may take a few minutes to complete)
3. Return to Windows & copy the contents of the C:\Update CD\ folder to CD (N.B. Do not copy the ‘Update CD’ folder itself). Label this ‘UPDATE CD’.

Then boot from the recovery CD, at the Press R menu press Ctrl+Backspace, then choose options 4, 5 and 7. Then recover, it will ask for an update CD, supply the update CD you created, and it should recover ok.

HTH

20-08-2006, 22:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I personally wouldnt I would format the drive delete all the bloat and start afresh

What bloat? That's the nice thing about Advents, unlike PB no **** is installed.

I must say I have previously bought an Advent & it was much better than PB or E Machines for being relatively 'standard'

nffc · 20-08-2006, 22:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I personally wouldnt I would format the drive delete all the bloat and start afresh

What bloat? That's the nice thing about Advents, unlike PB no **** is installed.

I must say I have previously bought an Advent & it was much better than PB or E Machines for being relatively 'standard'

Emachines. Are ****. Totally useless piles of junk.

v0id · 21-08-2006, 00:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadGamer

I havent got an XP Disk though, anyway it only puts the OS and Cyberlink, Works and Nero back on there

Note down the product key, and install a "borrowed" similar version of XP. Then change it with a MickeySofts keychanger once logged in, and sorted

Skatoony · 21-08-2006, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by v0id

Note down the product key, and install a "borrowed" similar version of XP. Then change it with a MickeySofts keychanger once logged in, and sorted

I wouldn't count on that working as it'll be an OEM key, so it'll only work on a specific OEM XP install.