Need help from computer gurus!

[SmokeShowin]

I get this message on startup:

Error loading explorer.exe Re-install windows.

Found this on microsoft site http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306599

Do any of you know if this will work and if it will effect the pics I have on my hard drive. There are pics on there of my friend who passed away and i DON'T want to lose those.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered.

[RAZOR]

wait for menace to chime he's the.
ALMIGHTY GOD OF COMPUTER GURUS!!
he helped me out.

[SmokeShowin]

Yeah I know! Thanks.:furious2:

[Talus]

Hi. Regardless of what your probem with the PC is, if you have pictures or other files that you don't want to lose, you should back them up. If you have a CD burner, by all means burn them.


As far as the windows reinstall, there is an option to repair your current install. I would try that first. I'd still back up everything that is irreplaceable.

[SmokeShowin]

I also found this http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=279736

Maybe this would work? I was told a couple of different ways to do a system restore from startup by "experts" at work. Any other time I've had problems, I've done a system restore and then run a virus scan and it fixed the problem.

[HSGear]

If you're really concerned about it, I'd suggest www.drivesavers.com - they saved my ass when my laptop took a dump. Costs a bundle, but they got it all back...

Mike

[SmokeShowin]

Oh well, I'm gonna head home and try doing the system restore from the command prompt. The consensus from people I've talked to is I shouldn't lose the pics. Keep your fingers crossed.:undecided

[RAZOR]

Oh well, I'm gonna head home and try doing the system restore from the command prompt. The consensus from people I've talked to is I shouldn't lose the pics. Keep your fingers crossed.:undecided
i will keep all my fingers crossed i know how this shit feels.esp when i mess up
the puter at my work.scary.good luck

[Machinehead]

Sorry, I cannot help you with you pc probs....only chimed in to suggest you try Mozilla FF. .....a browser with a great track record...MS Update dosen't support it ....but it's great for everything else.

[C@Woman]

Sorry, wish I could help. :sad3: At least you didn't get the "Blue Screen" = No Recovery!
Sounds like there is some hope left.


Would a hug help?

[Talus]

I would still recommend backing up your picture files. Anything you want to keep forever should be backed up. If the restore point won't work, the repair install of windows is not hard. You basically put in your windows disc and follow directions.

[Menace]

did you get Windows up yet? Your files are safe as long as you don't format the drive or wipe out the partition.

[SmokeShowin]

did you get Windows up yet? Your files are safe as long as you don't format the drive or wipe out the partition.

Hi Menace. Nope, didn't get it up (go ahead Lisa, free shot). Tried both the options that I posted neither worked. Tried booting in safe mode too and that didn't work. I'm running Windows ME.
I just bought a new computer, gonna pick it up tomorrow night. So I'll be up and running again by the weekend. But I'm still gonna keep trying to get the old sucker to work. If you can offer any advice, you can pipe in on here or email me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The girlfriend wanted me to bring it to a guy she that her family knows. I told her 1.) I'm getting rid of it so I'm not putting any money into it and 2.) I'm one of those guys who likes to try and fix things on my own and try to learn things along the way.
I saw the way you walked Razor through his problem :thumbsup:
Any advice, hints, links or whatever you can tell me will be appreciated. All this headache for a couple dozen pics that I should have saved to a disk in the first place.
Thanks Menace. :fireman:

[SmokeShowin]

Hi. Regardless of what your probem with the PC is, if you have pictures or other files that you don't want to lose, you should back them up. If you have a CD burner, by all means burn them.


As far as the windows reinstall, there is an option to repair your current install. I would try that first. I'd still back up everything that is irreplaceable.

Thanks. I didn't see an option to repair windows, just to re-install. Appreciate it though.

Oh and FUCK OFF NOOB!!!:rifle:

[Menace]

Hi Menace. Nope, didn't get it up (go ahead Lisa, free shot). Tried both the options that I posted neither worked. Tried booting in safe mode too and that didn't work. I'm running Windows ME.
I just bought a new computer, gonna pick it up tomorrow night. So I'll be up and running again by the weekend. But I'm still gonna keep trying to get the old sucker to work. If you can offer any advice, you can pipe in on here or email me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The girlfriend wanted me to bring it to a guy she that her family knows. I told her 1.) I'm getting rid of it so I'm not putting any money into it and 2.) I'm one of those guys who likes to try and fix things on my own and try to learn things along the way.
I saw the way you walked Razor through his problem :thumbsup:
Any advice, hints, links or whatever you can tell me will be appreciated. All this headache for a couple dozen pics that I should have saved to a disk in the first place.
Thanks Menace. :fireman:

Why don't you put that old hard drive into the new PC and use it for a second drive and then you can copy off all of the old files from it to the new PC. It is real easy to add in a second hard drive.
If you still want the old PC back up you would just need to reinstall Windows ME right over top of the bad version and it should boot right up. Do not use a system restore CD or format the drive! That will wipe out the data. You will need to use a Windows ME CD.

[Menace]

One more thing. Do you hear any clicking or clunking sound when the drive is spinning? There is a chance that this is a hardware failure and the disk is dead. That would explain a missing explorer.exe

[RustyJake]

Does your computer start in 'safe mode'? If it does, reboot to safe mode and go to start, click run and type in msconfig in the window that pops up select Diagnostic startup, and click OK and reboot. If that works, then you can go back to msconfig and try selective startup. Make sure Load start up items is NOT selected and click OK and reboot. Does windows start normally?If it does, then your issue is with a program in your start up file, which isn't too hard to find out which one it is. If no, the issue isn't with a program that is trying to load as suggested in the page you supplied by microsoft about the explorer.exe. Does your error message also include the part about
Error loading EXPLORER.EXE. You must reinstall Windows.
Explorer.exe unknown program name
You won't want to do a system restore or you will loose all of your pictures. If you do decide to proceed with that route, READ all the warnings BEFORE you start, at some point it will tell you that all data on the disc will be lost. I just don't want to see you loose your pictures. You are best off to wait till you get your new computer and do what Menace suggested. It only takes a few minutes and you will have a back up of all of the pictures you want then.
There is also a way to restore or fix your registry in WinME from the DOS prompt. I don't think this is a registry error though. To repair or restore your registry, shut off computer (important this isn't done from a reboot). When you start the computer, tap the F8 key until you have the boot option list, choose DOS PROMPT ONLY when you get the C:/windows> type in CD and hit enter now you should be at the C: prompt alone. If you are, type in regedit/ fix (there is a space after the / and before the word fix. To restore, just type in restore instead of fix. (My DOS days are a little foggy right now......)
I don't think that this registry fix/restore will help in your situation. Yours lies more with a file corrupt or missing for a program that is trying to load with windows.

[Blisster]

dude. Go to best buy or somewhere similar, and buy and XP Home upgrade version for $79.00 and a new 80GB Hard drive for like $80.00. Take the current drive out of your system and install the new one. Then install windows XP Home on the computer using your ME disc when it prompts you to. Once you have windows XP up and running, shut down the computer and install the old drive as a "second" drive. You should then be able to browse the drive and save all of your important data. (I'd recommend archiving to CD-Rom or DVD).

ME is a 7 year old operating system, far from secure and generally just crap. You wwill be happy with the XP upgrade and new HDD AND you'll save your data!

[Mr.Sinister]

Welcome back Blister . Where you been ?

[Blisster]

yo Sin!

Been hangin around TSW a bit and working my ass off mostly!

how u doin?

[SmokeShowin]

Hey all. Got my new computer hooked up! :luxhello:

Also hooked up my Verizon DSL.:luxhello: :luxhello:


Menace, if this was caused by a virus, wil the virus infect my new computer if I hook the the drive up to it as a backup?

Rusty, I didn't have the unknown program after explorer.exe also get the error message if I try to boot in safe mode.

I'm still beating myself for not putting the d@mn pics on disk in the first place!:assbeat:

[Menace]

Hey all. Got my new computer hooked up! :luxhello:

Also hooked up my Verizon DSL.:luxhello: :luxhello:


Menace, if this was caused by a virus, wil the virus infect my new computer if I hook the the drive up to it as a backup?

Rusty, I didn't have the unknown program after explorer.exe also get the error message if I try to boot in safe mode.

I'm still beating myself for not putting the d@mn pics on disk in the first place!:assbeat:

no. The virus can't get the new drive as long as it has an antivirus program on it. What will happen is as you copy the old files over from the backup drive the virus might get found and removed.

[Mr.Sinister]

yo Sin!

Been hangin around TSW a bit and working my ass off mostly!

how u doin?Doing alot of time on the mat . Working a new 4-10 schedul .Gotto go to the gym today and do some more wrasslin . I have not been around tsw much the last month due to work/workout schedul . Pdx is coaught up with UFC mania right now .

[SmokeShowin]

no. The virus can't get the new drive as long as it has an antivirus program on it. What will happen is as you copy the old files over from the backup drive the virus might get found and removed.
I had an antivirus program on the old one too, and look where I am.
The new computer has the newest Norton antivirus and Webroot Spysweeper installed in it though.

So Menace, is it hard to hook up the old drive as a backup?

Thanks.
Jim :fireman:

[Menace]

I had an antivirus program on the old one too, and look where I am.
The new computer has the newest Norton antivirus and Webroot Spysweeper installed in it though.

So Menace, is it hard to hook up the old drive as a backup?

Thanks.
Jim :fireman:

Just keep Norton up to date and don't open files that you are not sure of. Most viruses come from friends because it uses a persons address book to email itself.
There is a chance that the CD-ROM drive is plugged in with the new hard drive so you might need an extra IDE cable. I have some here you can have and they are dirt cheap if you want to buy one at Best Buy or something. You might have an available IDE cable inside the case, but you will not know until you open it.

[RustyJake]

Just tried doing that with my parents new computer....SATA, and it has a DVD, and a CDR/DVDR drive so both IDE cables were used and no way to hook it in with the main drive and run it as a slave.
I cheated and used the IDE cable from one of the Rom drives just so I could grab all the information off of it.

[SmokeShowin]

Just keep Norton up to date and don't open files that you are not sure of. Most viruses come from friends because it uses a persons address book to email itself.
There is a chance that the CD-ROM drive is plugged in with the new hard drive so you might need an extra IDE cable. I have some here you can have and they are dirt cheap if you want to buy one at Best Buy or something. You might have an available IDE cable inside the case, but you will not know until you open it.

That's good to hear. So how do I go about hooking the drive up as a slave?

If you want, you can e-mail me. Whichever is easier for you. Thanks.

It's a Gateway. Don't know if it makes a difference.

[Menace]

That's good to hear. So how do I go about hooking the drive up as a slave?

If you want, you can e-mail me. Whichever is easier for you. Thanks.

It's a Gateway. Don't know if it makes a difference.

Open up the PC and see if the CD-ROM has the same type of cable as the hard drive. There is a chance the new drive is SATA and you would need a new SATA cable and you would be done.

[SmokeShowin]

Open up the PC and see if the CD-ROM has the same type of cable as the hard drive. There is a chance the new drive is SATA and you would need a new SATA cable and you would be done.

OK. Don't know when i'll get around to trying it. I'll post again when I do. Thanks again, I appreciate the help.