iam well pleased with the above superantispyware,been using about a year now as well as ad-aware and S & D,
been thinking about the PRO version HERE
not that much to stop the bad ones,

Just to add to what these guys have said.
I run Norton & Luke Filewalker continuously, and yesterday ran CCleaner and Windows Registry Fix.
Having read the above, I thought I would give it a go. Downloaded, updated and ran, and it discovered, and named, 12 Adware programmes, now deleted.
Very impressed.

I'm using an Asus laptop. With XP Pro.

Can anyone explain why the cursor, from time to time, jumps back about four or five lines? And not necessarily to the start or end of a line.

It happens in Word, Virtual Access (my e:mail software) and even when writing these thread messages.

For a while I thought I was hitting some 'up' key - but that does not seem to be the answer as it can happen when I am not typing at all and merely looking at the screen to gather my thoughts.

Any clues friends?

TP

TP, is your laptop new, and does it have a touchpad? The only reason I can think of this happening is if you're accidentally brushing the touchpad.

SC

Could easily be that.

Will take evasive action!!

TP

Well, before I got my photos backed up the hard disc has crashed. It's saying "file record ....... is unreadable". I presume that's pretty terminal. Got all my documents backed up. Is there any hope for my photos? Have some backed up but by no means all :-(

tp , overheating??

SC

Yes there is hope but it is complicated. The first thing to do is switch off the computer and don't try to use it again.

What exactly happened to your disk?

Have you another machine that you can mount your disk on and has it enough free space for your entire disk?

Consider how mch time and/or money you are prepared to spend to get them back

There are specialist disk recovery companies who would charge minimum of hundreds.

I have used a disk recovery program in the past that cost around 30. It recovered almost all of a formated disk but took a considerable time and effort.

If you are interesed, I'll find the details.

Edit

You could try chkdsk /f but using this may fix the problem or may clean the corrupted files up but make them very diffcult or impossible to access. It all depends how badly this disk is damaged. Don't do this yet.

Optimist, do I stop the chkdsk from running now, and just by turning off or how?

Second, yes I can mount the disk on another machine. I'd be interested to know about the program. The photos would be a loss but not catastrophic. I may just have to ask friends to let me have copies of their photos of the same events!

I would really like to get them back though. Just didn't have time to backup.Machine has been taking longer and longer to boot up and close down,

edit now up to 62% checked. An AWFUL lot of errors being reported.

SC

I would not stop chkdsk. Are you using it with the /f switch?

No. I know what that does!

edit My PC man is round the corner and is very reasonable. I'll consult him in the morning. Thanks for your help.

SC

If you don't use the /F switch then it will not change anything on the disk - assuming you are using NTFS file system. switch off and consider your options.

Edit

Whatever you do, mount the disk on another computer. This will prevent any files being overwritten by Windows.

What,switch off now even though chkdsk is running?

edit, yes, ntfs

SC

No I'd let chkdsk finish. I don't think it would make any difference but without the /F it is in read only mode so it's not worth interupting it.

OK, thanks. Bedtime :-)

md

"overheating?? "

Unlikely. It's been happening for a while and I bought one of those coolers recently. No obvious connection.

TP

I had Norton anti virus but stopped paying for the updates and downloaded AVG free edition. Shall i just use AVG, as two firewalls seem to slow things up.

Aldwick, delete Norton first and fully via control panel, then and only then install AVG. I run AVG at home and it's fine. You mustn't run two av programs at once. edit and make sure you have a firewall running, AVG free doesn't have a firewall built in as far as I'm aware.

Update on the hard disc: Ran chkdsk/f accidentally overnight and we're in, now taking all the photos and other bits and bobs off and then it's time for a new hard disc methinks. So saved by the bell for now. Optimist, thanks for all your support.

Aldwick

Do a search on the Norton sight for "Norton Removal Tool". Uninstall does not remove it completely.

SC

I'm glad it worked out. Allthough you can never trust that disk, it may still be possible to use Partition Magic to clone the disk it's a lot easier that reinstalling.

If you go for a clean install, remember that you can't use pre SP2 install CD's on modern hard disks.

Once you are running again, check out Carbonite.com 15 day free trial (I will also benefit should you sign up from this link).

SC,

Lucky you.

Guess what was the first thing I did this morning. Take the external hard drive down to my studio and back up my photography computer!

That Carbonite system looks interesting. Snag is that I don't have a proper internet feed in my studio.

TP