Multiple Personality Computer Sftware?

I have to confess, I posted this message in another site, but they sent me here for tools and such, so I thought:"Why not post at the root? Where people are 'doing' something about issues?" So here is my original post (made Sep. 24th):

Background: When I created this disk I partioned it so the OS (XP Pro) would be in C drive, all my Applications would be in D drive and all the data would be in E drive.

Operation: Everything was great for about 2 years now.

Problem Sequence of Events:
1. Everything worked great until one day the Defrag program said: "hey your D drive is 86% full and I need at least 15% disk buffer to make the data moves."
2. So, I found this suspiciously large program (using 6.5 GB) and "uninstalled" it.
3. but wait, the uninstall did not work and my computer "froze" to the point that I had to "hard boot it."
4. This is when the fun began. Now, any program I wanted to access through the "Start" menu, would not launch, like it "was not there."
5. When I right click on "Properties" of the D drive, it says it is"empty," it has 92% free space. But, the Start menu "thinks" all the programs are there (they are listed in the start menu).
6. I re-downloaded the basic programs I needed to get my job done and those work (now).
7. The "phantom" programs are still there according to the Start Menu, but don't work.
8. The now phantom programs have various issues for download so I basically would like to "wipe them clean." -> the D drive directory was somehow corrupted, its my best guess.

Question:
1. What do I need to do the let the "Start" menu "know" those programs are NOT there anymore?
2. And will this...lobotomy, allow me to download the other programs I need as if they were never there?

Update:
1. Since this post I ran the error checker under Properties in D drive - no joy.
2. I have been able to download some programs (firefox for example which I am using to do this with)
3. I have NOT been able to download other programs (like Adobe because it errors out at the last minute telling me I am missing something and, "where is it?"). See file "Adobe failed to update"
4. Downloaded CCleaner and cleaned out the registry's, see file "Register Issues." No change.
5. Ran a Hard Drive check program (someone thought my HD was bad. My hard drive is good, see file "Hard Drive Status."
6. Downloaded Major Geeks Program (4459) to unistall. went to the control panel, Program list and tried to uninstall Adobe - same failure. Can not downnload Adobe.

So, my basic question now is: is there a way to clean my Partition D without frying all that works?

 

Welcome to Majorgeeks

Can you tell us what the program was that enabled you to find the '6.5GB file'?

My feeling is that you used a program that misread a hard link, this has caused your problems.

A link to the other forum would help get us up to scratch on this, it looks pretty complex.

 

I went to: Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs. Here I looked for large Programs I was no longer using and hit uninstall. This froze the machine. This question brought to mind a couple of other details.
1. Previous to this I had used "Revo" to uninstall another small program, but Revo scared me (I uninstalled it also).
2. After the event I went back to a previous version of my system using "Restore" - no joy there either.

 

Ok, so what was the 6.5GB program?

 

Market Delta (it should have been in the 600KB range) - why is that important?

 

To try to find out what happened, it maybe that something was corrupt within the Windows Registry before your programs on D: went missing. If we can find the root cause of all this, we'll have a better idea of whether there's an easy fix or not.

 

I see 3 potential ways of dealing with this:

Registry cleaning, some can be affected via software, much will need to be manual.
Try to recover the deleted data from the D: partition.
Wipe and reinstall Windows.


With the first 2 methods, there's every chance that something similar could happen in the future as it looks like the Registry was already in trouble before this occurred.

If you go the latter route and stick with your 3-partition split, study XP unleashed to gain a better understanding of the pitfalls and recovery methods.

 

Thanks Satrow. It may be that the problem existed BEFORE i tried to defrag (as I stated in my problem introduction), and the defrag was the issue that broke my machine's back. And, since it looks like I will be suffering from the death of one thousand cuts, I think I will set aside next weekend to nuke my hard disk, repartition it to only have 3 partitions C:, D:, and E:. C: for the OS and Program files (since having them separated did not buy me anything), D: for data, and E: For a local backup, and start over again.

 

I guess that defrag was the first app that picked up on the anomaly, I'm pretty sure that there's something else (some older App?) that caused the problem

Anyway, study bbearren's site I linked to earlier, specifically the XP Unleashed section, he shows how it should be done your old way, as well as why and how to minimise any risks.

Good luck

 

Just a personal suggestion: If you're planning on reformatting, invest in an external hard drive to store your personal files on. This way, you don't have to worry about partitioning, and if the system drive does fail in any way, your information isn't lost. Also, you can take your files with you in the event you need to use another computer.

 

Thanks mcsmc, this sounds like a good suggestion. How do I tell the system to look for "My Documents" on a different drive?

 

Right-click My Documents > Properties > Move.

 

Sorry to sound dense, however, do I do this after I nuke my existing disk and create one without partitions? After the new disk is created, I do "The Documents" move?

 

If you are talking about pointing My Documents to an external drive after you do a fresh install of Windows, then yes.

However, if you're talking about SAVING My Documents to a different drive, definitely don't nuke the disk/create partitions/etc. first! Save/backup data is always the first step to any computer issue.

 

I perused and read parts of XP Unleashed as satrow suggested back on 9/26, and according to what I read: "if my computer boots up" no need to start over. "Reformat and Re-install is not needed," so if this is true: Does anyone have any idea on how to pinpoint the problem I have?

I don't want to "recover the programs that disappeared. I just want to be able to reload those I need. My thought is that some link between C: (OS),and D: (Program Files) is missing.

So far:
1. TrendMicro (my internet protection) is not updating automatically which it did seamlessly before.
2. Adobe will not load a new copy (as explained before).
3. the help files for Snagit are missing and gives me warnings on startup.

Any other ideas for a fix?
Thanks

 

That's ONLY true if you have followed his advice and steps fully from a fresh install of XP.

 

In your situation, a clean install would be the least time consuming method of fixing your issues.

 

I realize that I'm late to the gait on this one; a link from this post just showed up on my site statistics.

But it is true that "if my computer boots up" no need to start over. "Reformat and Re-install is not needed." A repair/reinstall should cure the ills described, and the 3-partition setup can be retained as it was with some simple repair steps. See XP Unleashed page 6.
Any issue(s) that might remain can be dealt with.

 

Welcome to Majorgeeks, bbearren and thanks for the clarification.

 

to bbearren
Thought the name rang a bell ,then saw the avatar.:confused
Glad you made the trip safely.:-D

 

I appreciate the welcome. I may be gettin' older and gettin' slower but I'm still gettin' around...

 

:cry:cry:cry on the "older and slower".
:clap:clap:celebrate on "still able to get around".

Will be seeing you around.