My Toshiba Satellite 5105-s607 laptop (P4, 512MB RAM, 40G HD XP v. 5.1, build 2600, SP1) was running slowly, so after installing "Desperate Housewives" and having it run unplayably slowly, I tried to defrag with Norton Systemworks 2005.
It wouldn't finish defragmenting; it would hang at about 41% fragmented. Tried to defrag several times. It looked as if things were getting worse instead of better (possibly because Systemworks defaults to "add slackspace")
Ran Spybot and NAV (w/current definitions); no infections found. AOL's anti-spyware also checks the drive at every bootup; no infections detected.
I tried to install a patch to "Desperate Housewives," which was not recognised as a Windows routine. From that point, the laptop refused to boot.
Have run Systemworks' Rescue Disk utilities numerous times. It keeps finding errors to correct in various files, and also reports that "This disk does not have enough free space to " correct [something] "in name . " The drive actually has almost 20G free.
I also tried System Mechanic Professional 6. It checks partition record and MBR. It says partition (one) is fine, but the MBR has errors. I run the "fix MBR" routine, and nothing improves. Tried repairing MBR in Norton too, with no noticeable results.
With both programs, I seem to be able to run utilities once only. If I try to run either a second time, the programs suddenly claim that they do not see the C: drive, when they ran on it just a moment earlier. After rebooting, both programs can again see the drive, for one time only.
Tried booting from the 6-floppy set downloaded from MS. These load up, but then give an error message, saying "Unmountable_Boot_Volume"
*** STOP: 0x00000ED (0x822F99B0, 0xC0000013, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
I have ALMOST gotten into Safe Mode; the screen says "Safe Mode" in all 4 corners, but the screen is black, so I can't do anything from there.
Now when I try to boot, it lets me log on, goes to the default wallpaper, a popup says that AOL (my ISP) is trying to connect (dial-up connection), and do I want it to? When I click "cancel," then eventually I get an Explorer - EXE error message:
"The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\System32\SHDOCVW.dll is not a valid Windows image. Check this against your installation diskette." After this, the machine just hangs, accessing the HD from time to time.
SHDOCVW.dll is the Web Browser Control. How would I "Check this against my installation diskette," if I didn't have only a crippled OEM one?
The "restore" CD from Toshiba is of little use--one of those that will allow only reformat and reinstall--no Recovery Console, no Backup, no copying uncorrupted files, etc.
Is there any way to tinker with the OEM installation CD, to get at files, or build an uncrippled version, from a Mac? I have access to one running OS 10.4.
Sorry--cannot install HijackThis or anything else at this point.
Please, is there anything I can do to get cleaned and back on the road, short of reformatting & reinstalling? I'd really find it satisfying to fix this problem (after all, ANYBODY can bail, and simply reformat--where's the challenge in that?!), and have no serious time pressure.
Many thanks in advance,
Katie