Problem started about 36 hours ago on one of my employee's PC's. Said her system froze so she had to hit reset button, then windows was stuck on logo screen waiting for welcome screen to login.
Never changed, was stuck. I figured I could do a quick OS repair and be done (yeah right). Started repair and seemed fine until I got to "34 min left" and PC went into endless reboot loop. Re-starting installation over and over. So.. after 12 hours of reading every thread I could find I gave up but got back to it today.
Ran chkdsk /r/f - finished successfully
ran fixboot
ran fixmbr
Reran repair, same thing happened - endless loop at 34 min.
Then I used BartPE and got into restore points. Coped over hive files from a few days ago and got it to boot to the welcome user login screen. Got a Virtual Memory Paging File error but was able to boot in safe mode and successfully corrected virtual memory.
Then I had a Windows Product Activation Error and using methods mentioned in the KB article http://support.microsoft.c
I also checked registry for corrupt login file but value was correct.
Then I was able to login in and run a few of her programs but some of the Microsoft products were not working properly. IE7 in particular would not load at all - I get the IE encountered a error message when I try and start it, and get a bunch of other errors as well. I tried all the fixes from the MS KB including reregistering all the DLLs. No help.
One option would be to boot with BartPE again and do another restore from hive files and can boot in safe mode without network. Safemode show Windows XP (build 2600, xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158: service pack 3)
I can only start in safe mode without networking. If I try and start in safe mode with network I get the same error. But then I'm back to issues with IE7 and other MS programs.
What are my other options to keep the data intact?
I ran keyfinder under safe mode and have the Windows XP Pro license key but would really rather save all the programs and settings and not have to do a clean install if I can help it.
Appreciate your help.. this one has me baffled.
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Although you state that a "Repair" is stuck in an endless loop when it gets to 34 min remaining, this article may help. Certainly worth trying if you're still unresolved>
XP Installation - The 34 minute hiccup
http://techtracer.com/2007
Jonvee - thanks but I saw that techtracer article and my installation doesn't freeze at 34 it reboots so it will be difficult for me to get to DOS at just the right moment.
Wizard1978 - I've restored hives from restore point from last Thursday when system was working and ran fixboot and fixmbr as well as chkdsk /r again (It found some errors and fixed them).
Ran the Memory Diag program and ran 2 loops, all 6 tests successful. Now I can't get past the 'windows is starting up...' screen.
Do you know if I can run Seatools if I boot from BartPE?
If I can't get this fixed soon, I'm just going to format another HD and slave this one - bummer.
I haven't tried it from BartPE, I used it (mostly) in a workshop environment so we'd put the hard drive into a pc setup for testing/data recovery etc.
However, halfway down that page there is Seatools for DOS which it says boots to it's own OS, then you can do a long test (I'd usually do a short test first since it takes little time and will detect the most significant errors, then do the long test if it passes the short).
As a long shot - is the cpu possibly over heating? running for some time then failing more quickly may suggest heat related problems?
Well I've decided to do a parallel windows install and I'm following
http://www.windowsxpprofes
Once I finish that I'm going to copy the user profile using http://support.microsoft.c
I'll let you know if it works. If you have any tips or suggestions let me know.
So the Parallel install went fine and now I can get into the new version of windows. I copied over the profile but things are still not right. Some programs are not working and many icons are missing. I think that HD got corrupted.
I'm formatting a new drive and I'm going to slave the old one. If anyone knows of an easier or better method to move the user profile from one HD to another for a Windows XP Pro install please chime in.
Thanks for the assistance guys. I've split the points between you two since neither was 100% helpful but I did try both solutions.
I think the HD has some real bad spots as I ran chkdsk /r several times and it took a while and repaired allocations each time.
The paralell install worked fine but I didn't have enough room to copy over all the files without moving them and didn't want to risk that on the same drive.
I ended up putting in another drive and slaving the old one. I should have just done that 20 hours ago but it was a challenge. Anyway, I'm all back up and running and have learned a bunch. Thanks for the reference links.
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by: Wizard1978Posted on 2008-08-31 at 04:42:41ID: 22354737
After you've got the machine to a point where its possible, you need to reinstall the service packs and updates that were on there before otherwise you will get lots of odd errors.
I'd also run a full cycle of memtest set to thorough (http://www.softpedia.com/
Either a failing hard drive or ram can cause the problem you're having and as much as you want it fixed I'm sure you don't want the same problem a week later and not be able to get the data!