Okay, I got a call from my sister/nephew last night telling me that they can't get the PC to boot again. XP Pro, sp1. The system begins to boot, then gets BSOD with error that it can not find various files.
To the best of my knowledge (and what i got over the phone only), the error is that it can't find %systemroot%\system32\config\systemprofile. They also mentioned something about a registry error and that XP can't load the Hive.
I walked my nephew into getting to system console to run chkdsk, and he keeps coming up with errors on the drive. This is not the first time they have had data corruption on this drive.
So...here's my theory, and I was wondering if someone could either confirm or debunk it for me:
She has a 120GB/8MB cache/133 drive. The drive is recognized correctly in the BIOS. But...I found out last night that the drive was bought as OEM from newEgg; hence, no cable was shipped. He is using the IDE cable he had from his system previously, which I would be willing to bet is NOT a 133 cable. So my theory is this: I think the system is trying to transfer data/modify data and the cable is unable to transfer the data quickly enough without causing corruption.
It also may be worth noting that he has a 2nd Hard drive as a slave that is probably ata66, but may be ata100.
Not sure the rest of his specs, but I know he has a barton 2500+ with 1GB RAM (I think he has four 256MB DDR chips, 2 that are PC2100 and 2 that are PC2700 -- I know...I already gave him grief for that)
So...do you think the cable is the problem? We were planning on buying rounded cables together (to save on s/h and possibly to get better rates by buying quantities) sometime in the next few months, anyway, but do you think the cable is the problem? If not, any other ideas? She has also complained that the system has been locking up on her, too. The obvious would be reformat/reload, but I'm trying to avoid that because trying to back up her data is going to be a pain and i don't have the time necessary to do it for her.
TIA!
To the best of my knowledge (and what i got over the phone only), the error is that it can't find %systemroot%\system32\config\systemprofile. They also mentioned something about a registry error and that XP can't load the Hive.
I walked my nephew into getting to system console to run chkdsk, and he keeps coming up with errors on the drive. This is not the first time they have had data corruption on this drive.
So...here's my theory, and I was wondering if someone could either confirm or debunk it for me:
She has a 120GB/8MB cache/133 drive. The drive is recognized correctly in the BIOS. But...I found out last night that the drive was bought as OEM from newEgg; hence, no cable was shipped. He is using the IDE cable he had from his system previously, which I would be willing to bet is NOT a 133 cable. So my theory is this: I think the system is trying to transfer data/modify data and the cable is unable to transfer the data quickly enough without causing corruption.
It also may be worth noting that he has a 2nd Hard drive as a slave that is probably ata66, but may be ata100.
Not sure the rest of his specs, but I know he has a barton 2500+ with 1GB RAM (I think he has four 256MB DDR chips, 2 that are PC2100 and 2 that are PC2700 -- I know...I already gave him grief for that)
So...do you think the cable is the problem? We were planning on buying rounded cables together (to save on s/h and possibly to get better rates by buying quantities) sometime in the next few months, anyway, but do you think the cable is the problem? If not, any other ideas? She has also complained that the system has been locking up on her, too. The obvious would be reformat/reload, but I'm trying to avoid that because trying to back up her data is going to be a pain and i don't have the time necessary to do it for her.
TIA!
