Windows has decided to systematically stop every file on the computer from working

[ed84c]

Klaynos will enjoy that.

 

However I am now stuck with a problem, thankfully my impatience stopped windows short of destroying everything.

 

Basically it decided all the security id's were wrong and went about setting them to default values in the check disk deely while it boots.

 

Ive googled it, and there are fixes to prevent windows doing it again but not to cycle back all the security ids.

 

Now there is no start menu i have to use task manager to switch between windows, and i cant copy and paste anything or listen to anything (the sound card(s) doesnt exist anymore aparantly).

 

Any ideas to solve this? (Other than formatting and installing linux; I WILL get round to that, but not in the middle of exams ty)

[insane_alien]

boot up a linux live distro, backup all the files. then reinstall windows. if you made a restore point you could try that but it would be doubtful

[Pangloss]

Well you can do that if you want, but it's not due to a flaw in Windows, else everyone would be having the same problem. It's based on something that happened to your computer, either at your instigation or due to a malfunction of some kind.

 

There isn't really enough information here to determine the real issue, but generally speaking issues like this are caused by problems with additional installed software (drivers, anti-virus programs, etc). You can boot Windows in safe mode and typically have access to the data then.

 

If that's insufficient, see if you can describe the problem in greater detail and we'll see what we can do.

[Pangloss]

BTW, did you try to do a reinstallation of Windows already? Your description sounds similar to what happens if you do a reinstallation onto a computer, gave it the same user name, and then wonder why you can't access the files in My Documents. That's by design -- it doesn't know whose files those are. (You're supposed to do a "Repair Installation" off the menu in that situation.) You can access the files for the old user-with-the-same-name by logging in as Administrator and sifting carefully through the Documents and Settings folder.

[Klaynos]

Ed: it's not enjoyable for something like that to happen to anyone.

 

And as Pangloss says it's nearly deffiniately some very strange driver or AV issue.

 

What have you changed recently?

 

If this was me I'd be tempted to backup using a live cd, try to repair the install and if that fails reinstall...

[ed84c]

hmmm well.

 

Nothing has changed by me as far as i recall.

Just check disk came up once decided to check integrity et al. Then it proceeded to "Repalce invalid security ID XXXX with default one" where XXXX is upto 150,000 at which point i got bored and reset.

 

According to microsoft; when you copy a lot of data this may occur. I just reloaded all songs onto my mp3 player ~ 20 GB so that may have had an effect.

 

Also I have not much disk space. Maybe that has an effect. Either way it looks like from your posts ill have to re-install windows.

 

I *just* have enough functionality to keep revising, so ill do it after exams.

 

Cheers for the help anyway.

[Pangloss]

Drive failure? Random error, delete and copy the data again? Those seem to me to be the two main possibilities.

 

Good luck.