Samsung Recovery Tool

[Guest jsa12]

if a programs reappeared after using the recovery partition its likely to have been bundled with the computer,try removing it in safe mode.

[SOD'EM]

Thanks both. It was already installed as part of the bundle. I have Googled 'can't uninstall Netintelligence', and have found that many people have had the same problem. I have asked the company I bought it from to remind me of my username and password. If they give me that info, I can log in and get the uninstall password from their support section. The laptop was a Home Access laptop, and all preinstalled programs have been Government approved. They were designed for childrens learning, so I can understand why they monitor childrens activities online. Unfortunately, that program goes a bit too far when it comes to browsing safety. I have ended the process in the Task Manager, but it just restarts itself a few seconds later. Deffo Bloatware though.

[andydd]

Revouninstaller is certainly a good option but it is worth trying to get the password, etc and at least try and uninstall it properally.

 

You should be able to stop, try looking in Services, MSconfig (and the Services & Startup tabs)to see if you recognise anything that can be stopped.

 

A more drastic program is HiJack This ! which lets you kill/stop all sorts of nasties but it is easy to destroy vital windows services so you have to be careful.

 

Andy

[SOD'EM]

Got the password, and got rid of Netintelligence. Thank God. That program is one pain. Was using Firefox 3.6, but it kept on crashing every time I visited the National Express website. I have just downloaded (and am using) Firefox 4 beta. It will let me visit National Express, but I don't like the new layout. Will stick with it though because I much prefer Firefox.

 

Oh well. I knew it was too good to be true. Lost internet connection this morning, and it was suggested that I restart my laptop (which I did). Exactly the same thing has happened again, only this time the strategy I used last time to restore, has not worked. The Samsung Recovery Tool doesn't work again either. I managed to get it to work last time by using Hirens Boot Disc. I am just doing a disc test at the moment, and it is already saying (about half way through the test) Warning: Incorrect number of heads/cylinder 16 (NTFS) !=255 (HDD).

 

I haven't got a clue what it means, but it can't be good. There are lots of options on Hirens Boot Disc when loaded, and maybe I am not doing the same option as last time (I can't remeber exactly which one I done that worked). But I have retried nearly all options. Any experts on Hirens that can advise will be greatly appreciated, although I feel this is irreversible now and I may have to take advantage of the warranty before it runs out.

 

Back to square one.

[dx100uk]

you sure that HDD is properly detected in the bios

there is no way you should be getting Warning: Incorrect number of heads/cylinder 16 (NTFS) !=255 (HDD).

 

that means its not detected in the bios correctly

 

has someone been fiddling, that would explaim all the HDD issues!!

 

take the HDD out of the lappy

 

boot it into bios

 

hit load defaults option

save and exit the bios

 

shut the PC down

 

put the HDD back in

 

power the lappy

go into bios

 

on the std 1st screen make sure it has auto detected the HDD

 

then make sure SMART is enabled

 

dx

[locutus]

I'd also add, once you get it running again a full HDD scan, be it "chkdsk c: /f /r" from command prompt or scandisk with all options ticked is highly advised.

[andydd]

I'd also add, once you get it running again a full HDD scan, be it "chkdsk c: /f /r" from command prompt or scandisk with all options ticked is highly advised.

 

It is unlikely the BIOS settings would of changed but it is possible (I once had a problem with a bonkers BIOS that was because the motherboard battery was flat and it kept losing its settings).

 

A more obvious reason woulkd be the hard drive is screwed, if it is physically damaged no amount of software fiddling will fix it, HD's do have a life span and sometimes new ones to die (and get very ill first !).

 

But as suggested try and do a chkdsk, either by getting onto the pc by any means, be it safe mode, boot disc, Win 7 disc or some kind of Dos boot disc.

 

I'm assuming Windows wont start at all, sometimes windows doesnt start and the next time it automatically tried to go into the recovery mode but an option should appear first to ask you, this PC Im using now does that, but i tell it to try and start windows (again !) and its normally ok.

 

Andy

[SOD'EM]

I have just tried a boot option 'replace missing NTFS' or something and got this message.

 

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

\system32\hal.dll

 

 

Could this be my problem?

 

I don't want to take the hard drive out as it is till in warranty.

[dx100uk]

use a search engine.............

 

 

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Ag4UCtnwJl8hJLpBBlQCqb44hJp4?vc=uk&p=Windows+could+not+start+because+the+following+file+is+missing+or+corrupt%3Ahal.dll&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-702

 

dx

[SOD'EM]

Windows Memory Diagnostic finds no errors.

 

Thanks dx, but I need to find a copy of Win 7 to get the recovery menu to appear.

 

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/hal-dll-missing-windows-7-vista.htm

[dx100uk]

can we stop going off on tangents from the direction we poke you in.........

 

we can never nail you down to do one thing and report back.....

 

what happened with chkdsk please?

 

dx

[SOD'EM]

I can't get a command prompt.

 

I just used Hard Disk Sentinel and it said:

 

There are 7 bad sectors on the disk surface, and there are 67 weak sectors found on the disk surface.

 

There is no options to auto fix this though.

 

I found a scan disc on one of the cd programs, but it says: ScanDisk did not find any problems on drive R.

 

I didn't know I had a drivr R??? Maybe that's the problem. The boot is booting up from the wrong drive.

 

Is this fixable?

[dx100uk]

sod 'em you seem to know as much about pc's as i do about knitting......

 

what is it set to in the bios of the lappy?

 

you do not invalidate any warranty by removing the hdd its got its own access plate just like memory and is supposed to be able to be changed.

 

please do as in post 88

 

dx

[SOD'EM]

I have found a Samsung scan on Hiren's. only one option could find a HDD. Done test and got these results:

 

READ DMA :PASS

CHECK SMART :PASS

SPIN DOWN/UP :PASS

SIMPLE SURFACE SCAN :PASS

WRITE VERIFY :PASS

RANDOM SURFACE SCAN Error : LBA 160317260

Error : LBA 173053319

Error : LBA 159670055

Error : LBA 160778145

Error : LBA 159688724

Error : LBA 160985556

and a dillion other LBA errors.

 

 

I just hope when the scan finishes (which will be in a very long time), it gives me an option to repair the errors automatically.

[andydd]

It would appear that because in effect your PC is a dual-boot one that it has a modified boot sector (allowing it to boot into either Windows 7 or the Samsung Recover Console), explaining the missing hal.dll. Personally I've found these 3rd party consoles (sometimes there is a specila media-only player) a pain in the arse and remove them, (however that is not a simple process).

 

I thought you had a Windows (7) recovery discs ?. This is identicla to the full version but its missing the main Win7 components so can only be used to repair and not install.

 

It really would appear the hard drive is screwed, if its physically damaged then thats it..however there are repair options, bad sectors can be repaired but Im not sure what can be repaired beyond that ?

 

Have you tried Seatools For DOS (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD) ive found it very useful for fixing HD errors, although certain advanced features only appear if it is a Seagate drive.

 

Andy

[SOD'EM]

Results:

 

There are some problems with your HDD. Please contact your dealer or service centre.

 

Service code => AJ36 Bad Sector

 

Ram Verify Test :Pass

Multiple Read Test : Error ocurred Test Loop Number 1.

 

Managed to get a startup repair. Got this result:

 

Startup repair

 

Problem signature:

Event name: startup repair

problem signature 01: 0.0.0.0

Problem signature 02: 0.0.0.0

problem signature 03: unknown

problem signature 04: 0

problem signature 05: unknown

problem signature 06: 1

problem signature 07: unknown

 

OS version 6.1.76002.00256.1

Locale ID 1033

 

Then tried (and this is the first time it would go this far for these options):

 

System Restore (but there was no restore points).

 

Then tried iamage your pc from a disc, but got this message:

The system cannot find the path specified (0x80070003)

 

I now have a command prompt and tried chdsk c: /f /r and chdsk c:/f/r and it says "Cannot open volume for direct access". (I am mot sure if spaces should be there, or wether I need capital letters.

 

Just done chkdsk /r and got this:

 

The type of file system is NTFS.

Cannot lock current drive.

Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

 

 

Does that mean that my HDD has changed to FAT?

[dx100uk]

you need to know the disc letter you want chkdsk to check.

i would assume your HDD would be c:

 

so try:

chkdsk*c:*/f*/r

 

where * is a space.

 

you could also try /b /x

 

and no it wont be an ntfs/fat issue for the locking

and well done any i'd forgotten where i always used to see hal.dll!!

 

ruddy recover partitions!

 

dx

[SOD'EM]

Both of them say "cannot open volume for direct access"??

[andydd]

Sometimes when using boot disks it puts the recovery stuff in C: and the windows volume will be mapped to D: or another, an easy way to find out is to change the drive, ie just type C: or D: or whatever at the command prompt and then type dir/p, this will list the folders and files, the windows volume should be easily recognisable, it will have the following folders program files, users, windows, etc

 

Andy

[SOD'EM]

The CP says " X:\windows\system32> "

 

I have established that Win 7 is now on Drive D: What exactly (including spaces and caps) should I type in command prompt, that I already haven't?

 

Finally got the image discs to work and have reinstalled Windows. How long it will stay that way for though, God only knows. It is back on the C: drive. How the hell did it get on D: drive.

[andydd]

The actual drive letter given can change, as I explained when using certain boot discs and yes sometimes it is mapped to X too.

 

Glad to hear it is finally upand running again, I would make sure you turn on system restore so you can roll it back to a restore point if needed. Id also strongly recomend do a image backup of the whole hard drive (or perhaps just the actual windows partition), you can use the built in backup program in windows 7 or Id recommend a 3rd party program such as Acronis True Image, there are free trial versions available, you can then put the image on a DVD (or 2 or 3) or a better option is on a removable hard drive (you can get quite cheap usb ones from maplin for example), you can then make an Acronis boot discs and restore the whole image if needs be.

 

Id also try and run lots of disc checks now you have got windows running again as it does appear that something is wrong with the HD.

 

Andy

[SOD'EM]

Thanks andy. I do actually have an external HD, but I would need step by step instructions to copy an image onto it.

[dx100uk]

hey you got there at last

sri i had to rush out and fix one of our cctv servers

 

get that beasty up on windows update [after you've installed microsoft security essentials]

and then keep going back till yo've no more update found.

 

to be quite honest

i find making a HDD image is not the best way as you'll always have changes going on and all it will serve as is a factory restore leaving alot else to resinstall or you have to keep making new images.

 

i use the basic and simple built-in backup prog to an external HDD

then set it to do a full back up

then inc back ups along the way [say daily at xxx time]

 

then if if falls over you just pick the full system retore option and it also does the inc's as well.

 

dx

[SOD'EM]

Why can't anything be straight forward for me. lol

 

I backed up through the simple Win 7 back up tool. It suggested that I back up to my external hard drive. I selected that and the backup started. Then after a while I got this message:

 

Check your backup. The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error????????

 

 

Some of it has transfered because there is an image file on my external HD.

 

Tried again, same error.

Have performed chkdsk on the external drive, and windows found no problems.

 

Have looked in device manager and there are no problems there either.

 

Windows is bang up to date.

 

The I/O error seems to be very common.

 

Not so easy to cure though.

[andydd]

If youve got enough room you could try backing the iamge on the C: drive first (it will tell you its not a good idead) and then move the whole image over to the external one.

 

Cant really say why its showing I/O errorsd, is it an external powered USB drive ?

 

The windows backup process is quite easy I believe using a wizard, the most common 3rd party one is Acronis, if you go to their website I think you can get the latest version Backup & Recovery for a free trial.

 

Andy