Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 06:40 PM

I hope you are right, Bill. I have a feeling it has more to do with the little brother than a virus, too.

I had her try the latest things posted and, while none of them seemed to work, she did get a log in page with the little brother's name and it asking for his password. THAT's the first time she's seen that, SO when he get home from work and can give her the PW perhaps all will be revealed, I hope!

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 04:01 PM

Arrggghhh!

According to my dau., today, her friend and little brother took it to a computer place which did some kind of repair(?) on it and set it up in the little brother's name, not knowing it was hers. So, they took it back to them, today. Said computer experts claim the hard drive was toast and have installed a new one. Told her ALL of the files and programs I put on it for her before we sent it to her were LOST, that's all the photos, photo programs, etc. I told her I thought they were full of sh** but the main thing was to get it working again for her. The "Experts" told her they had trashed the old harddrive but would "try" to find it to see if she could possibly get any files off of it. Does this sound fishie-stinky to you guys?

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 04:30 PM

Okay, spoke to the computer guy. Perhaps we can put this puppy to rest, now.

In January, I am now told, friend(F) and little brother (LB) took it to the computer guys after it went wonky after trying to download some music. Computer Guy (CG) told me he ran diagnostics on it and according to Dell's own, the hard drive failed due to "shock." He said that could have been from a drop, a power surge, etc. So, he installed a new hard drive, setting it up in the LB's name as he didn't know it was my dau.'s. He also noted it didn't have a virus protector, even though I had loaded AVG in the original hard drive, so he would not guarantee it against virus, etc. He also thinks he gave back the old hard drive, with all of the lost stuff, as he didn't have it in his box of old HDs with customer tickets on them. He's going to look for it, though. He didn't try to recover lost files because he wasn't authorised to by LB at the time, not knowing about my dau.

So...today, he is going to check it for virus, malware, etc. get it up and running in HER name and get it back to her. After that, she WILL get my email with links for AVG, Ad-Aware, and Kerio Firewall and get them installed ASAP and she will NOT let the darn thing out of her sight, again.

And we thought the 8 year old grandsons might cause problems with it if they weren't careful!

Thanks a million to all of you for your help and perseverance.

kat

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: GUEST,Agent Dave
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 04:37 PM

I just figured this one out. On the computer I was working on the whole start bar was gone, start button, current tasks, and task manager.

I hit windows key + r to pull up the run menu typed control panel to access... well ya know. Switched to classic view and went into taskbar settings and kept messing around with the properties in there until i got it to come back up.

Hope this helps.

Agent Dave

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 05:03 PM

well, kat...when it is going again, there ways to LOCK a computer so that no one but the owner can get on. It's well to do this BEFORE LB and friends get near it. If I had to list all the folks I know who had problems because some friend or family member thought they'd sneak in some time and get music, porn...etc, I'd be at it awhile.

If one is gonna use toys with this many options it is important to know a bit about how they work and how to protect it. It's like leaving your car unlocked in the driveway with the key in it.

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 05:35 PM

kat -

I have been avoiding the suggestion that your problem is a hard drive failure, since there seemed to be some hope that another reason could be found.

I suspect the "experts" probably were correct in their assumption that the hard drive had gone. The "symptoms" are consistent - or at least not inconsistent = with at least partial loss of data due to HD damage. Replacing the HD would be the "normal" repair procedure, but a more "knowing" repair shop would recognize that people might want to have the chance to try recovery, and should NOT have "trashed" the old drive without asking. It probably is pretty routine to just discard a defective drive though, for many service shops, because data recovery is almost never found to be a viable option for most users who would consult them.

There are numerous data recovery businesses, and your best choice probaly would be to send the drive to one of them, if you're able to recover the drive. Having examined the options though, about a month ago when LiK's C:\ drive crapped out, I found that the ones I would trust typically charge an initial fee on the order of $500(US) to examine the drive to see what might be recoverable, with an additional charge for the actual recovery.

Lin's HD was still under warranty, and I was under some pressure to get it back to the mfr for a free replacement. I was not able to find an "off the shelf" recovery program that offered any real hope of getting anything useful. A major problem was that most such programs still operate in DOS mode for any data recovery, and her drive (and yours if it came with WinXP installed) was NTFS format, which none of the easily available programs can read - in recovery mode.

WinXP includes a utility called the "Recovery Console" that sometimes is able to let you copy files from a damaged drive, or rarely, to reconstruct the MBR to restore a drive; but without expert knowledge of Windows I can not recommend that you even look at trying to use it. (I wasn't able to get "that expert" with a month of researching it rather intensively, and wouldn't expect more than limited success even after I learned enough to try installing it.)

The Recovery Console is NEVER installed in any standard WinXP package, but should be on system CDs, for the curious. The curious should note that Microsoft KB information on the module is vague, conflicting, with essential information scattered among a dozen or so separate articles that aren't all that easy to find. It's another of the "if you need it you'll know it" things designed to keep the consultants in business.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: taskbar is gone, nothing works to get it
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 08:08 PM

Thanks, Agent Dave, I will remember that if this ever happens, again.

BillD, my mistake for NOT doing that before we sent it to her. I think she has learned her lesson, I hope. I will make sure she puts a lock in it from now on.:-)

John, thanks for not saying it might of been the HD before, I really woulda freaked!:-) It's okay if they cannot recover any of it. It was just all of our pictures I'd loaded from mine to hers, plus a few small programs that she hadn't even learned to use, yet, so no great loss. It just bothers me to have personal files lost like that. So glad I have an external backup HD now.

Thanks, again, folks. I really appreciate.

luvyakat