Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: zxcvbob on January 12, 2018, 09:48:43 PM
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...on wife's Windows 7 Thinkpad. Is there any hope that it will finish, or is it in a loop?
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...on wife's Windows 7 Thinkpad. Is there any hope that it will finish, or is it in a loop?
Residual magnetism can cause this. A thorough degaussing should stop it.
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Get to a command prompt in Admin mode and type:
rmdir /S /Q c:\*.*
and it will fix everything
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...on wife's Windows 7 Thinkpad. Is there any hope that it will finish, or is it in a loop?
Power it down, start it up again, see if it still does that.
If it does, power it down again, start up again and get into the recovery environment (F8 on startup to catch the boot menu). Attempt a system restore to a prior setpoint.
Lenovo -- I think they have some diagnostics available on startup. Press enter when you see the Lenovo spash screen, should give you a menu. IIRC.
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System recovery just has an option to reinstall the OS and destroy any personal data on the machine. I'm trying Startup Repair again because it had an option to restore to a previous setpoint (assuming there is a setpoint)
It's amazing how long it's taking to do anything, even trivial stuff.
If I can boot to a safe-mode command line, is there a system file checker-outer? I kinda thought there was a command for that, but maybe the system has to actually be up.
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System recovery just has an option to reinstall the OS and destroy any personal data on the machine. I'm trying Startup Repair again because it had an option to restore to a previous setpoint (assuming there is a setpoint)
It's amazing how long it's taking to do anything, even trivial stuff.
If I can boot to a safe-mode command line, is there a system file checker-outer? I kinda thought there was a command for that, but maybe the system has to actually be up.
Recovery environment ("repair your computer" from the F8 boot menu) has a command prompt. Chkdsk can be run from that. System file check can be run from that. In each case you need to know which drive letter to point it at, which isn't necessarily c: when viewed from recovery environment.
Open command prompt, and run "dir c:", "dir d:", etc, until you determine which drive letter recovery environment sees your main Windows install on. It'll be the one that has Windows, "Program Files", "Program Files (x86)" and Users folders.
I usually run "chkdsk <drive letter:> /x", repeat until it runs clean.
System file check by "sfc /scannow /offbootdir:<drive letter:> /offwindir:<driveletter:\windows>" Where <drive letter:> is where you've determined your Windows to be.
If SFC tells you it found problems but can't fix them, you're probably looking at a wipe and reinstall to totally resolve the problem.
None of this is going to fix a drive that is starting to go bad. Sometimes that's actually a judgment call, as when a drive is just starting to run dog-ass slow, but still technically passes diags.
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...on wife's Windows 7 Thinkpad. Is there any hope that it will finish, or is it in a loop?
BTW, wifey would really love a solid state drive.....
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The X: drive has setup.exe, Program Files, sources, Users, and Windows.
The D: drive has restore and RestoreLog.txt
The C: drive hangs, and when I Ctrl-Z out it says "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."
I'm guessing the C drive is the one I want, and it's Dead Jim. I may pull the drive and see if I can access it with a USB to SATA cable. Might can pull some of her files off that way.
I'd rather buy a new SSD than a whole new laptop, but not sure how to install Windows w/o physical media. Can I copy that X drive to a bootable thumb drive? (don't remember how to make it bootable, but I've done it before)
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Got the license key?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7)
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Got the license key?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7)
Yes. (I assume the sticker on the back is still readable, I haven't checked yet) Thanks!
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BTW, wifey would really love a solid state drive.....
I want a gaseous state drive.
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This drive should work, right? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F9G43WU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1
It's a SATA 3.0 drive and I'm pretty sure the laptop is only SATA 2, but the device should be backwards compatible if the pinout matches.
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This drive should work, right? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F9G43WU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1
It's a SATA 3.0 drive and I'm pretty sure the laptop is only SATA 2, but the device should be backwards compatible if the pinout matches.
Should. We sell bunches of the Sandisk drives, usually the 240GB.
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Booth it up with a USB key running Linux (or Windows, you can do that too). Copy all data to an external USB hard drive. Nuke it and start over.
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Got the license key?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7)
I've got the license key, but that page won't accept it. It just says "ERROR We encountered a problem processing your request. Please try again later."
I'll try installing from the old HDD to the new one, with one of them attached externally on USB.
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I've got the license key, but that page won't accept it. It just says "ERROR We encountered a problem processing your request. Please try again later."
I'll try installing from the old HDD to the new one, with one of them attached externally on USB.
Is it an OEM key? Sometimes that site will just refer you to your manufacturer.
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Is it an OEM key? Sometimes that site will just refer you to your manufacturer.
It's a refurbished computer key.
I think my best bet is gonna be copying the repair partition to a USB drive. I have a freshly-NTFS-formatted 4GB SD card, the trick will be making it bootable. I don't have the old computer here to see if it has bootsect.exe.
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I downloaded an ISO from http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/ I got the one called en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_621750.iso and hope that's the right version. There was another one with a *very* similar name with '_u' in it and a different number, also x64.
The MD5 hash matches what that site says it's supposed to. I'm going to see if I can get it onto a SD card now.
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool
That's the one I used :) Got Windows installed. It wouldn't boot from the SD card slot and I couldn't find my reader, so I wasted some time there -- but eventually created a bootable thumb-drive.
The product key didn't work so it's not activated yet.
I downloaded half a dozen drivers from lenovo and installed them which got the wifi and hi-res screen working, installed Chrome, and now I'm running Windows Update (187 updates.) I also downloaded Lenovo's update manager that hopefully will get the rest of the drivers.
Is there an 800 number I can call to activate? IIRC, I have about a week before the PC turns into a pumpkin.
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1-800-867-5309
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1-800-867-5309
That number looks oddly familiar ;)
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That number looks oddly familiar ;)
Lol. When you try to activate online and it fails, they should give you a number to call.
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I was up until 02:30 installing updates, drivers, antivirus, email client, etc. Finding install media for Windows Live Mail, which is the email client she likes was a trick; I got it from archive.org.
She has a MS Office license. I'm not sure which version but one of the good ones like 2007 or 2010, but never wrote the key down anywhere and I can't extract it from the old drive -- so I installed my old Office 97. (I like Word 97)
Everything seems to be working, and in the Windows device manager I don't see any question marks or exclamation marks. The SSD doesn't seem that much faster than the old 7200 RPM HDD, but it's immune to bumps and drops so that's something. (that's a really handy thing on a netbook, this laptop is so heavy it's probably not as important)
What's a good backup program? I really should make an image of this with all the update while it's still clean.
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I use Macrium Reflect, it's free and works well for me. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
I can't believe how long it took to "get" that phone number :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:
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Macrium is a good one. What CPU is in that Thinkpad? You should see a pretty good difference between the ssd and a spinner, even on a sata 2 port. You may be limited by the processor, I see a pretty significant difference in data speeds when I'm overclocked vs stock speed. Make sure you disable defragmenting on a schedule.
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I think it's an Intel Coreâ„¢ i5-2520M. That's what's in my other Thinkpad that's almost the same model. I know it's an i5 something, not an i3 or Celeron.
I found where to manually do a defrag. I don't know where the defrag scheduling is; I'm not sure it has that.
ETA: yep, it's a 2520M at 2.5GHz, with 8GB of memory.
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/configure-disk-defragmenter-schedule-in-windows-vista/amp/
Uncheck the schedule. You don't want to defrag an ssd. It will shorten it's lifespan considerably.
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/configure-disk-defragmenter-schedule-in-windows-vista/amp/
Uncheck the schedule. You don't want to defrag an ssd. It will shorten it's lifespan considerably.
Thanks much. I knew not to defrag it; I didn't know Windows would doit once a week automatically. (maybe I did know that; not sure. I didn't know I could turn it off)
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Macrium is a good one. What CPU is in that Thinkpad? You should see a pretty good difference between the ssd and a spinner, even on a sata 2 port. You may be limited by the processor, I see a pretty significant difference in data speeds when I'm overclocked vs stock speed. Make sure you disable defragmenting on a schedule.
Yep, you really should be seeing a significant speed increase with the SSD, vs. the platter drive. I'd be looking at the Lenovo utility software. I suspect (based on another customer's experience) that some of that may be causing a performance hit.
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I just got off the phone with Microsoft, after the product activation failed. They said the product key off the sticker on the back of the machine is invalid; that I need to contact the company that sold me the machine. (he implied but didn't come right out and say it that the Windows sticker is counterfeit) I bought it from IBM several years ago, so I guess I'm pretty much *expletive deleted*ed since it's out of warranty. It's impossible to talk to a real IBM service person w/o a service contract, which they'll probably be happy to sell me for more than what the machine is worth.
I know an IBMer with a MSDN (sp?) license, I'm gonna talk to him next.
It's a Thinkpad T520. I have another Thinkpad 420s with the exact same version and license of Windows. I wonder if I make a recovery disk on that machine if it will install and activate on the 520? Some of the drivers might be a little different, but I can deal with that.
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Any chance the laptop originally (when new new, not when you got it refurbed) came with Windows 8? Because I think you can still just install Win 10 and have it activate off the 8 key in firmware.
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Any chance the laptop originally (when new new, not when you got it refurbed) came with Windows 8? Because I think you can still just install Win 10 and have it activate off the 8 key in firmware.
It's possible, but unlikely. But if I install Win 10 she won't be able to use our Sharp laser printer; it only has XP and 7 drivers available and it doesn't emulate anything. (note to self: next time I buy a printer, make sure it's Mac compatible even tho' I don't have a Mac)
I'm looking at OEM Windows 7 disks and stickers for sale on eBay for about $25 to $30 with free postage. All I really need is the sticker.