Paragon backup

I ran paragon and then needed to do a restore (however, I really didn't). Seems that the problem was Paragon. I had to put the restore options on a thumb drive, now, my machine will not boot without the thumb drive plugged in. If I take it out and try to boot, I get just 4-5 dots on a black screen and the machine locks up. Any insight would be appreciated. I'm afraid if I delete Paragon, my machine won't boot at all.

 

forgot to mention, running Vista Home Premium 6.0.6002 sp2 build 6002.

 

Do you have the original Vista disk, OEM restore disks, and/or a restore partition?

 

Don't recall if I received (I probably did) OEM restore disks (it's a Dell), but I do have a D drive labled RECOVERY.

 

With that recovery partition, you should be able to restore the machine to factory defaults.

Since you can boot the machine by using the thumb drive, you should be able to salvage your data, and then format/reinstall Windows. If you wish to do this, we can walk you through the process.

 

Start walking please. I have the disk, (vista installation), should I just try a "repair" first? The disk is SP1 and I think there is SP2 already, so if I "repaired" the problem, would I then have to do all the updates again?

 

Got my boots on. :major

Have you transferred any and all data that you wish to save?

 

I did an image copy 2 days ago and I have Genie timeline running, so,yes, I should have everything. I'm hoping, though, it won't come to that (a complete reinstall) and I can just repair windows?

 

Ah! So you do have the Vista disk (didn't see your edit) - that changes things.

By all means, go through the repair routine, but there is a good chance that you might have to reinstall updates, at least the critical ones.

The good thing is that you have a recovery partition - if all else fails, you should be able to revert to a factory default state.

 

What program did you use for that?

 

Well, oddly enough, I downloaded Paragon Disk copy 9.5 from giveaway of the day. I installed and did a back up (disk copy), but now, the only paragon still on my machine is the earlier system backup 9.5. There's just some weird sh*t going on with my machine. I'm thinking about going back to bitdefender 10, I'd rather deal with the occassional shut down than the slow machine.

I tried repairing windows with the install disks and no change. I need to have the thumb drive in or the machine stalls in during the boot. If I reinstall windows, does it overwrite everything so that I would have to reinstall all my programs again and copy back personal stuff (docs, etc)?

 

If you've already backed up your data, running the repair from the DVD WITHOUT having the USB thumb drive in may just fix it so it boots normally.

 

A format/reinstall, if done properly, will overwrite everything, but you're assured of starting with a fresh Windows. If you decide to go this route, make sure you enable any advanced partitioning options, so you can delete/recreate partitions as you see fit.

EDIT: good point, satrow.

 

Thanks, but I already tried that. Took the thumb drive out, booted from the windows cd and chose "repair" from the menu. WHen I tried to reboot, got the same little 4 dots. I put thumb drive back in and it boots fine. I tried repair twice. One thing I haven't tried yet (it's hard to get the f8 menu) is last known good.

 

Is it possible to reinstall without losing everything (ie, having to reinstall other software or copy back files)? I mean, the machine is only a year old, it shouldn't be that screwed up... although, between the screen saver and the paragon crap, who knows.

 

Have you tried this method (without the USB) to repair?

 

EasyBCD is about the easiest way to correct boot problems in Vista or 7.

 

UPDATE: Used the BCD and I can now boot without the thumb drive in!!!! We're making progress. However, I also ran sfc /scannow and there seems to be some corrupt files that windows cannot fix, however, the log is greek to me. Can anyone decipher it and tell me what I need to do. Obviously, the file associated with my screen saver is still screwed up because I get an error msg every time I try to click it off. I've attached the log. Thanks. Actually, the log won't attach because it is "missing a security token". Any idea what that deal is?

 

The boot is fixed, that's great

The missing security token looks like it's probably some kind of cookies/browser issue, clear the cookies and logout from MG's, close then restart the browser and retry. If that fails, try a different browser.

 

Tried clearing cache and cookies in Firefox and tried using IE, no luck. I uploaded files last week for another thread, so I know I can. Will try again later.

Thanks for all your help. This is a great site that I have used more than once for computer issues I couldn't handle on my own.