Wanna throw my PC IN A FIRE

[lowell]

I have an Acer Aspire. 4gb of RAM. Its about 7yrs old. Recently reinstalled windows 7. Recently got a virus and it totally screwed it up. Learned that AVG isn't sufficient. So I download ESET and CCleaner. They helped a bit but it's getting worse and now it takes 20minutes to boot and shutdown. Booting into Repair My Computer doesnt work. Safe mode is a bit better but still shabby. Alt f10 is supposed to allow me to boot from the win7 partition but THAT doesnt work either as it says drive not found. If I boot into normal windows it takes forever and then keeps freezing. Windows explorer takes forever just to open a folder. Browsing the internet results in a PC ALERT message with a woman announcing thru my laptop speaker that there is a critical issue that must be fixed. Wierdest thing I've ever seen or heard!!!!!

A friend is giving me a restore disk today so I'll try booting from that.

Reason for my post... Please provide some DIY computer repair references that'd teach me a bit about preventing this and how to fix these types of issues. When it comes to code and command prompt I'm totally ignorant. Books, websites, e-books? Anything. Thanks in advance!

[Jazz P Bass]

If the operating system is that tangled up, the only option that will work is to reload it from scratch.

I run Microsoft Security Essentials.

CCleaner is ok but the Registry Cleaner can scram things pretty good if you are not careful.

There is a command that you can run from C:/ prompt, in Windows.
Type CMD in the Search Box & right click the CMD icon & click 'Run As Administrator'.
At the command prompt type:"sfc /scannow. (there must be a space between sfc & /)
This will run the System File Checker program.
Any system files that have been corrupted will be restored.

[big_teee]

I recommend saving as many files as possible, then load linux.
I had the same issues several years ago, here's what I did?
I bought a new 2.5 inch 500gb drive for around $50, and installed it.
I loaded Linux Mint on the new drive. (I prefer Mint XFCE)
Distribution Release: Linux Mint 17.2 "KDE", "Xfce" (DistroWatch.com News)
It is about as easy to run as windows, and I've never had any virus issues with linux.
Then I bought a 2.5 inch drive enclosure to mount the old drive in.
with the usb enclosure, I downloaded all the files from the windows drive, onto the new linux drive.
Then you can do whatever you want to with the old drive.
Easy Peasy!
Good Luck,
T

[DrGonz78]

Hey don't blame the PC because of the virus/malware prone software you have running on it. Personally any time when I had a virus on a windows machine it was best resolved by wiping out the hard drive and then installing fresh again. Now if you want to try to fix the thing then it will take hours or even days out of your life, with no guarantee of 100% repair. Oh well been there done that right? Check out COMBOFIX program and research this website. If you start a repair thread these guys will really help you along using programs like Combofix.
Bleeping Computer Technical Support Forums

Also, I always recommend using Linux Mint or something similar as your main Internet Computer.
Download - Linux Mint

[lowell]

Thanks guys. Is linux a similar interface as windows? Looks similar? I'm doing a complete wipe and reinstall.

[lowell]

Is Linux free?

[nickb]

Is Linux free?

Yes!

[nickb]

Thanks guys. Is linux a similar interface as windows? Looks similar? I'm doing a complete wipe and reinstall.

Not claiming any expertise here but as I understand it...

There are really two parts to it. The underlying operating system (OS) and the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The most popular GUIs are Mint's Cinnamon and Ubuntu's Unity. They are not the same as Windows but that does not mean they are difficult to use. IMHO, Mint is the better of the two but it's personal taste.

[big_teee]

The only negative issue with ubuntu Unity desktop, and It is huge to me?
Is the min, max, x controls are top left see pic.
I never could get used to that, or the panel at the top instead of the bottom.
https://www.google.com/search?q=unit...gbrT7n2dDyM%3A
Here is a screen shot of my XFCE with Firefox open, & closed.
It looks more like traditional windows.
mate, and cinnamon are similar.




T
** Linux usually loads and runs fast!

[lowell]

Welp. Reinstall revealed my hard drive is bad. Just grabbed this for only $100!

[big_teee]

It looks like a good time to install a dual boot system!
Mint and win7?
T
**The all things Linux, and resources website.
http://distrowatch.com/

[lowell]

I'm so unlearned... Need to kinda study up on what y'all have posted. I just wanted to see if the thing works with the new drive. Then I'll try the dual!

[lowell]

Ok. Got Linux Mint and Windows 10 installed. Now I'm straight confused haha.

I am trying to install Wine as I read on a forum that I'd need it to install Newsbin. So I downloaded a WINE-1.6.2.tar.bz2 archive. When I try to extract it I get "you don't have the right permissions to....blah blah"

QUESTIONS:
How do you install downloaded programs on Linux?
Do I need to install them in a specific location and if so what location?

THANKS!

[Enzo]

OK< I am a dinosaur. I use Windows right out of the box, and whatever Internet Explorer is relatively current. I am on Windows 7 I think. I use Chrome at work a lot, for no real reason. But I often see guys going on about Linux, and so often, "OH, just load Linux into it and don't look back." Sounds simple.

In my head, I have a scenario: someone writes in with an amp acting up, and he says he knows where he can borrow an ohmage meter. And I envision someone saying, "Oh, just draw up load lines for your tubes and don't look back." As if that meant anything to the OP.

So is switching to Linux as simple as downloading a file, and never looking back? Or is this going to be a week of changing file attributes and other stuff? "Oh, well of course you have to partition the hard drive..." is not much help to a dinosaur. So realistically, is this a turnkey thing, or does this assume some prior knowledge? Like it is one thing to instruct a guy to swap out a bad transistor in a SS amp, versus telling him to just ditch the circuit and build a 3886 circuit in its place. The latter assumes certain skills and knowledge

[lowell]

It's definitely more involved. However, after learning how to partition and install Linux on my PC that already has Windows on it, merely browsing the web is the same and the GUI (Graphic User Interface) is MOSTLY the same idea. However, I just want to simply install a program and I can't figure it out...so definitely requiring some training here. I'm also browsing forums for insight and people are saying things like "bring up a terminal and type "*&^*&^SDFrun" blah blah. Which is foreign lingo to me.