Tried to rdesktop in to the office Windows XP machine yesterday.
No soap.
Switch the console over. Get a failed-boot screen, with the dreaded message:
A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart
Again???
Apparently an automatic update had helpfully rebooted the machine sometime in the last few nights, and left it with a corrupted filesystem.
After a couple of tries, I rediscovered the winning solution:
Remove hard drive from PC.
Install in USB box. Actually, skip the box, just plug it into the adapter.
Plug into the lab machine, which is also running Windows.
Run a maximum check of the filesystem, which will find no errors. Defragment. Run the check again, still with no errors.
Re-install in the PC. Boot.
Windows announces that it had to reboot itself because of an update. (This after the inevitable string of "there are unused icons on your desktop" messages.)
I now have automatic updates set to "download, but ask for permission to install." 'Cause having a computer automatically reboot at a random time is a Bad Idea, especially when I tend to leave stuff running.
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