My Lenovo running windows 11 is showing the blue screen of death. Tried lots of Command Prompts found on youtube, and no luck so far. I am able to get data and copy it to a thumb drive by using command prompt notepad.exe. Soooo…
First, I did lose wireless access before it crashed. When I tried to fix the wireless problem, the computer said I had a Virtual Network Adapter that it could not analyze. I have no idea what that is. I did find it, and on advice I disabled it, and then enabled it again. That was supposed to fix my wireless problem. Instead I got the blue screen of death, saying that “Critical Process Died”.
Second, any idea where on the C drive I can find my Turbo Tax and H & R block past returns?
Third, I found that after I copy a document over to my thumb drive, I am able to delete that document on the C drive. I assume it is sent to the Recycle Bin. I am not able to find the recyle bin using notepad.exe. Any idea what the pathway is to it? I believe that I do NOT have a search option while using this command prompt. I have no intention of turning my computer over to anyone to restore the operating system unless I know for sure they can’t see the various 1099’s, W-2s, etc, that I have left on my computer for year.
And if anyone knows any good command prompts or other methods to get the trouble shooing suggestions to work, like system resore, etc. I’d love to hear about them. Thanx much for reading. Wished I had backed up more often to external drives and then deleted off the computer… Or at least encrypted.
The wireless not working is now a minor problem. First I’ve got to get the Windows 11 operating system to boot up…which it does not want to do, even in safe mode.
Ok Black I am googling “stuff” and realize that I do not repair computers as a job but I do enjoy working on them. If you would like some suggestions I will help you but if not I have no problem just fading off. So let me know if you would rather I just shut up and sit down.
With that being said have you tried this?
On the User Account Control (UAC) prompt, click Yes. In the command prompt window, type SFC /scannow and press Enter . System file checker utility checks the integrity of Windows system files and repairs them if required.
Yes, I did run SFS /scannow. It said it found some corrupted files and fixed them. The fix would go into effect at the next reboot. So I shut off the computer, turned it back on, and still got the blue screen,saying CRITICAL PROCESS DIED. I tried many of the trouble-shooting options, but most were not able to execute. I did NOT try the one that would wipe out all my documents on the hard drive.
There are many youtube videos that give command prompts that supposedly work around these blocks and supposedly allow you to use the trouble shooting options. None of them worked, except one…and that one allowed me to do a system restore back to March 19th. But even then, I got the blue screen with the same message.
I DID use command prompt “notepad.exe”, and with that I was able to move many of my documents and pictures over to a thumb drive. THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT. I still have to figure out how to use that command to access my Excel spreadsheet and my actual tax returns from Turbo Tax and H&R block.
Next I called the Office Depot store where I bought my Lenovo. I told them I remembered they gave me a code to download a copy of the operating system in case I ever needed it. I could not find the code anyplace in my notes, and the guy at the store said he could not help me, since it was 4 years ago that I bought the computer.
Good news next. I googled “Lenovo support” just for the heck of it, not expecting to reach anyone. As it turned out, I got great service. He walked me through several steps, then he told me to get a paper clip. And to stick the paper clip in a tiny hole on the side of the computer, that showed an arrow that reverses direction. That brought up the BIOS. When I gave him the specs of the hard drive, which was something from Toshiba, he told me right away that the operating system was corrupt. So I paid $129, I have a new operating system coming in the mail on a USB. They will help me to install it over the phone once it arrives. They did tell me I will lose all my documents and other stuff when I do it.
On Amazon and other places, you can buy a Windows 11 boot-up on a thumb drive for a lot less than $129. I wish maybe I had tried that option first before sending off $129 to Lenovo support. Oh well.
So now I just have to figure out perserving my spead sheets and tax returns to a thumb drive. I have to use the path starting from the C drive to find them. I CANNOT open the TT or H&R Bock or Excel programs on notepad.exe, so I have to hopefully find the documents someplace.
Last thing, while going through various supposed fixes found on youtube, it appears that Americas Card Room did an update around March 26th. I do wonder if that is what caused the crash.
Thanks for responding. I just posted all this in case anyone is interested in reading it.
I don’t know if this is possible - but maybe. Can you get another computer and connect the SSD from your computer as an external drive and off load the files that way?
I’m not sure what an SSD is. Does this process involve taking the computer apart? That would be all new to me. I did see on a youtube video that one can buy an inexpensive device, carefully remove part of the infected computer, and use it to put the data on another device. I’m not sure if I am that brave. Then again, it might be my last option to save data that have not copied over to a thumb drive yet (spread sheets and turbo tax stuff)
The computer experts in town said they can do this, and I would have to leave my computer with them for a few days. I really don’t want people that I don’t know getting access to financial documents. If I could be right there with them for the process, and get to take everything back home with me, then maybe. But to leave my computer with them for a few days would put me out of my comfort level. I thinkk of myself as being relatively trusting of others, but…not with my finacial account info.
An SSD is a solid state drive. Some disk drives have a rotating disk and others are just chips like in a USB drive
Yes, you;ll have to open the computer to unplug the drive
Note that the recycle bin is stored in the root drive of each disk.
So it will be in C:$Recycle.Bin
Note that it will be a hidden folder and the contents will all be hidden.
So you have to change the attributes of the folder and its contents to see the files
I am talking about getting your data. Data is not something you can easily replace and in many cases it can not be replaced – think digital pictures. You either have a copy (might be a backup or you don’t).
Like you I don’t want people knowing things I consider personal and private. That said, there are huge amounts of data people consider private that are known by others. My cell phone broadcasts its location 7/24. T-Mobile knows it. I have no control what T-Mobile or some clown working for T-mobile chooses to do with that data. I have a few credit cards. The credit card companies (and most like the 3 credit rating agencies) know where I spend money. They can see dates I purchase from liqour stores and when I charge my Tesla at a SuperCharger. People who work in my local hospital can read all my medical history - it is against the law and they would be fired for doing that but they can read stuff and again I have no way to restrict what they do with what they read.
So the question is what risks you are willing to accept to get your data. Personally, I would choose letting the local computer geek get my data some piece of software from a company I don’t know. (I would not hesitate in your situation to trusting the likes of Microsoft or Apple - but as far as I know they don’t do that kind of stuff.)
I would not care to open up the case of my laptop, but there should be someone locally for whom that is no challenge at all. They could remove the drive, copy to to an external (which you bring or they sell you), then put it back and close it up. The external drive might be an SSD like this SanDisk.
