Unresponsive Laptop

[ehyouwhat]

Hey all,

Part III of my 'computer is dead' saga.

My laptop will load up fine but will not allow me to run programs by clicking on their icons, either on the desktop or on the Start menu. I click on the item and the eggtimer appears, but after a few seconds it dissapears and nothing loads up - it's as if I never clicked on it. The list of things it won't load is comprehensive; Word, Excel, Publisher, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, Google Earth, My Computer, everything! Up until yesterday it WOULD let me use firefox but today it won't even let me do that.

I can bring up the MSDOS prompt box from Start->accessories, and I can also use the 'run' function. In fact I can sometimes (but not always) load up Office Word by browsing for it in the 'run' box.

I don't mind wiping the computer clean and starting again (if I can get the Sony Vaio Recovery program working) but there are some important documents and photo's that I don't want to lose. I had tried using the 'run' box to access these files and send them to the CDRW to write a backup disk. The 'run' box allowed me to send the files, and I even got a bubble to say that files were ready to be written to the CD, but when I click on the bubble nothing happens (as will all the other icons on the desktop/Start menu).

Any help/advise I can get will be greatly appreciated.

[spivvy]

normally a recovery program gives you the option for full install which clears everything or a recovery which leaves data files intact

have you also tried a system restore to a previous time so that you may at least get you cd writing software to work ?

[ehyouwhat]

spivvy said:

normally a recovery program gives you the option for full install which clears everything or a recovery which leaves data files intact have you also tried a system restore to a previous time so that you may at least get you cd writing software to work ?

How would I go about doing that?

Sorry for the ignorance. I know a little about computers but I'm more a hardware man than a software man (pun recognised but not intended).

[spivvy]

if windows xp go to start
all programs
accessories
system tools
system restore
select restore my computer to an earlier time
and try an select an earliet option

and see if it works


the other option is if you have a memeory stick can you copy the files onto there ?

[twister]

This kind of problem is one of the reasons I continue to use partitions to segregate system/programs from data, no matter how often I hear people say that partitioning is sooooo old fashioned and no longer necessary since FAT32 and NTFS gave us the ability to fill large drives with a single partition... just because we *can* create a C drive as large as the physical drive doesn't mean we *should*

[xiphias]

Partitioning is old hat? Eh? Seriously, its like buying a filing cabinet with only one folder in it! I don't understand why it isn't used more...

[twister]

xiphias said:

Partitioning is old hat? Eh?

Yeah, I don't understand the people who claim it's just an archaic hangover from the days when you *had* to partition because of the file system limitations, and no longer relevant. Maybe they're just too damn lazy to explain the scenarios when it would be useful, and how to go about doing it...