System lockout - black screen - will not boot up - win 10

Ladyseahawk · 01 May 2021

Hello everyone - I am desperate for help - Ver Win 10 - I know that Incredimail shut down however I was still successfully using it until I inadvertently allowed Microsoft to automatically download KB4577586 on my Acer Laptop which automatically removed Adobe Flash Player needed by Incredimail to operate. Microsoft says that this update cannot be uninstalled but before I discovered this information I allowed it to happen to my Surface Pro which I am now using. Anyway I searched the net and someone posted that if I downloaded Flash Player Pro 6.0 that I would get Incredimail back – I did this to the Acer and at first for about 1 minute it worked – I opened my mail unfortunately I took a break and when I came back my system was totally GONE – the computer won’t boot up – All I have on my Acer is a dark screen. I took it to a computer guy who has told me that all my info is still there however he can only rescue my docs and pics and to do that means new sys install. All my desperately needed emails along with other program information will still be there but I will be unable to access them. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas how I can get it all back to where it was? I am hoping and praying someone can help me. – No I stupidly do not have a recent system backup of either machine & now Incedimail (which was working on here Surface Pro) will not work and I am too frightened to download Flash Player Pro 6.0 again in case it happens to this machine. I am desperate because the Acer and in particular Incredimail holds VITAL INFORMATION that I desperately need. Thanks in advance

dalchina · 02 May 2021

Hi, clearly you will have learnt an unfortunate lesson about using obsolete software. Good you realise disk imaging can be of help- I rather think once you have resolve this you will be using e.g. Macrium Reflect regularly.

Turning to Incredimail:

This gives a helpful overview of how it stores its data.
Incredimail Forensics – Open & View Incredimail .IMM File

There is a viewer suggested which, given Incredimail won't run, may allow you to recover your data.

Incredimail, as discussed above stores its mails in IMM format. These IMM files can only be accessible via Incredimail and no other application can be used for the same purpose. Therefore, the question which arises is how the forensic experts can access these mails in case Incredimail is not available. Or in other case what if the file has been hampered deliberately and is in a corrupted state?

All these queries have only one answer – deployment of Incredimail IMM Viewer.

Caveat- be careful about big green download buttons. It appears to download an exe file.

A search for that gives results including
FREE IncrediMail Viewer to Open IncrediMail IMM File Extension - BitRecover

Now, as your PC is not bootable, that suggests you have to recover the files from the disk and then access them on another PC.

That may mean accessing its internal disk as an external disk on another PC, or booting your PC from a live boot disk, which you will need to create if you don't have one.

Various live boot disks are available e.g. Hiren's, Bob Omb's - you'll need another PC to download an iso file and then create a bootable flash drive.