tried to format laptop...giving system error..

You may have to use the rather involved procedure referenced in this Microsoft article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545
How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from Starting

This page has, perhaps, a more understandable treatment of the above article:

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=8658
Windows XP Crashed - Here's Help

well...first of all...i was seeking the possible problems that may be there...wat all could have happened.

i am gonna give this registry thing a shot...and get back to you.

Anuj

What about going into the recovery console and doing the fixmbr and fixboot commands ?

can you elaborate on these commands pleaase.... also, please keep in mind that i formatted the hard disk...so the earlier version of windows should be gone...and before the setup of the new version...i got that system error.

You must format the master boot record also since previous installation is registered there.

Oh, well, if the drive has been formatted, then the the Microsoft article I linked to above won't apply.  Then I think you should try gecko_au2003's advice.  The FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands are done within the Recovery Console, which you can boot to on your XP install CD.  See this MSKB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314058
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

i put my laptop for one more format...just in case...i guess that would take another couple of hours...in the meanwhile...i went to the above link...but was really concerned to see this warning
FIXMBR Warning This command can damage your partition tables if a virus is present or if a hardware problem exists. If you use this command, you may create inaccessible partitions. We recommend that you run antivirus software before you use this command.

Now, as i said earlier...i have a doubt that there maybe a virus which led to all the failures on my computer.... what should i do...(how can i run a antivirus software...if i cant go into windows)...before using this command.

I was going to recommend a free DOS antivirus tool called F-Prot which can be loaded onto a couple of floppy disks (or written to a CD), but then I re-read your question and saw that you had formatted your hard drive as NTFS; unfortunately, DOS cannot recognize NTFS.  I have seen this tool, called the Ultimate Boot CD, which boots into a vesion of Linux, that has antivirus tools installed on it as well as a number of other diagnostic tools of various sorts.  Perhaps that would do the job, as I think it will recognize NTFS:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

ok...i looked at this website....looks like they have most of the tools for windows version...i am not which ones are gonna work for me...or which ones to actually use....

can you suggest me which ones to download and burn on the cd...and in what order should i run them...

The basic version already has a number of tools built into the ISO file that you burn on the CD to make the Ultimate Boot CD, and included in that are 4 separate anti virus programs.

Easier way would be to use Partition magic.
Just format the partition to a FAT32 format and then use a windows 98 boot diskette for the rest.
I have 2 partition magic startup diskettes that I use for the occasion.
Just boot the system with them and do the format...

ok....here is what i did till now.... i started to reformat my computer around 3pm...(now its 10.40pm)... it got formatted by 10pm. the setup has started...but while setting up network, it gave me this error....

Distributed Transaction Coordinator Setup Error"

Sub-component Distributed Transaction Coordinator raised an exception while
processing the OC_COMPLETE_INSTALLATION setup message.
d:\nt\com\com1x\dtc\ntdtcsetup\src\cdtccore.cpp (line 611)

the dtc service could not be installed.

can someone diagnose this error...and what to do with that.... i am hoping somehow gets successfully completed..and i get into windows.... hoping it would be much easier to fix things after that...

will get back to u pretty soon..

ok....it worked...the setup went fine....except for the error that i mentioned above... (now that i look it says d:\.... , but i dont have that drive anymore...i just made one partition)....

what do u suggest i do from here...should i go ahead and install windows service pack 2....or play with some registry.... or something.... i dont want it to now give me some system error and shutdown again...

see you motherboard manifacturer and search for a newer version of BIOS.If it is not a solution to the problem , you will have a newer and maybe better version of BIOS.
After that you can do a new installation to se if the same error will be arised.I reccomend you that, because some day this error could play a sticky game.

Wish You Luck!

Adrian Angelov

does anyone have any idea what this error means..or does....

i got up this morning..and first thing i did was run f-prot after logging in the safe mode with command prompt.... while scanning, not to my surprise, i got "disk read error" like around 10 times. the software finally scanned around 3000 files, and didnt find any virus. Need mores suggestions now...

Your hard disk may be on the verge of failing. I would suggest running a disk diagnostic utility. Most disk vendors have these for free.

www.seagate.com 
www.maxtor.com 
www.westerndigital.com 
www.quantum.com 
www.ibm.com 
www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm
www.fujitsu.com 
www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html

fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic

IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT 

Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm

Samsung
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/
www.westerndigital.com

i have a sony vaio pcg-v505ax laptop....how do i get specifications of the motherboard of this computer.

If you cannot find it at the Sony website, try this free program:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/everest.html
Everest Home Edition - system information tool

Everest Home Edition (the successor of AIDA32) is a system information and benchmarking tool with full hardware & software information. It comes with a built-in hardware database and physical information for CPU, motherboard, hard disks, optical drives, chipset and much more. The information can be displayed on-screen, printed, or saved as a report in HTML or text format. The built in diagnostics module can help you find potential problems, by highlighting them in the report and also includes links to manufacturers web sites, driver updates and more. An easy to use report wizard allows you to create detailed reports in the format of your choice. The program is extremely well featured and very nicely done.
 
License: Freeware  
Price: Free
Windows:  98/ME/2000/XP
File size: 2710 kb  
Author: Lavalys
Version: 1.10
Last update: May 03, 2004  version history  

get a utility called wcpuid :

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html

That program gives you info about your motherboard, graphics card, how much ram, cpu speed and type, etc

i checked my hard drive using the software Active smart available at http://www.ariolic.com....

Full-featured failure-prediction software for
hard drives. It uses S.M.A.R.T. technology to
alert about impending data loss situations.

Main features:
·  Hard drive diagnostic using SMART
·  Hard drive health status monitor
·  Detailed SMART reports
·  Flexible control over alert levels
·  Drive overheating monitor
·  Multiple alerting options

it checked almost everything....raw read error rate, throughput performance, spin up time, start/stop count, reallocated sector count, seek error rate, seek time performance, power on hours count, spin up retry count, power cycle count, g sense error rate, emergency retract cycle, load unload cycle count, temperature, reallocation event count, current pending sector count, utra ata crc error rate.....

the status reported was good...

now what.... i already noticed....programs too slow... everest didnt want to launch at all....takes all the ram and then finally gives an error...and closes.

this problem is really turning out to be a 500 point problem... anyways i can put more points on this question...to get more responses and advises...

I wonder if you have bad memory?  Did you end up downloading and making that Ultimate Boot CD tool I referenced above?  It has several memory test programs on it, including the one I usually use, the free Windows Memory Diagnostic from Microsoft.  Do you have a floppy drive on your laptop, or is this one of the "new improved" laptops they are now selling, without a floppy drive?!  If you have a floppy drive, you can download the Windows Memory Diagnostic (on another computer, of course), run it to create the floppy disk, then boot to the floppy disk on your laptop:

Windows Memory Diagnostic
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.

i dont have a floppy drive on my computer....i am in process of downloading the ultimate boot cd now... and will try it today....

I don't have a floppy drive on my new Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop, either, but I bought a USB floppy from Dell that works fine with it, for around $40; I consider it a good investment...  Good luck with the Ultimate Boot CD.

sorry...i was busy the last month...so put the problem aside...

i tried a couple of solutions as suggested above ...this is what i found...
''''
when i tried the FIXMBR command.. i got a CAUTION.....computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.

FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. this could cause all the partition on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. Do you want to proceed.
''''

I didnt continue...instead i made the ultimate boot cd....and did some diagnotic tests...

the antivirus software doesnt continue after around 50000 files...so i couldnt figure out if a virus is somewhere in there.
i did some diagnostic tests...the ram test went fine...  when i did the hard drive test...this is what i got...

Bart's Stuff test: the write went perfectly fine and completed successfully...but as soon as it started the read process....i got
Segemented read with compare
error has occurred. ReadFile returned an error. Data error (cyclic redundancy check)

Emsa Diskcheck
Lots of error accessing drive (example:  c:\program files\msn\msn core files\markets\)
and path file errors...

To me...now its either a hard drive failure.... or a mbr corrupt...

please suggest me...what you think....and what is the possible solution...thanks..

>now its either a hard drive failure.... or a mbr corrupt...

It could be both.  The FIXMBR warning message is testimony to this possibility, as well as the fact that the MBR is a favorite place for some viruses to propagate.  But the disk read tests, the failing of your virus/spyware programs to complete a scan of all files, and the disk checks with access errors and path file errors all suggest that other parts of the disk may have failed too.  Were any of the disk diagnosis tools on The Ultimate Boot CD of use to you?  Also, did you try running the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool, which is on The Ultimate Boot CD as well?

The Ultimate Boot CD also has AIDA32 on it, which is the predecessor to the Everest Home Edition tool I mentioned above.  You can use it to see who is the manufacturer of your hard drive on it.  I wasn't able to track down any info on your model of laptop at the Sony website...

windows memory test went fine...

also got the hard drive model ... IC25N040ATCS04-0

tried a couple of more disk diagnostic tools... all of them gave disk read error... so i am pretty sure that there's something with the hard disk....but i dont know the concept of MBR...if that could interfere in disk read.

what do you suggest now.

Here is a good page about the role Master Boot Record plays:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/structMBR-c.html

Some quotations from that page:

 every hard disk must have a consistent "starting point" where key information is stored about the disk, such as how many partitions it has, what sort of partitions they are, etc. There also needs to be somewhere that the BIOS can load the initial boot program that starts the process of loading the operating system. The place where this information is stored is called the master boot record (MBR).

The master boot record is always located at cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1, the first sector on the disk (see here for more on these disk geometry terms). This is the consistent "starting point" that the disk always uses. When the BIOS boots the machine, it will look here for instructions and information on how to boot the disk and load the operating system.







So it is primarily important in locating the partitions and where to load the OS from.

alright...got what the MBR does...roughly...

now...given all the symptoms...what do you prescribe me to do...

Unfortunately, to me, it sounds like you need a new hard disk, maybe even a new laptop, for I'm sure both the buying and installing of laptop hard drives is pretty durn expensive. Maybe the other respondents to this question will have other ideas...

i did another disk diagnostic test using HD Tune 2.10 which was in Ultimate boot cd...

out of all the rates...the only one failing is "Reallocated Sector count"...the rest give health status as OK...

would that information help in any sense...

This page gives a fairly understandable definition of what "Reallocated Sector count" means:

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/smart-attributes/reallocated-sectors-count.html

Not sure what a "failing" reallocated sector count is, though.  This page also has some info on reallocated sector count.  It would be nice if the HD Tune gave the actual count rather than the "failing" diagnosis.

http://www.drivehealth.com/attributes.html

well...HD Tune gave all the statistics... the Health section is as follows

                                                  Current     Worst      Threshold       Data      Status

Raw Read Error Rate                         100       100               62            0               OK
Throughput Performance                   100         100             40            0                OK
Spin Up Time                                    142         142             33            1               OK
Start/Stop Count                                 99           99             0           2957             OK
Reallocated Sector Count                     1             1               5           0                 Failed
Seek Error Rate                                  100          100          67          0                 OK
Seek Time Performance                     100          100           40          0                 OK


There was another tab for Error Scan...i just did it...and found that the disk has 2.*% damaged blocks.  

Cannot copy the image from the laptop...but if 0 --> OK    and   1 --> Damaged....this is the result i got

000000111111000000000000111111000000000000000
111111000000000000111111000000000000111111000
000000000000111111000000000000110100000000000
000001000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000001111000000
011111000000000000111110000000000001111000000
001101000000000000111110000000000000110000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


Now....is this normal...or...hard disk failure...or....mbr problem... ??

There is  a possibility that you have a virus in the MBR.
I think you should take it out and low level format it on another machine.
And then see how it goe's...

finally i went and got myself a new hard drive.... installed it myself...and the laptop is working perfectly fine now...
thanks alot for all the advise...

i am still intrigued as to how to find and remove a mbr virus...coz any antivirus software doesnot reach the boot sector...coz it gets stuck at one of the bad sectors... do they have some software just to check the boot and mbr sector... just curious.

I am finishing this post....but it would be great if you can answer my previous question.

Anuj

See this page:

http://www.ntfs.com/mbr-damaged.htm

As it says there, for XP, you have to use the FIXMBR command after you boot to the Recovery Console.

Any chance of a split points taking into consideration your comment here :

Comment from LeeTutor
Date: 04/28/2005 03:09PM PDT

and my comment here :

Comment from gecko_au2003
Date: 04/28/2005 07:02PM BST

You said with regards to taking my advice :)

Thanks LeeTutor ! :) Much appreciated !!