Strange symbols found in Registry Editor

Bree said:

Chkdsk takes as long as it needs. With /R you are re-checking bad blocks. If there are a significant number and it's a 1TB drive it can be as long as 24 hours. I speak from experience, having dropped a 'live' 1TB external HDD - the loud 'ting' as the heads hit the platter meant I had created some bad blocks of my own

Mine's only a 400GB HDD anyway (though I have an external HDD if it checks that as well). I'll just have to leave it on [from the morning] all day (too noisy at night in my bedroom for me to sleep with it on)

When troubleshooting problems, not just with computers, and there are multiple symptoms you need to decide which one is most significant. Unfortunately this isn't always easy. The most obvious symptom may not be the most important. While the Regedit issue is interesting I don't think that is the one that should be investigated at this time.

Signs at this time raise the possibility of disk corruption, possibly due to a physical problem. This is one of the most significant problems you can have in a computer because it can cause a wide variety of symptoms and has such serious implications. They must always be taken seriously and investigated.

As chkdsk has already been running for some time it would seem best to let it run to completion or it appears clear that it isn't going to. Only if this shows no problems should other possibilities be considered. And if the drive is bad and needs to be replaced everything else would be academic. You would need to restore the OS from a previously created backup or reinstall the OS.

Thanks a lot everyone for your advice, I appreciate it :) I'll leave my computer on for as long as possible when I've got the chance.

swarfega said:

May I ask how old the router is, what version WiFi it provides and the password protocol it usession such as WSP2.

It's been a while since it's been changed, and I'm honstly not sure how old it is (it was my brother that did it for me). How do I find out what version Wifi (and protocal) it provides? What part of it is the said areas?

EdTittel said:

get the SID information directly from regedit, simply by right-clicking the questionable entries

Ed, I would like to have that capability; however, only the usual options are in the menu that arises.