home.comcast.net 20/11/2010 12:26 Diagnose XP Diagnose XP - Step 1 - Malware A Windows XP Removal Diagnostic Guide Malware Infection which includes Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware, Adware and Rootkits can cause or mimic just about any system problem. These in- clude: Application Errors, Lock-ups (freezing), The following Free guide will help you Blue Screen Stop Errors (BSOD) and Random troubleshoot the most common causes of sys- Reboots. tem problems. Diagnosing System problems can be very complicated and time consuming. There Malware Removal Guide - Malware is short are no simple solutions. Windows XP systems should for «Malicious Software». It is a general never Lock-up (freeze), display Blue Screen Stop term that refers to any software or program Errors or Randomly Reboot. These are all warning code designed to infiltrate or damage a computer signs something is wrong or misconfigured with system without the owner’s informed consent. This your system. Unless you are a highly trained, expe- includes Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware, Adware rienced PC Technician do not skip any of the fol- and Rootkits. This 3 step guide will show you how lowing steps. to remove these infections and protect yourself from future infections for free using free software. Notes - Overclocking can cause almost any system problem. It is strongly recommended to only run FACT: 89% of consumer PCs are infected with your system at the correct frequencies. Troubles- spyware hooting any problem on an Overclocked system is feedback a complete waste of time. Set the system back to its ^ TOP default frequencies before you begin troubleshoo- ting. Step 2 - Windows Update Legal Notice - Reproduction of this guide in whole Windows Update Click here to send your send your Click here to or in part is strictly forbidden. This guide and ALL versions thereof are protected by copyright Install All of the updates. Not just the critical under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). ones. This may have to be run multiple times. Run print Feel free to link to this Guide. it over again until it says 0 updates available. Non- joli critical updates are essential for improved perfor- Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft mance, compatibility and enhanced features. They through April 8, 2014. are all very safe to install. ^ TOP Windows Update requires the following services Printed with Printed http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html Page 1 home.comcast.net 20/11/2010 12:26 Diagnose XP be enabled in Windows XP: Wizard and look under «Drives» to identify it. Make sure to back up all of your data before proceeding - Automatic Updates - Automatic and read the instructions carefully. Any error codes - Background Intelligent Transfer Service - Ma- found should be written down and the manufactu- nual or Automatic rer of the hard drive contacted to see if warranty replacement is possible. Regardless the hard drive ^ TOP should be replaced immediately. Problems with hard drives only get worse. Step 3 - Drivers ExcelStor - Download - Home Page Windows Drivers «Diagnostic utility for PATA(IDE) and SATA drives. Supports ExcelStor drives up to Update your drivers using the Windows Dri- 250GB capacity.» ver Guide. Installing the latest Drivers improves system performance and application compatibility. Updated drivers include numerous bug fixes as well Fujitsu - Download - Home Page * acquired as system optimizations. It is recommended for op- by Toshiba, February 17, 2009 timal system stability to only use Official drivers and not Beta or Prerelease versions. Performance differences between driver versions including Beta Hitachi - Download - Home Page or Pre-release drivers is negligible. The only time «The Drive Fitness Test (DFT) quickly and re- Beta or Prerelease drivers should be considered is liably tests SCSI, IDE and SATA drives. The when a serious application bug is fixed in the Beta DFT analyze function performs read tests without or Prerelease version and the component manu- overwriting customer data.» facturer has not yet released the Official driver version that includes the bug fix. IBM - Home Page * acquired by Hitachi, April ^ TOP 17, 2002 feedback Step 4 - Hard Drive Maxtor - Home Page * acquired by Seagate, September 25, 2005 Application Errors, Lock-ups (freezing), Blue Quantum - Home Page * acquired by Maxtor, Click here to send your send your Click here to Screen Stop Errors (BSOD) and Failure to Write October 4, 2000 to Drive Errors can all be caused by a defective hard drive. print Samsung - Download - Home Page joli Instructions - Select one of the following diagnostics «Confirm your model is listed on the page of that matches the manufacturer of your hard drive. the Diagnostic Utility you download. This pro- If your manufacturer is not listed the Hitachi dia- gram is used to diagnose the disk when the SAM- gnostic should work with any drive. If you do not SUNG hard disk is suspected to have failures. It is know who your hard drive manufacturer is use PC strongly recommended to back up your data before Printed with Printed http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html Page 2 home.comcast.net 20/11/2010 12:26 Diagnose XP using this program!» Step 5 - Data Recovery Seagate - Download - Home Page «SeaTools for Windows has replaced SeaTools This step is only necessary if you want to try to re- Online and PowerMax. SeaTools for Windows cover data off of damaged storage media. Data re- is a comprehensive, easy-to-use diagnostic tool that covery is the process of salvaging data from da- helps you quickly determine the condition of the maged, failed, wrecked or inaccessible storage disc drive in your external hard drive, desktop or media when it cannot be accessed normally. Often notebook computer. It includes several tests that the data is being salvaged from storage media for- will examine the physical media on your Seagate mats such as a hard disk drive, CDs or DVDs. There or Maxtor disc drive and any other non-Seagate are not many options for the end user to recover disc drive.» data themselves without paying hundreds of dollars to a data recovery service. Toshiba - Home Page SpinRite - Home Page - $89.00 «Toshiba does not offer a diagnostic utility SpinRite is a commercial hard disk scanning for their hard drives. The Hitachi diagnostic and data recovery utility created by Steve can be used to test these drives.» Gibson. SpinRite is much more thorough in its sur- face scans than basic utilities, being able to recover data from damaged portions of hard disks that might Western Digital - Download - Home Page not otherwise be read by the operating system. «The Data Lifeguard Diagnostic Tools are used SpinRite uses ‘DynaStat’ to perform statistical ana- primarily for determining the physical condi- lysis of bad blocks. When it encounters a block which tion of your hard drive. If you are having computer which is hard to read, it repeatedly attempts to re- problems which you suspect are hard drive related, read it, and tries to determine the value of each you can test your drive with this tool.» byte. The data is then saved onto the same disk af- ter re-allocating the physical block. The goal of SpinRite is to get the hard drive working as reliably feedback Noises that indicate a defective hard drive as possible, for future use, in addition to recovering as much data as possible. SpinRite is able to operate These are not a substitute for running a dia- on all Windows NTFS formats, all DOS FAT, all Linux gnostic program but can help to quickly isolate file systems, Novell, Macintosh (if temporarily mo- where to look for a problem. ved into a PC) or anything else - it can even be used to repair and recover the hard drive from an ailing Slow Spindle Motor TiVo! SpinRite v6.0 achieves complete operating Click here to send your send your Click here to Head Stuck To Platter system independence by incorporating the FreeDOS Head Damage 1 operating system. This allows it to be used on any Head Damage 2 and all Intel/AMD PC systems. SpinRite 6.0 can create print Head Damage 3 a bootable diskette or generate a standard, CD-R joli Head Damage 4 burnable ISO file to create a «SpinRite boot CD». A bootable SpinRite can also be «installed» into any ^ TOP other motherboard bootable devices, such as USB flash drives for easy, portable booting and use. If you hard drive is still accessible from your system Printed with Printed http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html Page 3 home.comcast.net 20/11/2010 12:26 Diagnose XP BIOS there is a good chance SpinRite can get the drive to an operational state where you can get your Step 6 - Memory Data off it. Simply put - «It Works» Application Errors, Lock-ups (freezing), Blue CDCheck - Home Page - Download Screen Stop Errors (BSOD) and Random Reboots CDCheck is a utility for prevention, detection can all be caused by Defective Memory. and recovery of damaged files with emphasis on error detection. It can check each of your CD/ Memtest86+ - Download - Home Page DVD (or any other media) and indicate which files «Memtest86+ is a thorough, stand alone me- are corrupted. CDCheck’s reporting features tell you mory test for x86 architecture computers. exactly where the problems are. Files on CDs, ZIP BIOS based memory tests are a quick, cursory check drives, USB keys etc. can get damaged in a number and often miss many of the failures that are detec- of ways, so the program helps you determine ted by Memtest86+.» whether your data is safe before it’s too late. The program can be used with all local or removable Instructions - Download the «Pre-Compiled package media (CDs, DVDs, disk drives, floppy disks, ZIP for Floppy (DOS - Win)» to «c:memtest», insert a drives, USB keys etc.) visible by the operating system blank formatted 1.44MB Floppy Disk into the Flop- (Windows Explorer) and also with audio CDs.