New Laptop troubles

as some of you know, my old laptop died a terrible death and now I have a new one, which I think it meeting with the same fate..

Yesterday I had to download a very large document, which took mostly all day, and put it on adobe flashdrive.

today when I turned it on in the morning, it had a completely completely different setting. I don't recognize it at all.. it is the 'teletubbies' setting.. I never had that before, in fact in an attempt to modernize it recently I downloaded a program that makes it look like vista.. and today it is odd, so odd looking, and all my files and folders have gone missing, including the rather large document I downloaded yesterday it is a few gigas, it is 5 books I need to have...

Anyhow I re-downloaded it and that took most of the morning, I turned off my computer and took it to my den and turned it on again, and again everything has gone missing.. frankly I am so annoyed I can wring someone's neck right now and the only thing that is keeping me from doing it, is that I am writing this to vent..

be that as it may.. I will not redownload that file.. and most likely will wait until I see my br. and have it fix it for me, if at all possible..

I just need to know what happened, why does it have this bizzare xp setting, where have all my files and folders gone to, and why.. I should have really large hard drive to withstand all this.. also is the fact that I wirelessly downloaded everything the culprit behind those two system crashes?


thank you

Thats quite unsual but I think it might be to do with that makes it look like vista. Im sure you havent lost the files rather they been stored in a download folder. Have you tried using the search function to locate the file (start>search>documents>type file name).

Your hard drive should be quite big anyway especially for a few GB's as you have a new laptop.

P.S. my condolences about the passing away of your previous laptop, what happened to it?exploded?or was slow and painful?

eh.. it was slow and painful.. by the end the keyboard was so crusty you couldn't even push down the buttons.. I believe my d and z weren't working from all the crumbs..

every time I promise I'd be good and treat them with kid gloves like I do gucci shoes but inevitably they all die.. the other one would go into comas.. toward the end I'd turn it on, it works then all fades into blackness until all consciousness was lost.. imsad...

Yeah I'd uninstall that program that makes XP look like Vista.

I would love to, but my uninstaller has gone missing too if you can believe it..
Thank God I had enough sense to have put some of my more important documents on a usb flashdrive...

also my 'z' drive, which had the bulk of material, including some live lecture recordings is no longer on 'my computer' how can I even begin search for that?

you cant go to control panel?

I can but everything is empty and I have no uninstaller I promise.. if it were there, I'd uninstall alot.. to begin with I am not sure where half my programs went... I am not computer savvy but somethings I can do.. and I have tried.. even when I do a search for files it turns up empty

ok just do a system restore, it will revert back to the changes on the date last restore date was set (start>programs>acessories>systemtools>systemrestore>restore to earlier date)

well the system restore didn't work either.. but thank you for trying to help me.. I really appreciate it...

I think I'll stay away from the computer a while.. it has been annoying me to think of how much is lost..

Can you boot into safe mode? What kind of computer is it?

it is a brand new dell...I believe this is safe mode 'teletubby land'
the layout is actually improved if you can believe it..but all my programs are gone, and anything I save currently gets lost by the next reboot.. I think I'll just wait until my br. comes and checks it out insha'Allah..

Does it say safe mode? If so then yes you are in safe mode.

When you are restarting your computer start pressing F8 and it should give an option on how to start Windows.

JeffX said:

Does it say safe mode? If so then yes you are in safe mode.

When you are restarting your computer start pressing F8 and it should give an option on how to start Windows.

Click to expand...

No.. but it does say, one or more folders maybe corrupt, can't restore your original setting!

Whats the make and model of your machine?

where can i find that? it says centrino and inspiron on it.. does that help?

Right its dell.....its a new laptop yes? What you need to do is run a recovery on the laptop. It should be somthing int he user manual about restoring the computer to factory settings. DO that, and when your downloading the files are you sure your savinn them not clicking run?

qassy! said:

Right its dell.....its a new laptop yes? What you need to do is run a recovery on the laptop. It should be somthing int he user manual about restoring the computer to factory settings. DO that, and when your downloading the files are you sure your savinn them not clicking run?

Click to expand...

I tried recovery.. in fact all day I have done everything I could. even when I recover and I reboot, all is lost again.. I'll concede that at this stage it is beyond my sphere of expertise.. I believe I have corrupted it yesterday with that large wireless download from utorrent.. bas al7mdlilah 3la kol 7al.. I'll just wait until sunday, have it looked it..

I do appreciate everyone's help..

So everything is lost? Are you using an antivirus? Because your downloaidng torrents, virus affects your computer.

it has mcafee and some other crap had to disable all yesterday to download my files though.. I am certain it contracted something through utorrent...

pretty much the bulk is lost yeah lol...
bas my br has a back up from when my other computer died.. or maybe they are all hiding in c drive but regular search can't find them who knows at this stage.. I'll be patient insha'Allah

Sister is it a brand new laptop and not second hand?
Then you need to run a recovery, making the computer like new.
Once that is done, make sure you do not disable (turn off) the anit virus, because of this its killing your laptop.

You have a trojan / spyware a regular anti virus would not pick it up you need SpyBot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-Aware 7.0
and they can be downloaded free here:

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/3000-8022_4-10045910.html

and

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html?tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10861988