PC ER: Recovering a Corrupted Partition with GetDataBack (Review)

How-To, PC ER By Jun 30, 2009 1 Comment

Imagine you’re trying to merge two partitions together using a utility like GParted from a live CD and everything is humming along nicely until the power gets cut. Once the power permanently interrupted the merge, Windows would no longer boot, and all of the important data on the drive was inaccessible. At the time I was performing this recovery, I…

PC ER: Blue Flash Followed by Restart in Endless Loop

PC ER By Feb 15, 2009 No Comments

Symptoms: System attempts to load the Windows XP operating system, cuts to black and very quickly flashes a blue screen full of text and reboots in an endless loop. Due to the brief stint of the blue screen, no specific identifiable error messages are retrievable. Hypothesis: The system is attempting to display a “stop” error message, commonly referred to as…

Norton Internet Security 2009

Editorial By Feb 06, 2009 1 Comment

The Symantec Corporation, makers of the decades-old Norton Security/Productivity suite, has been around a long, long time. I happened across an advertisement for Norton 2009 in Time magazine. What struck me about this ad, was that Symantec seems to have finally admitted that their Norton suites wreaks of bloat. By stating: “Norton Internet Security 2009 is the fastest security suite…

Encumbered in Services and Processes

Editorial By Jan 22, 2009 No Comments

For as long as I can remember, every version of Windows has enabled me to see what processes are running, except maybe Windows 3.11. As I continued to use Windows over the years, Control + Alt + Delete evolved into a useful tool, executing taskmgr.exe, showing more than the simple “Close Program” dialog box of the Windows 98 era. It…