Windows hears me knockin' but I can't get in

[Dmachine]

I'm stumped. In brief: Out of nowhere I was unable to get past initial boot up screens to the Windows start-up. Took apart the box, blew out the gunk, checked all connections, popped the CMOS battery and buttoned 'er up. Now I can get to the Windows is starting up screen but the blue tracer just keeps cranking for minutes until the blue log-in screen appears but that's as far as I get. I have gotten Error dialogs at that point about a problem in DiskKeeper so I'm thinking that maybe some boot-up file has been corrupted. Other than that I'm out of ideas. I am running RAID 0 but the utility says it's a healthy stripe. Any ideas?

 

[robisbell]

run the raid utility at bootup, you are aware if a drives failed all the data on it's gone bye bye, raid 0 is okay, but you have to do backups. I only recommend raid for people in video or audio editing and I never use raid 0.

"RAID-0: This technique has striping but no redundancy of data. It offers the best performance but no fault-tolerance."

http://searchstorage.techtarge...sid5_gci214332,00.html

 

[Dmachine]

Yeah, I realize this is the case and I usually do back-ups for that reason. But there is some stuff that I really want be able to recover that I have not backed up. I have been planning to build a new rig and I wouldn't really care that much except for the files I need from the old system. Anyway, it doesn't seem as though the RAID array is bad, I just can't seem to get past the log-in page. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on getting over the hump. I've tried booting into safe mode but get hung up at the same spot.

 

[robisbell]

well, you MUST go into the raid utility at boot up, that is what you MUST do and have it check and verify the drives and setup. if it says the drives failed, the data is gone.

 

[MadAmos]

I would try booting in safe mode and if it will get to the desk top do a system restore to before the problem started also available from safe mode is "sfc /scannow" from the comand line this may require the original install disc. If that won't work you could try a windows repair install from the original install disc.

here's to luck :beer:

Amos

 

[Dmachine]

Thanks guys. I have made it to the RAID utility and it says the stripe is healthy and there are no hardware error reports at boot up, either in an on screen message or any weird beeps from the motherboard. I guess I can try to boot off the Windows install disk and see if I can do a repair install.

 

[robisbell]

well, glad you did get around to running the motherboard raid utility. let us know how the windows repair goes.

 

[Dmachine]

I should slap my forehead here but my "drive" is partitioned to C and F, where all the programs are on F, including "My Documents" and so forth which I moved there. So I should just be able to reinstall Windows, never mind a repair. I just tried booting off the XP install disk and got a error about AWDFLASH.exe missing from the disk. Doesn't make any sense. I think I will pop the CMOS battery again and try to start the process over.

 

[robisbell]

the actual XP cd was looking for the bios flash utility?? that's suspicious.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Dmachine
I'm stumped. In brief: Out of nowhere I was unable to get past initial boot up screens to the Windows start-up. Took apart the box, blew out the gunk, checked all connections, popped the CMOS battery and buttoned 'er up. Now I can get to the Windows is starting up screen but the blue tracer just keeps cranking for minutes until the blue log-in screen appears but that's as far as I get. I have gotten Error dialogs at that point about a problem in DiskKeeper so I'm thinking that maybe some boot-up file has been corrupted. Other than that I'm out of ideas. I am running RAID 0 but the utility says it's a healthy stripe. Any ideas?

If you can boot Windows or nearly so, try going into safe mode (F8 at bootup just prior to BIOS load) and boot in safe mode and/or safe mode w/networking.

Is your Windows set to automatically log in as you, or do you have a Ctrl-Alt-Del prompt prior to your logging in?

I wouldn't try to reinstall Windows prior to doing at least these basic troubleshooting steps.

If you have RAID0 and you can get this far, it's unlikely you have a RAID issue. If you did, you probably wouldn't be able to boot at all, since if you lost a drive, the entire volume is worthless.

Might be worth doing a chkdsk in recovery console, if you're up to that. That can cause Windows to not boot too...

 

[robisbell]

he is not able to get into windows. "Now I can get to the Windows is starting up screen but the blue tracer just keeps cranking for minutes until the blue log-in screen appears but that's as far as I get.". I am suspicious of the xp cd asking for a bios update program, somethings telling me there's a bug running around in the system.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: robisbell
he is not able to get into windows. "

Agreed. That's why he needs to try safe mode. When you can't fully get into Windows, Safe Mode is the next thing to try.

 

[robisbell]

I think there's a more urgent issue to address, and booting into safe mode will leave him wide open to whatever virus or trojan thats done this. I'd suggest if he has a USB stick to get a AV scanner installed and boot with it and have it totally scan the drive or if he can connect the drive to another pc and have that pc scan the drive.

 

[dclive]

I'm all in favor of offline virus scans.

Safe mode is a good idea, though, prior to reformatting. Right now we don't know the scope of the issue, or even if that is an issue.

 

[robisbell]

to the OP, if you have a usb thumdrive handy, please see about making it bootable and putting a AV on it so you can scan the system. I am torn between it being a virus or all the data on the 2nd drive has went bye bye.

 

[Dmachine]

Thanks all for thinking about this. Not sure of the virus angle. I have Kapersky and it does a daily scan. I have tried for safe mode a couple times and I can't get into Windows that way either. I'm going to read through all your points again and rethink this.

 

[robisbell]

sorry to hear that even safe mode will not work. I'd suggest that you run http://housecall.trendmicro.com and have it completely scan the drives and all folders.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: robisbell
sorry to hear that even safe mode will not work. I'd suggest that you run http://housecall.trendmicro.com and have it completely scan the drives and all folders.

...after you've attached the drive to another computer.

 

[robisbell]

thank you, forgot that.

 

[Dmachine]

So I've tried a couple times to boot off the XP installation disk but I'm getting a BIOS ROM checksum error, saying that AWDFLASH.exe is missing. I will try to pop the battery again but I think the BIOS chip has gone wonky. It doesn't seem as though the normal sequence of events is happening at boot up. The drives only sputter up for a few seconds. When I try to get into safe mode only about a screen full of DOS runs by before that stops dead. I am not getting any error beeps off the board and the system does recognize the RAID stripe. It's almost as if the drives aren't being cued to get moving.

 

[robisbell]

I am suspicious as to why when you run the XP Hologram cd that the bios updater is run. you are using a original xp cd, and not some copy, right?

 

[Dmachine]

Yes it's an original OEM XP installation disk which I paid for.. Got it from NewEgg when I bought the system parts.

 

[robisbell]

hmm, something is very fishy, the xp cd should not be trying to run the bios update program when you're installing XP. I'm wondering if the bios got infected somehow, and the installs triggering something. Also, if you can, fdisk the drive and wipe out all partitions, do not use the cd to do it. I assume no usb devices like camera, memory sticks, mp3mp4 players etc are connected, right?

 

[Dmachine]

Fdisk may be good if I can get into a command prompt. I do need to save the partition with the programs. I don't care about wiping the C drive, but if I can't save the files I need then this thing's a doorstop anyway.

 

[robisbell]

two quick questions.

1. do you have a USB thumbdrive you can use?
2. can the system boot from USB?