CRASH! Part 2

If you've been along for the blog ride, you've already seen CRASH! Part 1, in which I described the Great Computer Crash. It was not pretty. It involved a virus taking out my winload.exe file, which pretty much means that unless you fix it, you now have a very expensive paperweight.

Well, after discovering that the recovery disk (that HP made me make because it wanted to save maybe 18 cents by not supplying one) did not work, I checked out the HP site for support. I hoped they would have an easy fix. Yes, I know that was probably a delusional thought, but one can always hope. After searching the site for some time, it appeared my only option was to buy a recovery disk at $10 (plus shipping and handling), because a missing winload.exe file now constituted a 'problem', and HP will sell the disk to you if you 'have a problem'. I could also wait 7-10 business days for it to get delivered because I hate paying overnight charges. Well, that was entirely too long for this gaming Geeky Mom. I can be patient, but I'm not into suffering internet withdrawal.

Now, I could use the desktop, but that would involve kicking hubby off of his Oblivion game or the Terry Goodkind forum, neither of which he really wants. Sweet husband that he is, he would do it if he had to, but I didn't want him to suffer withdrawal, too. The laptop was very considerate in the timing of its crash, and it broke down while Jimbo was at work so that I could use the desktop to look up possible solutions. How's that for geeky--sitting at a desktop with the laptop on my lap at the same time.

Of course, fixing it meant going to the Lucasforums' General Tech Discussion forum, which is a far more debonair-geek name than "Help Desk." I figured if anyone would know how to solve this problem, it would be Trusty Friends stingerhs, Astrotoy7, ChAiNz.2da, or any of the other LF computer gurus. While waiting for their replies, I googled "winload.exe problem and my recovery disk won't work". Up popped an HP page on just how to solve the problem. Apparently, this page is so cleverly disguised that HP's own search engine can't find it. Maybe they should use Google.

So, how to fix the problem on my computer? Hit F11. That's it. One stupid key stroke.

It gave me the option to back up my files. I chose that and drove over to Best Buy to pick up a portable external hard drive. I discovered an 80 Gb hard drive costs about the same as a 4 Gb flash drive. Apparently, the 4Gb on the flash drive are gold-plated or something to make it that expensive. Well, I got home, plugged it in, and saved the files to the external hard drive. I F11'd the viruses into oblivion as I reformatted the drive.

Then all I had left was to reload the saved files. Did that work? I'll give you two choices, and the answer is not yes....