Buffer Zone Pro screen blank

[oldbilbobaggins]

Hi! This is a cry for help on Christmas Day.....

I'm running XP3 on a Dell Dimension E520, and downloaded/installed BufferZone Pro freeware via Gizmo, into D/ProgramFiles/BufferZonePro. The 'install' suggested a reboot, which I OK'd.

The restart took me through the Windows startup splashscreen 'loading your personal preferences' to a blank light blue screen with no icons - nothing but a cursor. There's no reaction to any combo of keystrokes I can think of, and I assume that BufferZone is excluding me from everything. I've tried the power-off form of shutdown, and I can get into a black 'Safe Mode' screen, again with no options visible.

I can also get into a 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt' mode, but cannot remember the command line instructions to get me to a 'Restore' situation.

I've managed to get a 'live disc' of Ubuntu 9.04 'jaunty' to startup, and I can see the BZP folder using that, but don't know how to use this OS to uninstall BZP or force a Windows 'Restore', if that's possible.

Maybe I need to find a Windows Boot CD....

How do I get out of this?

Of course, this is another machine..... ops:

Bilbo

[wdhpr]

Try rebooting then while its going through the startup tap the F8 key. You will be presented a screen with several options. You could start in safe mode or Select last known working windows configuration (It restores from a previous restore point). I you start in safe mode you may considering uninstalling Bufferzone

Just for future reference you might want to consider making a back up image just to have something to fall back on in the worse case scenario.

Hope this helps
Wdhpr

[oldbilbobaggins]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

Try rebooting then while its going through the startup tap the F8 key. You will be presented a screen with several options. You could start in safe mode or Select last known working windows configuration (It restores from a previous restore point). I you start in safe mode you may considering uninstalling Bufferzone

Just for future reference you might want to consider making a back up image just to have something to fall back on in the worse case scenario.

Hope this helps
Wdhpr

Thanks for that, but done that.

The 'Safe Mode' screen displays no options. The 'Last known working config' screen produces, after the Windows splash screen, the same blank lightblue background screen - with no icons and no options. It seems the system thinks that Windows starts up OK, and that BZP is doing what it should, so the last known working config is exactly that....

I can get into a 'Safe Mode with command prompt' mode, and can input DOS instructions, but I need advice on whether this can be used to uninstall BZP or initiate a Restore Point far enough back.

There must be a way into this system which permits me to 'reel back' the functioning of BZP, short of a reformat and data loss.

I've started the machine using a Ubuntu 'live disc' which lets me see the directory which holds the BZP folders, but I don't know how to use that OS to uninstall the program.

Maybe there's a way, this way....

Anyone know?

[kendall.a]

If you can get into safe mode, you might be able to uninstall the program from there. Did you try the programs uninstaller from within Safe Mode or did you try going to add/remove programs from within safe mode?

[Ritho]

Please don't do anything as drastic as a reformat! Why would you need to reformat anyway? Even if you can't recover you windows install, there is no need to lose data. In the first place, if you can see your drive with linux, then you can copy your data to another medium to protect it. Which would be a good idea in case something happens while you are trying to recover.

In fact I would also suggest before doing much else, download a Live CD of Clonezilla http://clonezilla.org/ and make an image of your system drive.

The best way to proceed in repairing your system if you can't get into safemode is to use the recovery console. To get the recovery console you need your XP installation CD. Once you boot from it, at some point you have the option to press "r" to start the recovery console. (For more specific details see here)

Once you are in the recovery console you will have to choose your windows installation and log in using your password if you have one.

Then at the command prompt type the following command

listsvc

You will get a list of services. Check to see if any service for BZ is being loaded. If so, disable it using the following.

disable name_of_service

After disabling all the services for BZ try rebooting Windows. To exit the recovery console and restart, simply type "exit."

[wdhpr]

The best way to proceed in repairing your system if you can't get into safemode is to use the recovery console. To get the recovery console you need your XP installation CD. Once you boot from it, at some point you have the option to press "r" to start the recovery console. (For more specific details see here)

The problem with using that Windows recovery console is if you only have the recovery CD like most computers come with now days you can't access the recovery console
I even had to burn my own CD's for my sons computer. (talk about being cheap)
I agree about making a image for recovering the data at a later time.

Good luck
Wdhpr

[oldbilbobaggins]

Thanks to those who tried to help. I got nowhere, and remained locked out of my machine by this 'unfit for purpose' software. A peek at the BZP Users Forum tells me that many others are having difficult days with this. I won't be considering anything else from this source.

At the end of another frustrating day, I phoned a sailing friend - a retired IBM and Microsoft MVP - who used his forensic tools to strip out my files/folders/data, installed a new OS and suite of primary apps, built an image and copies, sucked more data/files/images off a couple of 'nixed' external drives and gave me supper.

Now that was a productive use of time! Then we went sailing.....

oldbilbo