[Bascotie]

Hey guys,
I put my friend's hard drive in my computer to do some troubleshooting. He recently got a
virus(es) and I've been trying to get it removed.

First I booted from MY hard drive (not his) and scanned his hard drive using some scanning
tools available under my original drive.

It removed a lot of problems and then I was at least able to boot up his computer without it restarting randomly. From here I initiated another scan and certain malware was found which I believe was in the form of pop ups
being caught by avira because they were named *.htm

I wanted to restart and go into safe mode but I was getting a blue screen so I tried, from the windows disk:
a) chkdsk /f /p
b) fixboot
c) fixmbr
d) A repair
e) after the repair i tried bootcfg /rebuild which failed because it said it could not find the necessary OS files or something similar.

Now I cannot boot into that hard drive at all whether its

1)safe mode
2) normal mode
3) last known good configuration

I'm running out of troubleshooting options here. Any ideas guys? He may be ok with formatting it but im not ok with not knowing how to fix it. Also we may need to get in to get some information from some software he has
installed before formatting.

Help please ^.^

[helpful]

You could try a repair install of windows at this point. I would strongly recommend that you backup all important files first.

Below is a website with excellent instructions on how to perform the repair install.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[Bascotie]

thanks but it was after using the repair install to get back into safe mode that i started getting this BSOD.

[helpful]

Is there a .sys file associated with the BSOD message?

This Microsoft website details some possible causes:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc957625.aspx

[Bascotie]

You know I meant to look at the BSOD again for the sys file thanks for the reminder I'll check.

[Bascotie]

No file specified, shoot! I was hoping there would be..

[helpful]

So microsoft lists the causes as "faulty hardware, a buggy system service, antivirus software, and a corrupted NTFS volume can all generate this type of error"

You can attempt to disable antivirus services and drivers since you have tried doing a repair already and an chkdsk. Otherwise it seems there is physical hardware problem.


First:

Follow the instructions here to Disable Services. When you run listsvc run disable <servicename> for all non core microsoft services and rebooot.

Second:

Could be some hardware fault with his system. I would test the memory first by running MemTest http://www.memtest.org/ to see if there any memory errors.

[Bascotie]

I did a memtest so I think it falls down to HIS hard drive in MY computer so it may very well be a driver issue. I thought this was weird since it was booting in my computer fine (but not in safe mode) and after I did chkdsk and repair to get into safe mode it wont boot at all.

I'll try to disable services, thanks!

[Bascotie]

Ok guys nothing is working. I've even moved the hard drive into HIS computer (with different motherboard/memory/etc) and same error. I tried doing a windows repair again to no luck. So now im doing ANOTHER chkdsk /p /r just to see what happens though it didnt work last time.

Any ideas? We can't reformat this thing because we have to boot from it, launch a program, and unregister it before we can reinstall it (or else he loses credits in the program which cost money). I can mount the hard drive as a second drive and see all the contents but i cant launch the program.

Thanks!

[Bascotie]

Next I'll try disabling caching in the bios I saw that recommended in this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;171003

[Rollin' Rog]

This thread is a little confusing; normally you cannot switch a hard drive to another computer with a different motherboard and boot it unless it uses the same chipset for IDE controllers. The result is a 7b type error (inaccessible boot device). You can access it as a "slave" -- and that may be what you did to scan it.

If you have reinstalled the OS on his computer and are still unable to boot in any configuration -- but do not want to do a completely clean install -- there may be one last hope -- but it will likely result in all programs needing to be reinstalled since registry information will have been lost for them.

Since you have reinstalled the Operating System there are no System Restore points left to access -- so it will only be possible to try the first stage of the instructions below >>

------------------------

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.

DeepBurner can also be used to burn ISO files, I recommend the “portable” version:

http://www.deepburner.com/?r=download


Once that is done, you need to boot with either that or the XP installation CD to the Recovery Console. You may need to ensure that the CD drive is the first boot drive in the BIOS setup if it just boots to the same screen. Setup is accessed by looking for the key to press on the first data you see on the screen -- often F2

Directions are given here:

http://attachments.techguy.org/attac...chmentid=62075

There are several things to note about this operation.

1 > it is not a "reinstall" of Windows, but a method of accessing System Restore. (this does not apply to your situation)

2 > all command lines are one line with appropriate spacing -- the doc file does not always reflect this.

3 > you must complete all 3 parts for it to be a proper restore. (won't apply after an OS reinstall which removes restore points)

4 > in the first part of this document you are given the command:

copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system

you may get a "file not found" when running this command. If you do, substitute this command instead:

copy C:\windows\repair\system.bak C:\windows\system32\config\system


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

note the warning in this article. But if you have an OEM system and no other choice but a clean install -- try it anyway.


--------------------------------------------

By the way:

A Page Fault in Non Paged Area can be a RAM fault -- has the memory been tested? If not I would do this before trying the above.

Since almost all bugchecks can be caused by faulty ram, I would recommend you perform memory tests.

Beginners Guides: Diagnosing Bad Memory

Memtest86 - A Stand-alone Memory Diagnostic

[Bascotie]

Thanks for the advice Rollin' Rog. What we've done is attach the hard drive as a second hard drive now and back up all the files he needed. ALL we need to do now is launch an application on his hard drive that will NOT launch unless we boot from his hard drive which is still not booting.

Is there a way I can transfer the program with all regisry settings to a bootable drive, all we need to do is launch the program, unregister it and use the code to reinstall later without losing credits.

I should probably wait on the advice you gave me then until I see if its possible to get in this hard drive?

[Rollin' Rog]

I don't think you can do that, at-least not that way.

I believe when I booted with UBCD4win I was able to run some programs off the drive but not others. You might be able to do this; in any case it is a useful booter to have handy.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

[Bascotie]

I've tried launching the OS by using ERD Boot Commander to no avail and I've tried launching it by having the hard drive as a second drive.

I thought UBCD just had diagnostic tools, which one do you use to boot the computer to try and launch programs from? I think I have a copy, thanks.

[Bascotie]

Thanks for all the help guys. I finally got in but unfortunately the program wouldn't launch anymore. We'll talk to these guys and see if we can push them to reimburse us (which doesn't seem like they will)

Thanks again! I learned a lot =)