Expert: Gregory Donner - 6/30/2008

Question
I recently blew the board on my 105meg scsi internal hard drive. The computer would no longer boot. I took it to a computer shop and they told me if I could find the same model HD they might be able to save my files. I found the HD and they were able to get the computer to boot and all my files are there. The problem...there are no longer any drop down menus on the computer. None on the workbench screen. None in any programs I load. I am unable to load a saved file into any program. I can not save any files I create. I can not close any programs. I can access files by clicking the icon for the file, but that option is limited because years ago I disabled that feature to save space. I took the computer back to the computer store, but they find nothing wrong with the computer AND they have no idea what the problem is caused by. HELP!

Answer
Hi James,

While the computer shop that you took it to did a great job of trying to recover your old hard drive files via the hard drive board swap, it's obvious that there are missing and/or corrupt files in the OS/Workbench which is resulting in the missing menus. Unfortunately, given the fact that you've already tried unsuccessfully to load and save the semi-recovered files, there's no way I know of to keep them and restore Workbench to a normal functioning state.

The only way I know of to get Workbench operating normally again is to format the hard drive and reinstall Workbench. I've personally never encountered the missing menus phenomena that you describe, but it's definitely a problem with missing/corrupt OS files.

I hope this helps,

Greg