Windows XP Automatic System Recover (ASR) problem

[dchilder]

Hmmm... I've gotten myself into a little mess here.

My computer restarted in the middle of something, and when it tried to reboot, I got the "Operating System Not Found" error message. I tried several things and I know for sure that my hard drive did not fail (I could clean install Windows again with no problems whatsoever), but something weird was going on, because my other laptop did the SAME THING within an hour (I was using it to try and work through the problem with the first...). Anyway, I fixed the second computer using the Recovery Console and playing around a little. However, a problem remains with the first because I started trying major things a little too early:

I had a recent ASR backup of the laptop, which includes the backup file and a recovery floppy. I had saved the large backup file (~9GB) to one of the drives on my desktop. I've got a home network running through a router connecting the two computers. The problem is that when I try to use the ASR recovery disk and re-install everything, it gets to the point where I need to direct it to the backup file. It knows that the file is supposed to be on the desktop drive, but it is not letting me actually accesss the network drive to use the file. I get a "Unable to browse the network. The network is not present or not started." error message. If I cancel out of this step, the ASR fails and I have to start it all over.

Does anyone know if I can somehow access the file on the network drive during the ASR process? Alternatively, is it possible to use the backup file without using the ASR floppy disk (I started this, but when it was copying stuff it said I was changing system files, wanted to restore them using the XP disk, etc.). Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[GlassGhost]

Your solution may be simpler than that. Try the "fixboot" or "fixmbr" command in the recovery console. That will restore the boot record which may have been corrupted some how.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058

Thats a good description of how the recovery console works for your refrence.


Good luck

 

[dchilder]

Thanks GlassGhost, that is basically what I did for the second laptop, but it was too late for the first. I had started ASR already, and the first thing it does is format the drive. I'm stuck now with using the backup file to recover what I can. Any other suggestions?

 

[dchilder]

Okay, I think I've got it going okay now, but whether it is stable remains to be seen.

I ended up following advice for XP Home Edition, even though I have XP Pro. XP Home doesn't have ASR, but it does allow you to install the backup utility, NTbackup.exe. I did a clean install of Windows, and then used NTbackup to locate the backup file on my network drive. I think it did the same thing as the regular version, though it was a simplified interface (maybe used the Wizard?). This seemed to do okay, though when I did a system scan with Norton Systemworks 2003, it shows that I now have 316 errors in my registry file...

I mentioned before that I already tried to use the backup utility once after a clean install, but it didn't work right. It replaced all of my files and everything, but none of the drivers were installed (so my touchpad wasn't working right, and my resolution was like 4bits at the minimum resolution...). When I used NTbackup the drivers seem fine, and everything looks okay other than the registry problems (which I hope Norton will fix). If anyone reading this knows of a way to use the actual ASR floppy disk and a backup file on another computer harddrive, please let me know! Thanks

 

[DAPUNISHER]

2 notebooks had the same problem in an hour :Q Did you eliminate the possibilty of a boot sector virus? That's just strange....

 

[dchilder]

I run Norton Antivirus 2003 and keep it up to date. I assume it would have caught anything as nasty as what could have caused this. The only thing shared between the two laptops was the ASR recovery floppy. I think a virus is unlikely, but I don't have a clue as to what else could have caused this.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Did you scan the floppy to ensure it's not infected, sorry I got nothin' on this one

 

[dchilder]

Yes, the floppies are all fine. No infection that I've been able to find, and I've scanned everything since then.