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Removable drive stopped working

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by monster1999

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My step-daughter downloaded a questionable program, and installed it without running a virus check. Though I cannot say that caused the problem, the 'A' Drive stopped working soon after. I've run various system checks, all of which say the drive is functioning normally, and no viruses are present. I tried another drive from my old PC, which I know worked fine, and, lo and behold, that won't read anything either. There are various other problems coming up too; programs lock or shut down on theirown, warning that system is overloaded comes up, though more than 60% resources are free. The list goes on. Please help me out here! I'm running Win 98se, with 20gb hard drive on a Pentium 111 500mhz.

6 replies

by shasca

First you need to run spyware removal software.
You can download it from zdnet/cnet. Two of the easiest are Spybot, and adaware. It sometimes takes both to get some of the newer invaders on the web. I assume you have done Virus scan? The A: drive problem could, or could not be related. Look in Device manager and see what is detected there under floppy discs and for any yellow question marks. Remove the floppy, and any unknown devices, and reboot let system redetect. If after the system reinstalls the floppy, and you still have any unknown devices showing then you have a hardware conflict with system not detecting something properly, and it may take some detective work to figure it out.

by donmars

Believe it or not I have fixed this problem with a reinstallation of the operating system! If you have files and stuff you do not want erased because of a reinstall of the OS then be sure to install Windows ontop of itself. In other words install inthe same folder (probably WINDOWS). The program your step daughter installed (and I hope you were not hard on her, you want to motivate her to experiment with computers that's how she will learn and we need to introduce young girls to this male dominated technology!) is probably the culprit screwing something in the registry.

by donmars

After you resolve the problem you should back up the registry and do it everytime you make changes to your system. This way when something happens a simple reload of the back up may be all you need do to fix the problem. Just be sure it was a recentbackup!

Click Start, click Run, type scanregw, and then click OK.
When you receive a prompt to back up the registry, click Yes.
When you receive the "Backup complete" message, click OK.

Paste this in address bar of browser for help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q183/8/87.ASP&NoWebContent=1

You could try this first before reinstalling the OS.

by monster1999

Though this didn't entirely resolve the problem, it certainly helped! Trouble is, though I now have the 'A' drive back, the system is no longer recognising the cd burner! I've reinstalled the driver a number of times, to no avail. I've alsore-installed the Easy CD Creator software which won't run either! Answer that one!

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