XP Not booting..

[SE14man]

Guys another problem im having is XP not working properly.

When it gets past the Windows loading screen i wait for the login screen.... and i wait..... and i wait, and wait! 2 hours later... nothing!
Changed PSU, changed RAM, Changed Graphics card, I'm guessing maybe a corrupt windows.

I dont really want to have to put the drive as a slave in this PC and get data off it.. I'd like to be able to somehow repair windows if it is damaged and if thats even the cause of the issue??

IF it is whats the best way to go about repairing the XP installation?

The reason i want to be able to repair it is because it has Flight simulator on it and that was a pig to install and needed loads of modifications and changes in the registry to fix it and get it running properly. so ideally i'd love to be able to repair XP.

Hows this best done guys?

Thank you!

[MOVIEGEEK]

I assume you have run a Check Disk and defrag lately?

http://www.xpscandisk.com/

If you have then get your XP CD and run a repair:

http://www.osopinion.com/f18/quick-steps-repair-windows-xp-354/

[johns0]

Try and boot into safe mode if possible and do a system restore.

[SE14man]

Rightio guys ill do that and report back!

Thanks

[SE14man]

Hi mate

Ok i have put the XP CD in.

At no stage am i prompted for R for repair. Even though windows is already installed on the drive it asks me if i want to setup windows which i get no option but to press enter then it asks me if i want to format (quick), (long) or leave system intact.

At no point was there an option for repair.

What can i do now?

sorry btw safe mode doesnt either... it locks up on the mup.sys.. well for about 2 hours and havent really given it any longer than that, i kind of lost patience.

Thanks guys.

[gll99]

It could be a bad sector on the boot drive, a driver conflict or your virus checker holding your PC hostage AVG 2012 free had a bad bug for that. It creates an enormous ever growing multi-gig temp file that can hold the boot-up for many hours.

If you can boot to safe mode then go to the boot drive in explorer, right click choose properties and tools and schedule a diskcheck and automatically check the drive for bad unused sectors or damaged / lost file links. I think its 2 check boxes to scan and attempt to recover bad sectors but anyway put all options on. It will say it can't do it right now and would you like it to run at boot-up. Say yes and reboot normally. You should see the diskcheck start and it will go through 5 steps. Some are fast and some are slower so if the drive is large it will take time but worth the wait.

[SE14man]

Hi mate it sounds like a good thing to do but the problem is i cant boot into safe mode or any mode even normal mode.
I just tried to run something called ERD Commander and i also tried another XP CD i have to do a repair and both of them evetually came up with a BSOD asking me to do a CHKDSK /F.

But i cant get a command prompt in order to carry out that command...

Any other suggestions guys?

[SE14man]

Just an update!

Have got Seatools for DOS.

Doing the long test.

Just 2 minutes through already 8 HDD errors!

Can this sort of thing be repaired or is it bye bye hard drive?

Thanks guys

[jman98]

The recovery console is supposed to automatically start when you boot from CD. However, as I work in IT I can tell you that the versions of Windows that businesses get are customized and I have seen the recovery console not be an option in them. If you didn't buy your XP but got it at work, this might be why you don't see it.

I have also had something similar to your XP boot issue. I was never able to fix it. The disk drive was fine in that all my data was still there but the damn thing wouldn't boot and no amount of repair work could make it boot. I ended up having to install XP to a new disk drive and copy over the files that I wanted to keep and reinstall a bunch of programs.

I am now convinced that my problem was caused by the fact that for years I ran my PCs without any kind of UPS. I live in a place where power is not reliable at all and I have brown outs all the time. I think the brown outs over time caused some kind of disk drive damage that prevented my PCs from booting. I have since started using UPS devices on my 2 PCs and I've never had this issue again. I also used to get constant chkdsk jobs that ran every time I rebooted Windows on those old PCs and I haven't seen that either now that I use UPS devices.

[SE14man]

Wow thats very interesting you say that actually.

I am very rural here in SE Queensland and a power cut is common once a week.

I can't imagine its doing any good to HDD's WHAT SO EVER.

Yeah i really like your idea of the UPS.

What ones could you recommend? APC?

Cheers

[jman98]

Yeah, I mention that power issue because several people have told me the same thing you did - "That happens where I live too." I live in the suburbs of a major US metropolitan area, but my neighborhood is old (dates from the 1970s) and we don't have reliable power where I live. It's so bad that I actually connected my HDTV to a UPS also not to keep it working so much as to protect it from brown outs.

I've been using CyberPower UPS devices at home but we've used APC at work and those have been fine for us.

[SE14man]

Ill look into those mate thanks.

Just an update.... I used Seatools DOS which found 36 errors on long test. The short test found errors but fixed them and im now able to boot windows.

Is the hard drive screwed though?

Should i start looking for another one or has the test fixed the errors for good do you think?

Thanks for your help jman and every body else!

[MOVIEGEEK]

How old is your HDD? If it's several years old and you hear clicking then you should replace it. Use the Seatools SMART test, it's not always accurate but it will give you an idea of your HDD health.

[SE14man]

ok mate will do the smart test.

the hdd is about 3 yrs old. Is that considered old for a hdd?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Three years isn't old but it's how often you use it that determines the life*, my laptop HDD is seven years old and going strong but I rarely use it.

*some can fail prematurely due to excessive heat or a defect.

[SE14man]

I got you ok mate thank you.

My Dad has said i should clone this drive onto a new hard drive.

Would i not then be copying the bad sectors over from the bad drive to the good drive, or?

Is that a good idea? Just in case this drive is on its last legs.

Ive just often wondered if copying data from a bad hard drive to a good hard drive would then make that good hard drive bad?

Thanks very much.

[Cornucopia]

No, unless I am mistaken, most, if not all, drive cloning/imaging software works with logical sectors, not physical.

However, you could always run Spinrite on the disc first, which should correctly fix correctable sectors and cordon off uncorrectable ones.

Scott

[SE14man]

Hi thanks yeah id love to give spinrite another go.
I always have trouble understand the correct options to use though.
Are you able to please guide me as to what test id need to carry out?

Thanks very much indeed.

Just another question...

Lets pretend i didnt get that drive repaired and it still doesn't boot.
If i were to get a bootable version of drive image and clone the unbootable hard drive to a good hard drive.
Would that good hard drive be unbootable or would it then work?

Do u know what i mean?

Thanks

[Cornucopia]

re:Spinrite,
Advance to the Main menu, pick your partition, choose the level of operation for it - IIRC, "2" is basic checking, "4" is thorough, "5" tries to recover previously marked BAD sectors. Unless you think your drive life is shortlived, it doesn't hurt to do 2, then 4 or 5, just takes longer. Me, I usually go straight to 5 and hope for the best. Can take hours, days, sometimes a WEEK to finish (if the drive is LARGE and MESSED UP!).

You should run "Chkdsk /F" in addition, after Spinrite finishes, prior to Imaging.

re:Booting image,
I think I know what you mean, but I'm not sure I can answer your question. IIWY, I'd Clone/Image to another (GOOD) drive, then if it wasn't bootable, I'd get another good drive, install from scratch, and then copy over from non-bootable Good drive to Bootable Good drive.

Scott

[SE14man]

Hi

I'd Clone/Image to another (GOOD) drive,

If that good drive is then unbootable like the first drive. IT doesnt mean the good drive has become useless though no? IT just means the data i copied from the bad drive is corrupt?

So i cant make a good drive bad just by cloning a bad hard drive to it?


Thanks very much for the response.

[SE14man]

The drive is screwed again man

with spinrite i tried the first test (level 2) and it gave me this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/4179494457/lightbox/

Should i do the other tests like level 4?

Thanks

[johns0]

I would replace the drive as fast as you can,either do a image clone transfer or backup all your important files to usb depending on how long the drive will last.