Can't see my BSOD before reboot

[Zoinks]

Windows stopped booting and said C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM...something or other was missing. Oddly, it listed a directory as missing, not a file. So I reinstalled windows XP SP2 from CD. After the second reboot I get a BSOD which flashes and disappears before I can read a word. I've run CHKDSK /P /R from the console and it keeps finding errors and it says it fixes them. I ran the HDD utilities from the manufacturer which says the disk is ok.

Other than reformatting and reinstalling I don't know what to try next. Is there any way I can pause the BSOD so I can read it?

 

[mechBgon]

If you have a camcorder or a digicam that can take movies...?

 :light:



bigger picture: I'm voting for an unusually-destructive virus/worm as the likely culprit, maybe... this one or a relative of it.

 

[stevty2889]

Have you disabled automatic restarts?

 

[Zoinks]

No, how do you disable automatic restarts now that windows is hosed...

 

[PurdueRy]

control panel->system->advanced->startup and recovery settings->Automatic restarts

 

[Zoinks]

No, but I mean I can't get into windows. Not even safe mode. So now what?

 

[fuzzynavel]

when computer is booting keep tapping the F8 key just after the bios checks your IDE devices and memory etc and you will load a startup menu...there should be an option on there to disable automatic restarts on failure!

Can't even get into safe mode!!!! what have you being doing to that poor innocent computer!!!

Stick your windows CD in the drive at startup and change boot options in your bios to boot from CD then run the recovery console from the disk.....see if that repairs window for you

 

[Zoinks]

That's something I don't understand - the recovery console. The inital error message said to run the recovery console to fix, but the console only gives me a command prompt. I can run CHKDSK from there but I don't know of anything else that would be useful to do. The error message and fuzzynavel's post make it seem like there should be something automatic I can run. There is a choice for ASR (auto system recovery) but that requires a floppy and I don't have any idea what kind of floppy to use.

Fuzzy, I haven't been doing ANYTHING to it! I swear! Its a Compaq laptop and it has never been very reliable. I've had disk problems in the past. The old drive developed hardware problems and I replaced it. This is the first problem I've had with it. Sometimes the thing gets VERY hot which I think contributes to the problems.

I'm going to give F8 a try...

 

[Zoinks]

Ok, the error is Stop 0x0000007B then 0xF82C4528 0xC0000034 0x00000000 0x00000000

I found this "If the error occurs during Windows XP Professional setup, the problem might be due to unsupported disk controller hardware" here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu.../XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmd_stp_xlxv.asp

But none of my hardware has changed. This particular error DID start during XP setup.

 

[fuzzynavel]

Fuzzy, I haven't been doing ANYTHING to it! I swear! Its a Compaq laptop and it has never been very reliable. I've had disk problems in the past. The old drive developed hardware problems and I replaced it. This is the first problem I've had with it. Sometimes the thing gets VERY hot which I think contributes to the problems

Lol was only joking....I didn't mean it to sound like you were sexually abusing your floppy disk drive!!! :disgust:

I have had a look at the microsoft link that you gave......you may have noticed that there is an option in there for a corrupt disk....i.e...dead or dying!!! you may have to face facts....You say that none of your hardware has changed...so it looks like one of the components may have developed a problem....

Do you know how to use Fdisk???

You could try partitioning your drive and putting a copy of windows on each partition to see if you can get it to work...Win xp will boot from most partitions!

Is it possible to put a 2.5inch drive in a normal PC?? you could connect it up as a slave and try to get your data off incase it is bad! it will also allow you to test is properly and run scans and stuff from windows on your PC!!

Running out of ideas here.....


There is always the freezer trick......known to revive dead Hard drives long enough to get data from them!

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

 

[Zoinks]

Yeah, well the hard drive going bad was one of my first thoughts, but CHKDSK comes back with no errors and the drive fitness test give no errors. I guess I was hoping for some proof that it was the hardware failing before abandoning all hope.

 

[fuzzynavel]

I think I am fresh out of new ideas....sorry...

 

[TheUnsolvedParadox]

This is a shot in the dark, but did you try to defragment and have it interrupted (i.e. power outage) since your last install? That can sometimes damage whatever data was being operated on at the time of failure, and may have ruined some of your system files.