This category is for information on operating systems. Operating systems are a special type of software that determines what other software can be run on your computer.

Operating systems are a special type of software that determines what other software can be run on your computer. Operating systems communicate with a computer's hardware and allows users to work with data and applications through an interface.

Reinstalls and formats

Sometimes a computer may reach a point of software damage, whether from file corruption or an untreated virus, that require a reinstallation of the operating system. This can be done with the system disk(s) you received when you purchased your computer. A system reinstall will not delete any files, though you may have to do a bit of poking and searching to find them once the reinstall is complete. A reinstall will also require reinstallation of many programs, especially third-party ones, a fact that should be taken into consideration before doing a system reinstall. Drivers will also need to be reinstalled, so be sure you have the ability to find your device drivers off the internet and/or off your cd-roms. All pieces of hardware you have purchased come with driver software, usually packaged in cds, that can be used for reinstallation, and most drivers can also be reinstalled online through the Device Manager.

Formatting a disk will delete all files. Although a quick solve, formatting your hard-drive should only be used as an absolute last resort. Formatting can also be done with the system disk(s).

For all these reasons, file back-ups are great and full system back-ups are even better. Full back-ups can be done by programs probably in-built into your operating system.

NTLDR is missing or corrupted? NTDETECT.com is missing or corrupted? INI is missing or corrupted? (Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart).

These three files are required to boot your Windows system. INI tells NTLDR what drive to boot from, Ntldr takes the information from Boot.ini and tries to launch Windows. COM detects installed hardware. If any of this critical files are damaged or absent, your computer will probably not boot into Windows.

If this happens, or if you seem to be missing another critical file that won't allow you to boot the computer into Windows, first make sure you have no other disks inserted into the computer. If this fails to remedy the problem, your goal will be to get fresh copies of these files onto your computer. Try booting your system off the system recovery disk that came with your computer (you kept that, right?). There should be an option to use the recovery console to fix problems with your computer, and you will be brought to a Command Prompt that asks for the administrator password and the operating system on which you'd like to work (type in the appropriate number)).

You will be given a prompt that looks like C:> with a flashing cursor. Your goal will be to try to copy these boot files from the recovery cd into your system. To understand how this happens intuitively would require basic knowledge of Command prompt, but try typing this:

copy d:\i386\ntldr c:copy ntdetect.com c: where "d" is the drive letter for your cd-rom drive. If you think you need to copy a different file onto your computer, navigate with command prompt to find it, and if you don't know command prompt and are having trouble figuring it out, try replacing ntldr or ntdetect.com from the example above with the file you need. When finished, remove the cd and restart. If all this fails, try this site and its links: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

If all this fails, you may have to do a system reinstall? from your recovery disk.

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Try Ctrl-Alt-Delete (Windows) or Command-Option-Esc (Macintosh) to force quit a program. If this does not work, restart the computer by holding the power button for several seconds. If you are working on something that had not been recently saved, Word will sometimes auto-recover the document. If it rescued your file, it will appear when Word opens, and you can cut and paste the text to a new document and save it. Do NOT try to open the file itself—you’ll just get errors. If Word does not recover the document, you can do a search by date—look for files modified that day and click on the time/date column to sort them.

If you've been using a program and the computer seems to just freeze, try Ctrl-Alt-Delete (Windows) or Command-Option-Esc (Macintosh) to force quit. If this does not work, restart the computer by holding the power button for several seconds. If you are working on something that had not been recently saved, Word will sometimes auto-recover the document. If it rescued your file, it will appear when Word opens, and you can cut and paste the text to a new document and save it. Do NOT try to open the file itself—you’ll just get errors. If Word does not recover the document, you can do a search by date—look for files modified that day and click on the time/date column to sort them.

If you were working on a lab machine and the machine is forced to restart and you have not recently saved your document to the Scratch Disk or a network folder, you're probably out of luck.

My computer is frozen, or starts up, with a message in white text and a blue-screen. This is bad, right?

Yes. Now and again something horribly wrong can go wrong in a PC and the operating systempanics and shuts down certain functions. The result is the blue screen of death (BSoD?). The good news is that an error message is better than no error message at all, so write down the message! (If the message comes and disappears, sometimes hitting the Pause/Break button on a keyboard can get it to stick around). Bring the message to the SCIC, email it to scic@carleton.edu, or, for most immediate solution, try throwing the content of your message into a search engine like Google, odds are someone in the world has experienced your problem and may have posted a solution in a tech forum. You can also try the knowledge base of microsoft at support.microsoft.com. Hopefully you are not having a Hardware Problem.

Frequently Asked Questions

The computer is frozen, how do I unfreeze it?

Try Ctrl-Alt-Delete (Windows) or Command-Option-Esc (Macintosh) to force quit a program. If this does not work, restart the computer by holding the power button for several seconds. If you are working on something that had not been recently saved, Word will sometimes auto-recover the document. If it rescued your file, it will appear when Word opens, and you can cut and paste the text to a new document and save it. Do NOT try to open the file itself—you’ll just get errors. If Word does not recover the document, you can do a search by date—look for files modified that day and click on the time/date column to sort them.

These operating systems can all be found at Carleton in both lab and student computers. The Windows and MacOS pages can give you more specific information, including troubleshooting.

These operating systems can all be found at Carleton in both lab and student computers. The Windows and MacOS topics can give you more specific information, including troubleshooting.

• Linux is the most popular open-source operating system in the world. A variant called Red Hat Linux is installed in the CS labs.

• Linux is the most popular open-source operating system in the world. The SCIC cannot provide technical support for Linux installations, but there is a strong user community on campus. A variant called Red Hat Linux is installed in the CS labs.