A friend came to me for help, and I am leary of doing anything without conferring with the experts. Here is the history:
Originally the PC had a periodic BSOD - 0x0000007B. I was able to boot to the "last known good configuration", and run MalwareBytes (cleaning up a number of Adware problems), and I ran the ESET online scanner (which found nothing). I made a restore point just in case.
After one or two more boots, I once again received the BSOD 0x0000007B. Attempted to reboot using last known configuration to no avail. Now all I get is a black screen after the initial boot messages (no windows splash screen).
I have looked at your guides about running CHKDSK, FIXMBR, FIXBOOT. I'm just a little leary that I may lose data on his hard disk (he says that there is a tremendous amount of music on there). I have a few questions:
1. What will be the impact of CHKDSK on his local files (deletion, damage)?
2. I did type in FIXMBR, and it stated the following:
"This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?"
Can I still run this without damage ?
I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing before continuing. I'm assuming this is an XP problem and not malware, but that may be a future post. Thank you in advance for your help.
Edited by hamluis, 30 March 2011 - 09:01 PM.
Moved from XP to Am I Infected.