Shh

Good idea, maybe somebody else has better ideas than me : )

There seem to be some deeper issues here. I don't really use windows so it's a bit difficult for me but I'd test chkdsk /r now, maybe check the sfc logs for what it's not able to scan (that's what that message means I think). Those should be somwhere like: C:\WINDOWS\LOGS\CBS\CBS.LOG.

That is not something that I can answer, it should be 'safe' as in 'not going to burn your house down' but what's going on with your components... hard to say... Did you test the build out of the case before this happened? Do you have the ability to test those components with any other system?

Is the hardware new? This is starting to sound like some hardware glitch.

Out of curiosity run sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt. According to Microsoft all this is caused by a botched update or (for some reason) botched MSI software...

From HERE

So it's like this - 1) The installer tried to do what it should but had some unknown problem 2) You forced a reboot (therefore the installer did not finish properly) 3) What you should do now is what I posted in the first place: Reinstall or check the hardware from a different OS. (BTW., the screenshot looks like the same problem Linus had in one of the scrapyard wars videos ;] )

But is the system booting from the HDD now?

The system "installed" and booted from the hdd? Or is the CD installer causing problems?

It's hard to tell what's wrong... it may be a hardware problem, it may be a windows problem... and a few other things... if it's a fresh install i'd probably force a reboot and try again and if the problem persists check the hardware from a different OS from a live CD/USB.

This. If possible post your .conf file (after censoring out anything that's not supposed to be public ;] ) What error does the browser throw at you when you try to connect? (DNS_PROBE_NOT_FINISHED? ERR_NO_CONNECTION?). What does the OpenVPN log contain (those are usually added to the syslog, " grep VPN /var/log/syslog " this should print out some stuff) Have you enabled ipforwarding? ( run " sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward " from the terminal, the proper value should be 1 ) Regarding IPTABLES - did you set up SNAT or MASQUERADE ? Those are some things of the top of my head without any proper debugging info, but it should get you going.

I'm afraid that this issue is going to be near impossible to diagnose without having some parts to replace your current setup... My advice - take the whole thing to a PC shop and have it done by somebody with the tools for the job. The diagnosis itself shouldn't be that expensive.

Are we speaking about the setup in your signature ? Does cat /proc/bus/input/devices > ~/devices contain a Name="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" line (or similar) ?

Please follow THIS guide.

Do you have physical access to the machine? It sounds like the server didn't startup properly...