System restore - System crash

Question

I had a problem with my Outlook Express program. I tried everything with it, but I couldn't start it (OE encountered program, so it will close). I tried to copy out the deleted e-mails.dbx from the folder to the desktop, but it has crashed all of my things, which was on the desktop. Then I tried system restore (from the start menu), but it has crashed my computer. Now when it tries to get to the Welcome screen, it is everytime restart. What can I do? Please help me!

Answer 1

The first and most important thing for you to do is back up all your important files before you do anything else.

It sounds to me like your Hard Drive may be dying. In a situation like this it is almost always better to back up and be safe regardless of whether or not the drive is bad. Basically, it is better to be safe than sorry.

So here are a few things that I would try, before doing any sort of Windows troubleshooting:

• Attempt booting into safe mode, at least initially, to recover the files. I wouldn't try to do this more than a few times because it potentially could be causing the health of the HDD to be deteriorating further.

• If you are not able to get the drive to boot in order to copy your files off, try booting to a Linux Live CD like Knoppix and attempt to recover data that way.

• There are tools out there on the internet to check if this is true or not, my personal favorite is one called Drive Fitness Test. Download and burn that to a CD if you have another working computer. Run this tool on the computer that is crashing to determine if the drive is actually going bad.