Complete reinstall/recover

[khill75462]

Not sure if it's called restore or recover, but my Win7 crashed and the recovery was not successful.  Have been told I need to do the whole recover back to factory defaults.  Crash occurred when trying to download updates from Dell Support, but they seem to be unwilling to make an on-site appt. and could not fix via phone.  My computer is  under warranty until the end of November!  My question is:  Will the contacts & folder contents that are in Yahoo be saved?  Yahoo is about the only function that still works.  I lost all Word documents, Roboform (with all my log-ins and pw's), pictures.  Can't find a Yahoo link to ask them!  Needless to say, I'm most unhappy, particularly since I'll now have to pay someone to reinstall everything!  But, if I can save my email data, that's better than losing everything!  Thanks, all.  K

[soybean]

Will the contacts & folder contents that are in Yahoo be saved? 

By "folder contents", I presume you mean email messages.  Yes, those will not be lost since they are on a Yahoo server, not on your computer. 

Crash occurred when trying to download updates from Dell Support, but they seem to be unwilling to make an on-site appt. and could not fix via phone.  My computer is  under warranty until the end of November!

I think Dell's response is inadequate and unacceptable.  Your computer is still under warranty and they should do whatever is required to fix your computer.  I'd contact them again and be VERY persistent.

[khill75462]

Well, I do appreciate both your responses!  Thank you.  It's a relief to know that at least the contents of my folder (yes, emails) will be saved. 

I agree that Dell's response is pretty inadequate (I have a better word, but won't use on a public forum).  I tried to send them additional emails regarding the subsequent problems that I kept finding all the next couple of days (after the "crash" - each time I'd try to use a different program, i.e., Word, find something in favorites, etc., I'd find that they'd disappeared), but the emails are being returned.  I'm using the reference number that I was given, so unless they think that each email is a different issue, and that I should call each time, I don't know what the problem is.  I do not have a prejudiced bone in my body, but when I try to receive instructions from outsourced dialects, especially when I'm not very confident about what I'm dealing with, it makes me so nervous that I don't know if it's worth it. 

I did (don't laugh), send a hand-written (since I can't use Word) letter to Michael Dell this a.m.  I'm totally confident that it will never reach his desk, and if it did, he'd do nothing about it, but it made me feel better to write it & tell him what I thought about his Customer Service.  I also found a couple of email addresses when I googled, but seriously doubt that they're correct ~ or even deliverable.

Anyone out there have a direct line to Michael Dell?  Thanks again.

[khill75462]

Have had numerous telecons with Dell over the past few days.  Will have to do a system reinstall tomorrow, but do have one final question:  Dell has indicated to me that the only way data could be lost is a virus.  I'm running the McAfee program that came with the computer and am very diligent about keeping everything current.  Is it true that a virus would be responsible for all my data loss?  Thanks.

[soybean]

Is it true that a virus would be responsible for all my data loss?  Thanks.

While not very likely but, yes, it is possible for that to happen.  Usually, a virus will interfere with the normal operation of a computer rather than destroy data, but, again, they can delete data, as stated in this reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/129972.  An excerpt is quoted below:

"What is a computer virus?
 A computer virus is a small software program that spreads from one computer to another computer and that interferes with computer operation. A computer virus may corrupt or delete data on a computer, use an e-mail program to spread the virus to other computers, or even delete everything on the hard disk."

However, since you say you have McAfee and have kept it up-to-date, that makes me wonder whether hard drive failure, or some other hardware failure, was the cause of your crash.  If that's the case, it should come to light when you attempt system restore.  I presume you meant that that will be done with assistance from Dell. 

[khill75462]

It will be a system reinstall, as I understand.  We've tried recover without success...2-3 times, with and without assistance from Dell.  Dell did offer in the latest phone call to do the reinstall via phone, but since I'll need someone anyway to install the other programs that will be lost when system is taken back to factory default, figured it'd be better to have one person do it all, rather than the left hand wondering what the right hand did.  It's literally made me sick to my stomach to have lost everything - Medicare, my Mom's nursing home stuff, all correspondence for the past several years (transferred from old computer when I got this new laptop last November), log-ins and pw's, pictures, music, estate forms and info, etc., etc.   

If I understand my computer guru who's going to do the reinstall, I think you try first with a disk partition, then if that's not successful, use the set of disks that I ordered from Dell when I got the computer.  I so appreciate all the help that Computer Hope has offered.  thanx.

[khill75462]

When I checked my profile just now I noticed that it shows my OS as XP.  I can't figure out how to change it to Win7.  Help, please?

[patio]

Before you wipe everything See Here...

Some Dell CD's/DVD's allow a Repair Install...some do not.
But a Repair install retains all your data and apps...
Worth a shot.

[khill75462]

Everything is already wiped out!  It's really strange.  The folders are still there, but when I try to retreive a file from that folder), I get message that it's not there.  I wish I knew proper tech language better (I see that you have a "genius" rating), but I'm just sort of stumbling around and hoping that my guru can fix it! 

[soybean]

Everything is already wiped out!  It's really strange.  The folders are still there, ...

Those remarks seem like a contradiction.  If everything is wiped out, you'd see nothing, neither files or folders.  If you still have folders, how are you seeing them? 

If I had your computer, here's what I would do.  Since I have Linux Ubuntu on a CD and since Ubuntu can be run from a CD/DVD drive without actually installing it on the hard drive, I would run Ubuntu in that mode, called Live CD, and, by doing that, I could browse search for files on the hard drive and, if found, I could copy them to a flash drive. 

You may be totally unfamiliar with anything in the Linux arena so I'll just say that Ubuntu is a non-Microsoft Operating System which, again, can be run in Live CD mode.  But, if you know nothing about it, trying this approach may be unrealistic. 

[khill75462]

Sweetie, I'm unfamiliar with Microsoft ~ let alone Linux!  I truly wish I had the computer lingo to more throughly explain what I'm trying to convey, but alas, I was in my 60's before I started using computers and the old mind just couldn't/wouldn't retain/learn/expand!

Basically, whenever I click on something (let's say a desktop icon that shows "cleanup tools"), it will show Glary Utillities, CCleaner, Auslogics defrag, Malwarebytes, etc).  Then, when I click on one of those I get "Integrator.exe - System Error" with explanation red X The program can't start because rtl70.gpl is missing from your computer.  Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem".  That's what I get with Glary, but it's similar with all.

I had all my passwords and log-ins on Roboform and lost those.  Doing the *.RFP shows no results in search.  Also missing lots of .dll's when I try other programs.  In my favorites list, it shows the folders, but when I try to expand the folder and click  on a file within those folders, I get zilch....i.e., nothing shows up although I might have had numerous files within that folder.

Help any at all?

[khill75462]

Sage, I checked out that link, and will certainly refer the guru who's going to do the reinstall to it, but there's no way I'd attempt it myself.  Appreciate the concern and help, though.  Thanks.