That is weird

Post #143,323 by deSitter 2/25/04 6:12:17 PM Reply	That is weird I've seen every conceivable manner of Windows death, and I've never even heard of this one before. I think something may be up. I seem to remember a day in February, late, being trotted out a couple of months ago.. -drl
Post #143,331 by hnick 2/25/04 6:23:48 PM Reply	Sure is. I wonder if it might be the payload of some innocuous worm that has been lieing dormant for some time waiting for some trigger. I have nothing to support this thought but paranoia and the coincidence. It's the first time I've seen this as well. Oh ick... interesting times....
Post #143,336 by deSitter 2/25/04 6:32:01 PM Reply	Re: Sure is. The really weird thing is - it's the SOFTWARE key in particular. This is the most important key in the registry. Of course if your copy of user.dat stored in local settings is missing, that shouldn't directly affect the SOFTWARE key - that's in system.dat and it's under WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32. -drl
Post #143,434 by hnick 2/26/04 9:33:12 AM Reply	Yeah, brain fart The most noticeable thing was that the directory had gone away. On inspection WINNT\\system32\\config\\system and WINNT\\system32\\config\\system.alt had also both gone away as well. I find the whole thing strange in any event. Still, toast is toast... the machine is still rebuilding over the network and I'm using a laptop which is murder on my carpal tunnel, so I'm REALLY in a mood today.
Post #143,385 by broomberg 2/25/04 10:16:10 PM Reply	True hardware error in my case IDE drive hosed in certain area, which I assume it where that file was. I had spent the morning juggling a KVM with my systems. I wanted to be able to see my Windows Desktop on my nice 21" monitor. And I wanted to use my good IBM keyboard that was on my Linux box. So I stole an old Apex Outlook KVM from our graveyard and started plugging stuff in. But then I found an old IBM keyboard that needed some serious cleaning. So I popped the caps, put them in a bucket to soak, and blew the keyboard. But while I was re-arranging I realized that my trackballs were serial but the KVM is PS/2. So I started scrounging for a couple of converters, of which I found 1. But then I realized even when my 21" screen was on Linux I wanted to see my Windows desktop on a 19" screen so I could monitor my email, so I then plugged in a VGA splitter to send the signal to both the 21" and the 19", and I used the switch on the front of the 21" to bounce between my Linux session and my Windows session. And then I realized that I also wanted 2 keyboard active at the same time since when I facing the 19" I wanted the keyboard live even though it was not my primary keyboard. So I added a dual keyboard/single system plug. And then I realized I needed to do the samething with the 2nd trackball, but I couln't find another Serial->PS/2. Since I had found the 2nd good IBM keyboard the KVM didn't look so important anymore, especially since in practice I didn't like bouncing between Windows and Linux on my 21" monitor. So I start to put it back the old way, leaving the good newly washed IBM keyboard in place. Did you ever read: "If you give a mouse a cookie?" And then I got the boot error. IT delivered a new box before I left tonight, I just need to install a couple of apps and I'll be fine.

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