My old PC crashed I suspect due to a virus. It's O/S is Win ME. The problem I'm having is I'm trying to make a rescue CD from my laptop which runs XP. The rescue disk PROGRAM I got from McAfee won't open on XP to create the files on the CD! I also can't use my Norton Disk on my PC because it came with the laptop and will only boot on an Acer!! I really need to get my pix off the old computer if I can't fix it is there a possibility of copying my pix from ms-dos onto a CD? Any help will be appreciated. Prior to system crash I'd suspected something was amiss and tried running AVG but it kept freezing up on me. I had run: defrag, chckdsk, highjackit, disk clean-up, McAfee (my paid VERSION) & a few other programs nothing found but AVG would not run. I also would see an file pop-up during windows booting that file kept popping up I seeked advice and had installed over a few months several tools (which I can't remember all the names because they were on the system I can't boot) to try and chase this unknown down but nothing picked it up! I also had a firewall in place (not Windows) There's heaps of info. I want to save on there but I don't want to transfer files until I know the system is clean IF I can ever get it back on! oh and we recently moved I have absolutly no idea where my back-ups are!! I get as far as Safe Mode but once there I can't do anything. Shoudl I try through MS-DOS? Sorry I either need more coffee or less... All I want for now is to make a rescue OR boot disk from my laptop XP to use on my PC winME... then I'll address the other problems. I would start with a boot disk http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

BTW, ewwwwww, Windows ME is about as stable as a crack addicted monkey, which probably isn't very stable LOL,


ViperThx LMAO yeah, but I can't complain the system is nearly 6yo and never played up before except in the last couple of months. I tried one of the boots from that site and got a message on my computer that it wasn't a valid win32 file & to insert a system disk instead? :-? I did notice another download further down I'll try that one... meanwhile any other suggestions... & yeah the old PC is going to be for the kids (2yo & 4yo) should do them a couple of years. If those don't work try http://www.allbootdisks.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=42&func=fileinfo&parent=folder&filecatid=39
or
http://www.mybootdisks.com/getnow.asp?file=winme.exe

I would just see if you can get back to windows, but 2 questions:

1 what is your anti virus?
2 when was it last updated?


ViperThe word "crashed" has a lot of different meanings. What exactly does your computer do? What error messages? What make/model and hardware? What do you have that you can back up to if it gets running - a CDRW? Pen Drive? Network?Hi GX1, it's a P111 Celeron, 1ghz, HDD is a 30 GB Seagate Series 5, 256MB RAM. I have a CDW & a plain CD slaved. I also have a pen drive. I have an empty 80GB HDD somewhere which hasn't been formatted, I also have a SCSI somewhere but don't have a SCSI cable so rule that one out. Yep the major problem is my stuff is scattered everywhere in boxes.

I believe that I have a virus, as my system was running smoothly for nearly 6 years & I did regular maintenance routines on it.

OK the problem started a few months ago, I was hospitalised for a few days, upon my return home I found the computer was on, but monitor was off! When I turned the monitor on I could see 3 windows open: Outlook,Thomas the tank engine and explorer the SCREEN was frozen so I believe my 4yo was on there got on-line without Firewall on, then when it froze turned the monitor off and walked away (I'm hoping it was my 4yo & not hubby!)

By crashed I mean: When it was booting up and got to Windows it would then freeze up within a minute so a re-start was needed. When I re-started I would do Ctrl+Alt+Del and see what was loading and I found an: file that's the Name it showed on the screen including those brackets which I stopped, It popped back 3 times I stopped it 3 times and then the system would run. At which point I tried running an on-line scan from MAfee & Norton (NOT at same time) but neither would complete the scan & system would freeze up. I tried creating a Emergency boot disk from my laptop but for the life of me I can't find how to find it with XP!! The option is no longer under Control Panel-Add/remove Programs which used to have a tab there. I also couldn't make the rescue disks work as they were made for floppies and I couldn't de-compress the files for burning on the CD (on laptop I have a DVD burner but no floppy drive)

I have: AVG, Sygate Personal firewall, Ad-aware, AVERT Stinger + more which I can't remember right now.

All programs up to date except the last few days AVG would NOT run or update (which is why I suspect a virus.)

I found a site yesterday & made an Emergengy Boot CD from there. However it's been ages since I've worked in MS-DOS can't remember all my switches or the order they LOL. http://www.simtel.net/category.php[id]42[SiteID]simtel.net I chose the first one.

The CD includes many features including scandisk surface scan,Fdisk, msdos prompt, another which I can see the tree ect... boot disk files i.e. IO, config.sys
I checked the HDD for errors & it came up clean (again comfirming that problem is likely a virus)

So I can see the files I want I just can't remember the switches commands to do it. I tried (please don't laughat me) c:\mdocuments\mypictures\(file name) /c d: Which i thought was: from source, specified file, copy to destination but I'm obviously forgetting something??

OK as for getting into Windows, with the CD I get a message saying Registry files cannot be found and then it loads and freezes in safe mode which requires a cold reboot. *SIGH* OK last thing is that I'm in New Zealand on SLOW dial-up (even broadband is slow here like 40x times slowly than in the States!) So it's really hard to get some of the downloads unless they are small files! It's also morning here and I need more coffee Hahaha Sorry for the book but I'm really stuck and with the kids I can only work at this part-time and can't do all nighters on here anymore to get it sorted. I appreciate any help
Well personally I would use a Linux Live CD and copy the files to a pen drive, across a network, burn them to CDRW, etc.
Here is a small one, which should do nicely. Just burn the ISO with Nero, etc.

http://www.slax.org/

Boot with the Slax CD and burn with your CDRW. After you save your files, you can format the drive and reinstall Windows. will give it a. go, when I get back, will let you know if it worked Oh it will work just fine and you will be very impressed. Just burn the ISO, don't try to copy the files and make sure the BIOS is set to boot from CD first.

We'll await your post back. Quote

I would start with a boot disk http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

BTW, ewwwwww, Windows ME is about as stable as a crack addicted monkey, which probably isn't very stable LOL,


Viper