[Sh4d0wDS]

My desktop currently boots, but before starting XP displays a warning that the system was restarted to protect from data loss after an unexpected start or system failure. All of the options (safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, safe mode with networking, last known good configuration, and start normally) don't work, they all lead to a short start-up and then the system restarts. I turned off auto-restart on system failure to see the blue screen that would tell me the error, and the error I got was "*** STOP: 0x00000024", which from what I've researched usually has to with a corrupted ntfs.sys file but I'm not sure. I tried booting the Windows Recovery Console from the OS choice menu and that goes straight to the error, and booting the System Recovery disc lets me start up the process, but when I press "r" to run the normal fixes (that don't include wiping the drive) the process goes nowhere. It starts, but after finished the loading bar it goes to a solid baby blue screen.

I direly need my files off of the hard drive, so I'm not really looking at a full system recovery as an option, I just need something that'll buy me enough time to transfer most of the content on the hard drive (around 160 gigs) to an external hard drive.

I've also tried testing both sticks of RAM by removing one and then the other to see if one is bad, but the error still persists.

[Rollin' Rog]

That's a file system error -- usually indicating drive corruption as you have determined.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms793935.aspx

If you cannot get chkdsk to run your next best bet is just to recover what you can.

There are different ways to do this, one would be to boot to Puppy Linux from which you might be able to mount the drive and copy files to a USB drive .

http://www.puppylinux.com/

You can also try UBCD4Win.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Alternately you can try removing the drive and slaving it to another NTFS system -- or you can buy an inexpensive IDE to USB drive adapter to access the drive thorugh another computer.

[Sh4d0wDS]

Okay, I have Puppy Linux up and running perfectly and I have access to all of my files.

Is there any way to determine what may be causing the problem by using a utility in Puppy?

Also, would I be able to use an external hard drive connected through a USB port to back-up all the data I have? You specified a USB drive so I'm not exactly sure if a new external hard drive would work just the same (and I don't want to go buy a new external hard drive and not be able to use it >_>).

[Rollin' Rog]

Puppy Linux handles USB drives very well, so you should be able to backup what you need to. It doesn't matter if the external drive was a regular disk drive -- Puppy should recognize it as a USB drive if that is how it is connected. Large USB drives are just regular disk drives in USB enclosures anyway.

I'm not sure what help Puppy Linux can be in resolving the problem but as you do have access to the drive you can try copying the hives from the "repair" or "snapshot" (system volume archive) folder to the "config" folder (backup the config folder hives first).



This doesn't repair damaged files -- but does repair damaged registries.

I think you can figure out what I'm talking about from the method descibed below --

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

UBCD4win I believe has an option to do this automatically.

I'm not too experienced with Puppy Linux -- but when played around with it a couple of times I found that dragging and dropping files worked --b ut I couldn't quite figure out how to copy and paste if that was permitted.

[Sh4d0wDS]

After trying to run the partition manager in Puppy Linux a "!" warning appeared next to the hard drive, and clicking this revealed what the problem truly is. There are a number of warning about cluster accounting mismatches and an inconsistent NTFS. The listed cluster accounting failures (about 10 listed) all end with "missing cluster in $Bitmap" or "extra cluster in $Bitmap".

From what I saw, UBCD4Win has a chkdsk utility (which Puppy Linux recommended to run in the warning and what I've seen as the recommended way to fix a problem like this). I was supposed to be able to run chkdsk from the system recovery CD that I made for my desktop but the CD won't boot any of the standard recovery options (which is where the chkdsk utility is). Would the chkdsk utility on UBCD4Win fix this problem all the same? Is there any other means that I'd be able to fix this?

[Rollin' Rog]

I really don't know whether there would be a difference. It appears you were never really able to load the recovery console from the CD.

But if you can access the drive from UBCD4win -- I don't see why you shouldn't be able to run it.

[Sh4d0wDS]

I finally really looked into and understood how to get UBCD4Win built correctly, but I've found what seems to be my next hurdle in trying to fix this desktop. The desktop itself didn't come with a Windows XP Boot CD, the only system CDs I have are for recovery (none of which work) and to build UBCD4Win I need an XP Boot CD. Searching for a hopefully easy way to download or otherwise get a hold of one, I've only come up with various tutorials on creating XP boot disks (floppies :\) and I have no floppy disks.

Is there a simple and reliable source for getting the content that I need to build UBCD4Win?

[Rollin' Rog]

You would need an install CD (you can't download these) to build UBCD4win.

However you can create a bootable Recovery Console CD which will allow you to run chkdsk.

If you do not have an XP CD download rc.iso from Elvandil's post here: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt...ml#post4622868
Burn the .iso file to CD. With Nero or Roxio you should only need to "open" the file and it will start the burner's ISO burning program.

[Sh4d0wDS]

I burned the iso, booted the recovery console from the CD, and started the standard recovery option ("r"). It loaded everything that it needed to start, but it's currently hanging (or at least looks like it is) while examining the hard drive. Is this normal? It's been saying "Examining 131068 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi" on the bottom of the screen for about 45 minutes now.

Should I just let it run for a while longer? Will hard rebooting during something like this be fatal in case nothing happens?

[Rollin' Rog]

I'm not exactly sure what you are saying -- when you load the recovery console you are initially asked for a password (just hit "enter" if none was ever created) and then you should end up at a command prompt -- did that happen and you ran chkdsk /r ?

When you run chkdsk it normally with something like this:

Windows will now check the disk.
65088 file records processed.

87 large file records processed.

It can take several hours from there until it is done. I don't believe I have ever had to run it from the recovery console though -- so I'm not sure if the process is different.

If so, how long it takes depends on the size of the drive. Usulaly you will see the number of files processed update about every 10 minutes -- but it may take as much as an hour or more for a particular stage (there are 5 I believe).

Let it run overnight.

If it is still hung -- there is an unrepairable problem with the drive and I'd just suggest copying out as much as you can using Puppy Linux and ideally an external USB drive. If you buy one you won't have to format it, but if you buy a standard drive and connect it through a USB adapter you will still have to format the drive to copy files to it.

[Sh4d0wDS]

Upon booting the Recovery Console CD, it did a bit of loading and then came to a menu that had 3 options.

One was the standard recovery, the other a full system recovery, and the third a simple "quit" option. I chose the standard recovery, and from there it loaded something (I'm not exactly sure what) and it's left me at where it's at now.

I was never asked for a password or anything and no command prompt has popped up.

I've left it at that screen still and nothing has changed. :\

[Rollin' Rog]

That's not the rc.iso Windows "recovery console" -- that has to be your Vendor's recovery media.

Windows recovery console has none of this.

I'm not sure what the "standard" recovery is -- but it sounds like a basic reinstall that does not wipe the drive -- while the "full recovery" would. The fact that it cannot proceed sounds like further indication that the drive is bad -- but you still may be able to run chkdsk on it if you get to the command line.



http://commandwindows.com/recovery.htm

[Sh4d0wDS]

Just verified the options at the initial screen of the Recovery Console CD that you linked me to. It lists:

"To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER."

"To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R."

"To quite Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3."

I've tested the second and third options now. the second options leads to the normal recovery console that doesn't load (at least after waiting for about 12 hours) and the third simply exits and reboots the computer. I'm wary of attempting the first option, but it seems like the only thing left to try from the CD. :/

I found a tutorial (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XP...install.htm#RI) that says to start the standard setup and within that there is an option to repair an XP installation. Is this tutorial reliable? From what I can tell the hard drive itself is working fine, it's an NTFS system corruption that's the problem. Also, would following the steps in that tutorial alter or delete installed programs or application data if the tutorial is even good at all?

[Sh4d0wDS]

Bump in disguise, just ordered the external hard drive. Still need input on the above tutorial and what more I can do though.

[Rollin' Rog]

It's looking like you have a bad drive -- I would not try the first option as it might well wipe the drive and do a clean install on you -- but read the Stevens tutorial on that.

You want to recover what you can I assume -- and you may be able to do this by connecting the drive either as a slave or through a USB to IDE port.

But you are going to have to do a clean install on another drive if you don't want to risk losing personal data on the current one

The Stevens tutorial is very reliable -- but pay attention to the Warnings -- if you try it or you will risk losing data and doing a clean install if you don't want that.

Windows must be able to see the current installation to offer you the "upgrade/reinstall" rather than format the drive.