Windows XP won't load

[Tom Saurus]

Earlier today, my computer got really buggy and I shut it down. It doesn't seem to want to restart and it seems to be caught
in a loop of attempting to restart and then going back to the beginning of the exercise. It doesn't matter what you select, Safe Mode, ect., I even tried booting from the Windows XP disc and got a blue screen telling me that Windows couldn't launch because in doing so it would cause more damage. I was hoping someone could give me some advice. I did have the system going once and started freeing up room on some of my drives. Meanwhile in all this, my capture drive disappeared and I think it has probably failed. I didn't shut it down properly when I shut it off earlier today, because it refused to shut down. I did a system restore and probably screwed things up, even worse. Now I can't get Windows to launch at all. Thank you in advance for any advice in this matter.

[KTH]

You wouldn't happen to be running a McAfee Anti-Virus product on that computer? There was a problem with a recent update from McAfee that I believed caused symptoms like you've described. I don't know the solution to the problem, but see the link posted below.


http://us.mcafee.com/en-us/landingpages/np5959.asp?cid=77220

[aedipuss]

i think it was only the corporate versions of mcafee that hosed windows xp. home versions didn't.

[lordsmurf]

At least you got an error message. Read it, look it up.
You may need to do a repair install.

[Nelson37]

First, disconnect ALL hard drives and see if the XP CD will boot.

Next, connect ONLY the SINGLE boot drive and attempt boot. Repair install with ONLY the SINGLE boot drive installed would be next, if needed.

"Really Buggy" is absolutely useless in terms of attempting to diagnose your problem. Where there actual insects emerging from the box? Or was there, perhaps, some DEFINITE and SPECIFIC behaviour which could be described? Maybe even an actual error message?

Or did it freeze or lock during any attempt to access files on the drive which is no longer visible in Windows Explorer? ( I will assume that the actual hardware still reflects visible light ). Is the Swap file by any chance located on the drive which is no longer accessible?

[Tom Saurus]

Nelson37: My E: Drive which is my capture drive has been acting up for awhile. I have the habit of filling my hard drives to near their capacity and this is definetly not healthy for them. I remember that when the problems first starting happening, that it was hard to access the drive and it was no longer displayed as "NTSF" format but "Raw" format. I slowly started tranferring files off it to a USB drive to free up room. I did an "error checking" scan, and once I got enough room freed up to make Diskeeper happy I defragged it. This improved it, and it became "NTSF" again either through the "error check" or the "defrag". I got lazy again and let it fill up again. I think it being so filled up lead to this problem.

Now to the other day. I was recording a show to the F: Capture drive and I have a Hauppauge Card and had the playback paused, so that it was using nearly zero system resources. I was also at the same time downloading with Orbit downloader some YouTube clips and I was using FireFox as my browser while doing this. The night before while using FireFox to surf the net, I got a warning saying "bad script, shut down FireFox now, or your computer could freeze", and I shut down FireFox; I don't know if this has any connection to what happened the next day or not. I noticed abit of sluggish behaviour and pressed "CTRL, ALT, DELETE" and the manage their said FireFox wasn't responding, and so I pressed the button to shut them down. Now this harkens to earlier problems, like perhaps a corrupt video file, where you have to shut it down, and it takes abit of time before it finally shuts down. Everything started to get really slow, and I decided to re-start the computer, and being a fool, and impatient, since it didn't seem to want to shut down, I pressed the power button, and I think the re-set button, and then eventually the power cord and then tried to restart and thus I encounter the problem I tried to describe.

I did eventually get back into Windows XP yesterday to the desktop. I started moving files to my portable USB drive. I also was given instructions to go to run and type in "SF / ", I forget the rest and it prompted me to put in the Windows XP disc, so it could try to get some .dll files and such. I am not entirerly sure I was successful at that process. I defragged the drives I could access, and I can "restart the computer" and it takes quite awhile but it eventually restarts and get me back to Windows XP and the desktop.

Now if I shut the computer down, that is where things really get ugly. I can end up in a loop where it goes like this:

1: black screen, with one signal white dash mark in the left hand corner
2. RestoreIt showing up, and asking me if I want to enter "RestoreIt" and if I do to press the space bar
3. then a black screen telling that Windows didn't load correctly and giving me different options such as: Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with something else, last known successful launch or something to that effect or start Windows normally.

Now this can get loopy and no option gets you back to Windows XP desktop. But somehow yesterday morning it eventually loaded in. I haven't shut the computer down since, and have been trying to backup as much video files and other files as possible. Yesterday morning when Windows XP eventually loaded in, when I checked "My Computer" my E: Drive showed up,
I dared to click on it once and it asked me if I wanted to reformat it, and I declined, because I was hoping to access it, and get my video files off of it. I tried to do an "Error Check" hoping that maybe this would work, and then I could use it; but unfortunatly it just didn't want to do it. So I cleared up room on the drives I could access and have got quite aways in that process.

I changed by capture drive to F: Drive and did a test capture and it seemed to turn out alright. I put 3 big .mpeg 2 files on
my F: Drive and used Tmpgenc Xpress 4 Batch Tool, and I ended up with the .divx files I wanted, over in a folder in "My Documents". The guy that built my computer, took my main drive, and partitioned it into 3 parts; one is the C: Drive, one is "My Documents" and the final one is a partition for the "Page File".

I restarted my computer several times yesterday and today, and it takes awhile, alot longer than it should, but it allows me back into Windows XP. I notice something peculiar though, that black screen that says "detecting various drives" doesn't come up anymore. Also after a restart my E: Drive disappears altogether.

I don't know if I have given any clues to what the problem is. Maybe I will just have to face the fact that my E: Drive is gone for good, and I will have to reformat it or accept that it is dead. But beyond this through my stupidity, and impatience I might of screwed some key part of my computer up.

[Tom Saurus]

One final comment for now. RestoreIt is installed on this computer and I don't know if it a help or a hindrenence to me in this situation. I have the option of shutting it down, while Windows XP attempts to load or to use it to go back way back to the settings saved in February 2007 when the guy first built my computer. Both my E and F drives are Western Digital 500gb drives and I think they are most likely SATA.

[Tom Saurus]

I am going to take the computer up to a technician to work on. I know I was probably supposed to backup the drivers, but I don't fully understand how to do that. I am hoping the "Repair Install" goes well and my programs will continue to work, the only one I am really worried about is Womble Mpeg Video Wizard, because the last version I downloaded had a update feature and it now has the "undo" and "redo" option when editing stuff and I really want to keep that feature. But if worse comes to worse, maybe I can upgrade to Mpeg Video Wizard DVD and keep that feature. It seems I can just go the Tmpgenc Website and download my TDA 3.0 and Tmpgenc Xpress 4, if I have to; that sure comes handy. The only thing I am not liking about Tmpgenc is that they now have a whole aggravating lengthy list of madatory questions you have to answer, before you can ask a technical question. Some of the questions take some research to find out what to fill in; I am guessing they are not that fond of technical questions and most people will give up and try to figure things out on their own.

The guy told me that he would have a way of testing the capture drive, to see if it has been corrupted or damaged beyond usability.

Thank you to everyone for their advice.

[Nelson37]

Good effort, and I would agree that there would seem to be a problem with the E:

However, there is a significant question of just where, Exactly, that E: actually is. Boot drive is C:, first partition on second drive is usually D:, unless an optical drive takes that spot, then Second partition on First, or Boot, drive, would be E: and that would be bad. Check which partition is located where, and especially that swap file.

Simple check is open the case and disconnect the cables from one drive. 50-50 shot, and takes seconds to do and reverse.

[Tom Saurus]

Nelson37: My Main Drive is partition into three parts and I think I can prove it by right clicking each partition and selecting properties, when I pick the hardware tab it reveals they are all listed under "ST3250620AS". The partitions are "C: Local Drive" which is 58.5 GB, "H: My Documents" which is 149 GB, and "P: Page File" which is 1.95 GB. It seems my original drive is around 200 GB. I just went to "Device Manager" and found out something very interesting there is another partition that has no name and it is about 24 GB and it is listed before the "Crive". I am attaching a screengrab, but please note "P: Page File" is last in the list and it does not show up in the list becaue one has to scrowl down to see it as there is only room for three listings in the display window.

[Nelson37]

Well, good news/bad news. The E: partition does not appear to be on the boot drive, that's good.

However, whoever set up this drive screwed up. Three partitions on a 250 Gb drive, boot part only 60GB, swap file on seperate partition on boot drive is pointless, 2 gb partition for swap file is too small, and 10% of your drive is unusable. Now that 10% may be used by the RestoreIt program, which brings up my absolute and total hatred for such programs that insert themselves into the partition structure. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL I INSTALL OR RECOMMEND SUCH A PROGRAM.

If a customer wants or desires such a program, and is willing to pay me to do the work, I will refuse the work and turn down the money, and I am not exactly rolling in dough. I will not inflict such crap on one of my customers, they can get some high-school kid to to that.

I would still disconnect the second and third drives and see if that affects the XP boot process. A failing drive, even though secondary and not containing the swap file, can account for many of the problems you have seen. Just disconnect the power and data cables to both drives, with power off, and boot a few times. Once is NOT enough.

If this does not help, then it may be a failing c:, or it could just be the needlessly complicated partition structure coming back to bite you in the ass. If you take it back to the technician, tell him you want a simplified partition structure, as in ONE, ALL of the drive should be usable, and NOTHING repeat NOTHING not part of the OS having ANYTHING AT ALL to do with that partition structure. Also, if you want to increase swap file performance, then move it to a seperate drive that is NOT the boot drive.

[Tom Saurus]

Nelson37: I was just looking through the documentation for "RestoreIt" and it says that 5 to 10 percent of drive space can be reserved for it. The technician up town, found it odd to have a swap file at all. By removing partitions, does that mean I have to be prepared for driver re-installs, and such? It is really bugging me about Womble, as they no longer support Womble Mpeg Video Wizard, I am hoping I don't loose this version I have now. I sent them a email yesterday morning and I haven't heard anything from them yet.

I am attaching a picture of "Drive F:" which I am now capturing to. Here is the picture:

[Tom Saurus]

I have the option of unistalling "RestoreIt". I also have the option, if I was to shut the computer down and take a chance of getting it started again to enter "RestoreIt" and disabling it or using it. I really don't know what to do there. I am not enamored by the partitions, I just assumed that the guy who built my computer, partitioned it, because it was wise to do so. I will have to put a link in here to when my computer was being built as I received alot of advice along the way here at videohelp. Here is a link:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/255243-Tom-Saurus-Potentially-New-Computer

I guess I better get back to backing stuff up. Thank you for all the advice that I have received. If more advice comes, thank you in advance.

[Nelson37]

HE FOUND IT "ODD" TO HAVE A SWAP FILE??????????????????????? Pick up your box and GET OUT. This clown is not qualified to connect a power cord.

There are ways to change partition structure without re-formatting and loosing all data. These methods involve making non-standard changes to a structure which is critical to hard drive operation. Taking an overly complicated, and possibly failing, critical structure and making non-standard changes to it is something for emergency use only. Add in the fact that you have a third party program that already made non-standard changes, to an overly complicated structure that is critical to HD operation, I would backup first, re-partition and re-format. This will involve re-installing everything.

At this point, DO NOT MESS with the RestoreIt program. Pointless. Make the backups, then start all over again.

[Tom Saurus]

Something nice happened when I restarted the computer around 11:00am, the "E: Drive" showed up and it allowed me access to it. I started to move some files off, some I could transfer off, others were blocked by "cycle redundancy error". I am running error check on the "E: Drive" at the moment. It is in Phase 4 and taking quite awhile, but this may be well worth if the drive become stable enough to get the remaining files off of it. I have speedfan running right now at is says the "E: Drive" temperature is 59C right now, but it was 60C just a little while ago when I checked. I have to take a chance and let "Error Check" do its job. It may take hours, but it isn't using much system resources, so I can do other stuff, as long as I am leaving "E: Drive" alone.

I don't have enough room to back everything up, I am going to have to do alot of editing and shrinking to make room for the remaining files. I was talking to a Computer Technician from the big city today, and if my friend can take me out, I will drop off the computer to have it fixed. This might be handy because Future Shop is just up the street and maybe I could buy another 1 TB Expansion Drive and back up more files.

If "Error Check" fixes things, I will continue to try to get files off the hard drive. Then once I have it about 20 percent free I will defragg the "E: Drive". But I figure this drive is flawed and well worth replacing. I am going to buy a 1 TB internal hard drive for the computer and continue to use my "F: Drive" to capture to. I would like in the future to add one more hard drive. I also am having the fans looked at, as I think two are no longer working. At the moment "Error Check" is still in Phase 4 and has been at 2 green boxes, for quite sometime. But I am going to try to remain patient and let it do its job. Hopefully I am not interfering with that process doing other stuff, such as capturing video to "F: Drive" and using the internet as well.

[Tom Saurus]

Update:

1. The "error check" is complete.
2. I restarted Windows XP, and it loaded in quite fast; the only snag, the computer restarted again on its own; but when it came back to Windows XP the desktop stayed.
3. I got over 200gb of video files transferred over to my "F: Drive"; some files were lost because they were corrupted. These files could be moved because of "cyclic redundancy". I deleted the damaged files.
4. I am now in the process of formatting the "E: Drive". This is taking awhile, but it may stabalize the drive for awhile. I have plans to replace this drive.
5. I am going to shut down the computer later today, to see what happens. Hopefully I will get back into Windows XP. There is alot of work ahead, to try to edit everything of "F: Drive", and then shrinking it to be archived to disc.

Something I would like to know to help me, going forward:

How often should one defrag the capture drive, as Diskeeper seems to indicate that drive becomes fragmented pretty fast?

I remember too that I installed "FFDSHOW" at some point, I think it was shortly after having the Hauppauge Card put in. I never updated after that, and this was back in early 2007. I notice they update ffdshow quite often. Is it harmful to update often? By updating does that ensure programs such as AviDemux and even Tmpgenc Express work better, because the newer codecs are somewhere in the system and they can access them through ffdshow or is it something called "DirectShow" that the programs need?

[Nelson37]

I'd chuck that drive ASAP. New ones are just too cheap to screw with it. The errors indicate a pretty severe problem.

Updating ensures that you get the latest version of the program you are using. It does NOT ensure that the program will work as it used to. It does NOT ensure that the program will work with other programs in the same way it used to.

If an update offers a feature you want, check for user reports if there are any issues, wait after it has been out for a while and check again, then IF it offers the feature you want, and IF the other users are not reporting significant issues, then by all means update.

SFAIK Diskkeeper defrags constantly, this would be BAD for a capture drive. Once a twice a month should be fine. This would depend on total drive space, usage pattern, and amount of space available.

[Ai Haibara]

I'd probably add "if there's a fix to a bug that definitely affects you" as another reason to update. But, yeah, don't be in a hurry to update, or believe you absolutely have to. If you or any of the programs you're using don't really need the newer version, or everything's working fine, don't feel you have to upgrade. Personally, I've been rather lazy about updating ffdshow, myself.

AVIDemux uses its own internal codecs, and not the ones installed on the system, though, I believe.

[jimmalenko]

SFAIK Diskkeeper defrags constantly, this would be BAD for a capture drive.

I've been testing Diskeeper at work and my understanding is that it basically "hijacks" the process of writing files to disk and tries to write them contiguously as possible. Not great for capturing I wouldn't have thought.

[Tom Saurus]

Nelson37, Ai Haibara, & jimmalenko: Thank you all, for your input.

The drive is finally formatted. I did a quick defrag with Diskeeper. I don't have Diskeeper set to automatically defrag. I just use it for to analize how fragmented the drive is, and then just click to have it work on getting the files in order. I know I have to replace this drive, and soon.

Some terrific news, after I had formatted the drive and defragged it, I shut the computer down, using the shutdown button in the start menu. I turned the computer back on, and it loaded back into Windows XP, and it was fairly quick about doing so. I now have some breathing room, and I know I have alot of editing, shrinking and archiving to do. I am really glad I bought Tmpgenc Xpress 4.0 because that batch tool is a real workhorse tool. It is nice to know that if I get the editing completed I can put a bunch of the edited files in and the program will work away at converting them to .divx files.

I know to it would probably be wise to redo Windows XP soon as well; but if the system is stable, I can put that off for awhile. Priority one will be probably to get two 1 TB drives put in, one to replace the "E: Drive" and one as an additional drive to store stuff on. But I have to try to keep atleast 40 percent of each drive freed up.

Thank you all for your advice.

[themaster1]

My take on your issue:
The table is now corrupted due to an abusive boot/reboot routine or a shutdown of you psu, probably a mix of the two.
I had a similar issue 2 weeks ago Xp wouldn't load anymore -> blue screen etc.. So, what i did was to install xp in another drive and put the other as Slave (well not really "slave" as it's a Sata bus). The new Xp automatically repaired the other and from that point i could boot on the old xp. Simple & efficient.

[Tom Saurus]

I took my computer up. The technician cleaned the computer to get rid of a bunch of dust. He took out the bad E: Drive and then put in a new 1.5 TB Drive. It is still slow in loading up Windows and restarting, but more or less things are working fine.