Computer Help

[TheWall55]

I am not sure if this is the right section, and if it is not, please tell me and I will post in the general discussion thread.

I am sure this is has happened to others and not just people with a fetish of some sort. My computer needs repair beyond my expertise. I am willing to wager most of you know where this is going and the question I am about to pose: Has anyone ever had to bring their computer to a professional? More importantly: How do you "clean" it before doing so? My computer has is an HP Pavilion dv7 (Windows 7) and I can only run it in safe mode with out problems. Sometimes I get lucky in regular mode but safe mode is the only guarantee.

I am sure that there are answers on google and I am looking those up as well. I was just wondering if anybody here has faced this issue and if they were able to resolve it.

 

[robmic]

I just give it to them and don't look guilty..... 😀

 

[ImNotDave]

Well I've not had this exact problem, but I have had a computer die on me a few years back. I used a program (and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called) on a CD that when you turned the laptop on, it booted straight to the cd, rather than windows, and allowed me to view my hard drive content, so I could select it all and copy it to an external system so I wouldnt lose any data.
Basically you need to do that, if only I could remember what the program was called. Damnit. All is not lost though! To be honest, if you know what software to use, you don't need to pay a fortune for a techguy to fix your machine, because all he's going to do is use the same software anyway!

 

[ElFewja]

You don't remove every trace of any file. Ever. Unless you destroy the hard drive beyond any sort of repair, anyway.

You want to take your pc to a shop and you don't want them to know there is tickling content on there? Honestly, I'm sure they won't even look, and even if they did I'm sure they won't care. If you're that concerned then delete the stuff you don't want anyone to know about, then clear your recycling bin. Although it's not 100% gone, it might as well be for most people, those guys included. At least it would be pretty hard to detect even with the intent of looking for said files.

Obviously if you want to keep the files then back them up on some sort of external... thing (hard drive, cds, dvds, etc).

But, you can boot into safe mode, just not normal windows? Have you tried rolling back or re-installing windows (as in, not formatting your drive but doing a re-install/repair windows)? Your issue sounds like it might just be some minor corruption.

On the other hand it could be a dozen of things and without further info/looking at the machine itself, I can't offer much advice. Though my guess is that the shop would just wipe your hard drive and reinstall windows, anyway. Or something similar enough (maybe keeping files, I don't know).

 

[ElFewja]

To expand upon ImNotDave's commentary:

What he describes can be done with a lot of different programs/cds. Ubuntu/linux, for example, can be run off a cd.. so if you have a virus, for example, then it wouldn't be able to affect the operating system since it's being run off a cd. In that case you would be able to explore the contents of the computer and manually delete a virus. This can be done with a windows cd as well, and I would assume any sort of operating system cd. Anything that doesn't boot up the operating system on the hard drive would work, really.

 

[Cellmate]

@ImNotDave

Are you on about SpinRite, perhaps? When my old PC went down, I booted from a CD that contained SpinRite. Worked perfectly for months on end.

 

[firegod86]

Try a system restore for now. It usually helps.

 

[TicklingTips]

If you can boot in safe mode, why not just put the files you're worried about on a CD or external hard drive, then delete them? What am I missing here?

 

[-Hari-]

Do you want to remove evidence of your fetish or are you trying to avoid loosing files that may get deleted in the fixing process?

If they stumble across porn on your computer, why is that an issue? everyone has porn, its only an issue if its illegal stuff like child stuff.

 

[TheWall55]

Thanks for the responses. I do not have any videos or pictures downloaded currently. I have deleted some old ones. I mostly go here. I am just interested to see if anyone knows if they can find deleted material and if they can see what I have watched here or on youtube. Or if they will know my computer is slow because I watched a video on youtube and find the specific video. Honestly the trouble started with mlb.tv.

 

[ImNotDave]

@ImNotDave

Are you on about SpinRite, perhaps? When my old PC went down, I booted from a CD that contained SpinRite. Worked perfectly for months on end.

I don't think that was the name. The CD I used didn't actually boot into the system, all it did was show me my hard drive/folders and allow me to copy/paste them onto an external device. It was very basic. Like a stripped down version of windows explorer. Once I had copied everything important, I just formatted the machine.

 

[Smade]

Most current linux distributions will work in "live" mode - ie. boot from the cd/dvd and allow you access to the drive. You can even install it alongside windows if you want.

Files can be viewable on a system unless they are specifically removed by overwriting as just deleting only removes the marker to the file and not the actual contents.
For videos watched on youtube etc it will usually be available in your browser cache which can be cleared. If you can boot to safe mode you should be able to delete the cache and flush these out.

So one option would be to clear the cache and then use something like

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15037/use-an-ubuntu-live-cd-to-securely-wipe-your-pcs-hard-drive/

to boot into linux and then shred any files you think might be compromising. If you have your own windows account on that system you can delete that profile which would remove all the files associated with it. This could also be done in safe mode by logging in as the system Administrator and deleting that profile. I'm not sure if you could login as yourself and delete your own profile.

If you do decide to manually delete files please keep in mind that you could easily delete some system files which would then mean that the system would stop working and would need a full re-install of windows.

If you have the windows disk you could try a repair in safe mode http://pbcomp.com.au/using-windows-safe-mode.html
as selecting the "Last Known Good configuration" could solve your problem. Once windows has loaded on a good boot it will do so again the next time.

So more than a few options open to you.