I would just be happy to get Adobe not to load itself automatically every time I reboot, or be checking for updates, or whatever. It annoys the heck out of me.
As long as you have your backups it' just an annoyance, not a catastrophe.
If you have no backups, it may be a catastrophe.
ping
Ditto what E. Pluribus Unum said with a slight variation. I’d buy a new hard drive, put down a new install on that, then slave in your old drive. See if that old drive isn’t totally trashed. If not, I’d scan it pretty quick for viruses. At least any data on there may still be good. Hopefully, much of it is still intact. In any case, you have a bunch of work to get back square one. Sorry for your pain. I’ve had similar pain a number of times with no easy road back.
If you have your install DVD, boot from that and see if it can repair your drive.
Do you have a cd for the operating system or a system repair cd? If so you can try to boot from the cd and do a boot repair.
It sounds like when you pulled the cord, some of the windows driver files got corrupted.
As others have said, try safe mode first. What you want to do is run a disk check if you can get there.
If that doesn’t work, google recovery console, and run a chkdsk in recovery console.
If that doesn’t work, if you have an OS CD or DVD, boot it and do a repair installation.
All three methods result in the loss of no data or programs.
(99% of the time barring you had an actual hardware failure, and Adobe running an update at the time was a coincidence)
Yeah, sounds like a bad hard drive might be the culprit. Boot from CD (get a live Linux distro if you have to) and try to fix it, but I hope for your sake your data is backed up.
Spell-check is also malfunctioning on your present computer.
Many here already told you a few of the best options... but I don’t believe anyone has mentioned the problem that got you in the mess in the first place..
ANYTHING Adobe, update/upgrade direct from their site... NEVER let it do an auto-update.
It can cause instances like this... AND there are many exploits that people fake you into installing virus/trojan/loggers through the Adobe update pop-up.
I wish you the best of luck, and remember to NOT use the auto.. cancel and go directly to their site if there is an update ;)
Software updates are like burritos.
Every once in awhile you get hold of a bad one and
experience indigestion.
I can’t begin to tell you how many people have had problems here at work with Adobe Reader version 10.1 and up! Their software keeps getting crappier and crappier. Ditto to msconfig, safe mode and if necessary, recovery/repair. Going forward, ditch adobe reader and try Foxit PDF reader instead!
Something similar happened to me once when I ‘updated’ Win XP from SP2 to SP3 via the Windows Update service... MBR on the HDD got corrupted. Got the same message you did.
Download the free utility “Partition Table Doctor” and burn it to a CD. Set the CD drive in BIOS as your primary boot device and reboot your PC with the CD in your CD drive.
Choose ‘Repair MBR’ (or something like that) from the menue when PTD has loaded. Should take less than a second and you’re good to go again with your original drive. Remember to reset your HDD as the primary boot device in BIOS when rebooting. Read the online documentation for PTD beforehand.
Had to use PTD a time or two since (for other connected drives), actually. Works like a charm every time.
Good luck.
I refuse to say anything about the superiority of any other operating system on the advice of my attorney...
Have you ever “dusted” the INSIDE of your computer? Dust can cause components to overheat. Give it a VERY CAREFUL vacuuming or blow out, avoiding static electricity as you do it. Is your computer near a heat source? Can cool air circulate around it? Make sure all chips & plugs are firmly connected.
If your hard drive/computer is old, it may be failing. Best get a backup if possible.
One more thing: If you don't know what you are doing, fiddling around with it - especially software - can do more damage than good.
Last time I has a similar problem, I spent $75 in a computer shop & got back everything on the system, plus it ran like a new computer. Best $75 I've spent in years. Two years later is is still running, & I was sure it was dead.
Ok lots of nonsense, so lets fix this puppy.
Likely not the issue but first things first. Boot to your bios get the model number of the hardrive, make a boot disk from the drive MFG’s diagnostic software and run it. If your good, then you need to get a windows install cd the same one your using. If its vista or 7, there is a built in memory checker run that. If your XP get a memory checker make a boot disk and run it. If all is good, next boot from the install cd/dvd and get to the repair page command prompt, run chkdsk/p or /f (when in doubt /h and let it repair.) then reboot to safe mode. Send me exact error messages including the first 2 of the long alpha numeric strings. Lastly one of the big security holes are plugins like adobe. If your system is post XP, windows defender offline would be another good tool to run to make sure your clean.
If your hard drive is not listed in the bios, likely your hosed. but unplug, open the case, clean the inside(air Vac) remove the drive and look at the board with magnification, any burns its toast, reinstall and retry.
Good luck
“Dreeded coputer.”
This is stuning.