Friend has trouble - Needs help.

[vK 3 1 RON]

So basically his computer isn't working the way it should, he's restarted multiple times now and still hasn't received anything, I'm wondering if it's a hard drive failure but still it doesn't make sense. 

 

Anyway, the symptoms/problems are that A) When he opens task manager he is given a black screen, b) He said his 'stuff' is gone and c) he can't open: control panel, steam or settings.

 

I'm honestly not sure what to tell him anymore, any help is appreciated,

 

Thanks

vK

[The_Denks]

2 minutes ago, vK 3 1 RON said:

So basically his computer isn't working the way it should, he's restarted multiple times now and still hasn't received anything, I'm wondering if it's a hard drive failure but still it doesn't make sense. 

 

Anyway, the symptoms/problems are that A) When he opens task manager he is given a black screen, b) He said his 'stuff' is gone and c) he can't open: control panel, steam or settings.

 

I'm honestly not sure what to tell him anymore, any help is appreciated,

 

Thanks

vK

Sounds like a failing hard drive.

At this point, tell him to stop using it, buy a new one, and take them to a disk recovery service/store and ask them to try and recover what data they can off the faulty one and put it onto the new one

[vK 3 1 RON]

5 minutes ago, UberGamerKing said:

Sounds like a failing hard drive.

At this point, tell him to stop using it, buy a new one, and take them to a disk recovery service/store and ask them to try and recover what data they can off the faulty one and put it onto the new one

Refuses to believe it's a failing hard drive and to be honest I've come into more detail now: He's lost  most of his desktop icons (bummer I know) also, he has 'settings' open in the taskbar but it won't let him open that window when he clicks on it. Also, it appears that his alt+tab doesn't work to tab into other application windows. 

[The_Denks]

Just now, vK 3 1 RON said:

Refuses to believe it's a failing hard drive and to be honest I've come into more detail now: He's lost  most of his desktop icons (bummer I know) also, he has 'settings' open in the taskbar but it won't let him open that window when he clicks on it. Also, it appears that his alt+tab doesn't work to tab into other application windows. 

Tell him to stop using his PC immediately.

Continuing to use that hard drive in this state could permanently damage the drive, rendering the files un-recoverable.

The more he uses it, the worse he is making it.

[Shahnewaz]

Tell him to try "sfc/ scannow" on elvated command prompt (unless it's not Windows 10).

His OS is corrupted in some way. Either it's his hard drive or a virus.

Either way, it's time to backup as much data as possible from the drive immediately.

[vK 3 1 RON]

4 minutes ago, Shahnewaz said:

Tell him to try "sfc/ scannow" on elvated command prompt (unless it's not Windows 10).

His OS is corrupted in some way. Either it's his hard drive or a virus.

Either way, it's time to backup as much data as possible from the drive immediately.

I've been trying to get him into a command prompt for ages brb

[Train27]

If it is indeed a hard drive failure, sorry but you're friend is probably screwed by now.

 

However, if it's the OS that's failing, there's still hope. Download a live OS on a usb and plug it to the computer (when off, of course). Then, when booting the pc again, make sure to enter the 'boot menu' (usually done pressing F12) and choose the USB in the bios menu you'll be given. When the live OS has booted, tell him to look on his hard drive (via this live os) and see if everything's ok. If it is, grab everything he values and store it on another external hard drive / usb and proceed to hard format that hard drive.

 

P.S.: make sure you make a "full shutdown" of windows before trying to boot the usb live OS, or it won't be able to access any of the data in the hard drive. This can be done pressing "Shift" while turning it off or by restarting the computer; in this case you have to plug the usb while Windows is shutting down.