Boot problem 2

[Chopsy]

I was using my PC, opened Windows Explorer, and suddenly, screen went black, and the system restarted for no apparent reason.

When it tried to boot up, it would show the XP loading screen, blue bars would move for a while, then two clicks from somewhere in the system, and it would restart itself. Tried this a few times, cold boots, warm boots, same result.

I tried booting in safe mode, but it would stop right after loading AGP440.sys. (Does this mean AGP440 was the last to load succesfully, or the one that it had stopped at while loading?)

I checked the Microsoft website and came across knowledge base article 324764, which recommends using Recovery Console to remove the driver and boot with standard VGA drivers. I did this, but after selecting R for Recovery Console, I get the message "The Path or file specified is not valid". If I run PARTDISK, I can see that my partition is there, but it lists it as Partition 1 [Unknown]

I checked a few articles on here, and came across a similar sounding thing that ended up being a PSU problem. I've swapped out the PSU with a brand new one, but same problem.

I'm guessing at this point that it would seem to be a drive problem, but I'm surprised that Recovery Console doesn't seem to see anything, yet it will go through a fair amount of the boot process when booting normally and I can see it loading all the drivers up to AGP440.

I'm loathe to try a reload in case that doesn't cure the problem. I have all my crucial data backed up, but it's such a hassle to reload all the software.

Any suggestions?

 

[bcastner]

As you can access recovery console:

. chkdsk /f

Exit, reboot to normal mode and test again.

If no joy, use Recovery Console again, and try:

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot.htm

 

[wolluf]

So you can't access recovery console?

Have you tried the drive manufacturer's diagniostic utility - usually available from their website? It sounds like drive might be going bad. If it is, you need to replace it - as you have backups, you're ok, but you'll still have the hassle of reinstalling of course (unless you have an image to restore - eg, Ghost).

If the drive is ok, you could try a repair reinstall -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

- though if you can't get into recovery console, its unlikely this will work either (it leaves data, apps, settings intact, just loses windows updates).

You may have another hardware problem that's manifesting itself as a drive problem (if you have access to another machine - slave the drive there and see if everything appears as it should. If it does, its other hardware in your machine (likely).

 

[Chopsy]

chkdsk wouldn't run either, same error "The Path or file specified is not valid".

I bought a new hard drive and did a fresh install onto that, hoping to be able to at least copy the data from the old drive.

With both drives connected the BIOS happily identifies both drives, but Windows XP won't see the original drive at all. The error log reports several EventID 7 "The device, , has a bad block"

Can anyone recommend any tools that might help me recover some /all of the data from the drive? I've already gone through the painful process of re-installing Windows, and all my apps, but there are some things I'd like to get back from that drive that aren't backed up (e.g. desktop etc)

 

[linney]

http://www.restorer2000.com

http://www.runtime.org/hints.htm

Try here too.

-General Data Recovery discussion Forum (4103 members)
Forum528

 

[wolluf]

Chopsy - did you try drive manufacturer's diagnostic? (it usually will have some repair functions too).

 

[Chopsy]

I downloaded the Maxtor utility, and it reported the drive as failing. There weren't any repair functions, other than low level format, so I'm returning the drive under warranty.

Thanks for your help