Six Windows 7 Nightmares (and How to Fix Them)


Compared with its predecessors, Windows 7 is remarkably secure and dependable. It's far from perfect, though: An unbootable PC, a nasty piece of malware, or a single but important file gone missing can make you lose days or even months of work. And you can't solve every nightmare by waking up.


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Your PC Won\'t Boot

Your PC Won't Boot


You may already have the DVD. If Windows 7 didn't come with your computer but you installed it yourself, you have the disc. If you don't have it, you can borrow someone else's disc.

Alternatively you can borrow someone else's Windows 7 computer and use it to create a System Repair Disc (you can also do this on your own PC before it has a problem). To create the disc, click Start , type system repair , select Create a System Repair Disc , and follow the prompts.

If your computer won't boot from the CD, go into its setup screen and change the boot order so that the optical or CD/DVD drive comes before the hard drive. I can't tell you exactly how to do this since it differs from one PC to another. When you first turn on the computer, look for an on-screen message telling you to press a particular key 'for setup'.

If your PC fails before you can enter setup or boot from a CD, you have a hardware problem. If you're not comfortable working inside a PC, take it to a professional.

But let's assume that the CD boots. When it does, follow the prompts. Likely the utility will tell you very soon that there's a problem, and it will ask if you want to fix the problem. You do.

If it doesn't ask you, or if the disc can't fix the issue, you'll see a menu with various options. Startup Repair and System Restore are both worth trying.

You Can\'t Access the Hard Drive

You Can't Access the Hard Drive

If Windows can't boot because the PC can't read the hard drive, none of the solutions above will work. But that's not the worst of it: Unless you have a very up-to-date backup , all of your files are locked away on a possibly dead hard drive. Secondary drives you don't boot off of, both internal and external, also can die with important data locked away on them.

If the drive is making noises that you've never heard before, shut off the PC immediately. In that case you have only one possible solution, and it's expensive: Send the drive to a data-retrieval service. Drivesavers and Kroll Ontrack are the best known, although they're not necessarily better than smaller, cheaper companies. Expect to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars. If your drive sounds OK, however, you may be able to recover the files for only $70 with GetData's Recover My Files .

If the sick drive is the one you use to boot Windows, you'll have to remove it from the PC and access it on another computer. You can do so by making it a secondary drive in a desktop PC, or by using a SATA-USB adapter such as the Bytecc USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter Kit .

The free, demo version of Recover My Files will show you which files can be recovered and even display their contents. Once you've paid the $70 license fee, the program can copy the files to another drive. If that doesn't work, you'll need to use a retrieval service.

Blue Screens of Death Attack Your PC Regularly

Blue Screens of Death Attack Your PC Regularly

Windows 7 keeps logs of "Stop Errors." To view the logs and make sense of them, download and run BlueScreenView , a free, portable program by NirSoft. The program shows you what drivers were running at the time of the crash, and highlights the likeliest suspects. If the same drivers come up from multiple crashes, you should definitely update them.

Speaking of updating drivers, you should make sure that all of them are current. SlimWare Utilities' free SlimDrivers makes this chore remarkably easy, as it scans Windows and lists which drivers need to be updated. If you register (that's free, too), it will find the drivers and run the update for you. It even offers to create a restore point before each update. Don't update all of your drivers at once, however; if you do, and one of them makes things worse, you'll have a tough time figuring out which one.

Frequent BSoDs can also be a sign of hardware problems, especially bad RAM. Although Windows 7 has its own memory-diagnostics program, I prefer the free Memtest86+ , which you have to boot separately. You can download the program either as an .iso file--from which you can create a bootable CD--or as an .exe file that will install the program and its bootable operating system onto a flash drive.

No One Has the PC\'s Administrator Password

No One Has the PC's Administrator Password

If the wrong person leaves your company in a huff, one or more PCs could be left stranded. With no one in the company knowing the password to an administrator-level account, you can't install software, change important settings, or possibly access encrypted data.

Fortunately, you can remove the password , letting you log on to that account. You do that with the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor , a bootable, text-based free program that you download as an .iso file. Double-click that file, and Windows 7 will start the process of burning it to a CD.

Boot the CD and follow these instructions. I've put the on-screen prompts in italics. After you type your answer, press Enter .

boot: Just press Enter .

Select: [1] : Above the prompt you'll see a list of hard-drive partitions. Select the right one by typing that number.

What is the path to the registry directory?... : The default is probably correct. Just press Enter .

[1] : 1

What to do? [1] -> : 1

or simply enter the username... : Type the name of the administrator account. If you're not sure what it is, all of the account names are listed above the prompt.

Select: [q] > : 1

Select: ! - quit... : !

What to do [1] : q


New run? [n] : n

# Remove the CD and reboot.

You should now be able to log on to the administrator account without a password. For security purposes, don't forget to create a new password for the account. Just be sure to remember what it is .

You Think Your PC Is Infected

You Think Your PC Is Infected






An Important File Disappears

An Important File Disappears

Your PowerPoint presentation is beautiful. It's perfect. It's...where is it? Click the Start menu , type the file's name, and see what turns up.

Maybe you've renamed it accidentally. Click Start, type a word that's in the presentation but not in many other files, and see if that gets better results. If it pulls up a lot of results, click See more results so that you can sort the found files by date. No luck? Try the Recycle Bin. Maybe you deleted the file.


You don't back up? IAs for the file you need to find today, you'll have to use file-recovery software. Before I discuss specific programs, I need to lay down one absolute rule about using them: Until you've either recovered the file or given up, do not write to your hard drive.



