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How can I complete a repair installation of WinXp Pro SP2?

This is very strange... my HP PC stop working from one day to the next. I shut it down last night, and today it wont boot at all. After several attempts, I gave up, and decided to run a repair option of the OS. During the repair process, I was prompted, like three times, for the file prounstl.exe, I hit "cancel" the same number of times, and then the repair continued. Then, the process got with one minute left for completion. After a couple of minutes went by, the system rebooted itself, and went through the startup process. The WinXP Pro was still in the CDROM, but i elected no start from the CD. The system behaved like it was going to get to the logon screen, but it did not. It just went to a sort of black screen. I have gone through the same process twice with the same result. I would appreciate your comments and/or suggestions.

Your file seems to be a network driver:

http://www.network-drivers.com/drivers/123/123275.htm

It's always a good idea to disable or remove as many peripherals as possible during repair install, and then once the system is loaded, let the new hardware wizard do its job in adding the needed drivers.

Boot your computer in safe mode, uninstall wlan driver, then reboot.

ASKER

It seems to me, that once you have gone as far as I have with the Repair using the WinXP Pro CD, the system wont boot to give you the option to select the safe mode. It behaves like if files are missing or something like that. I will let go this round, and attempt to hit the F8 key anyway, and see if presents me with the startup options.

Aguillon1949

You can also run from CD, pick first repair, type CHKDSK /F hit enter.

ASKER

I was able to boot in safe mode. I am drawing a blank... what is the path to uninstall the wlan driver? I think I've too many hours on this :-)

ASKER

Is it in Device Manager/Network Adapters?

Here is one of several ways to access the Device Manager in Windows XP. The quickest method is to enter devmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box. Alternatively, right-click My Computer => Properties (as in Windows 95/98/Me), to bring up the System Properties applet, shown below, and then click the Hardware tab followed by the Device Manager button.

ASKER

When I type CHKDSK /F, I receive the message that this is an invalid command. My options are: CHKDSK /P, or CHKDSK /R

Aguillon1949

Choose "CHKDSK C: /R", I believe, because if I remember correctly the /R implies /F. You should be able to type CHKDSK /? to see all the options explained for that command.

ASKER

yes, i did type CHKDSK /?, and the only options were P or R. I am running CHKDSK /R right now.

Sorry for my mistake. /F works under windows only.

ASKER

No problem :-)

ASKER

CHKDSK /R is finished. The results says that it found and fixed some errors. I rebooted the system and it starts fine, but it does not get to the logon screen. It goes as far as displaying the WindowsXP banner, but then it goes to a very dark blue screen, and it just sits there.

Any ideas?

ASKER

And like I said, I do get to the desktop in safe mode.

Boot into safe mode, then start->run, type msconfig, press enter.
Then under services tab, mark "hide microsoft services" and disable all services whats left.
Then under startup tab, disable all entries.

ASKER

Totally confused now. I rebooted, and tried to go into safe mode, but I got the following message: ntoskrnl.exe, hal.dll, kdcom.dll, bootvid.dll,
Load needed dlls for HAL
I rebooted again, and this time I got as the desktop in safe mode. I received the message "new hardware found" related to the Intel Pro 100, and it prompted me for the file Prounstl.exe. I was going to search for this driver by going into explorer, but suddenly, the system went into the blue screen of death.
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
STOP 0x00000050

Any ideas? This is killing me.

ASKER

Allokas,

I followed your instructions pertaining to msconfig. Under services tab, I marked "hide microsoft services" and disabled all services left. Then under the startup tab, I disabled all entries.
After this I rebooted the system without selecting the safe mode startup, and the results were the same, meaning, it goes as far as displaying WinXp banner, and then goes into a black screen, and it just sits there. Grrrrr!

ASKER

Additional info:
I rebooted the system again in safe mode and with all the recommended restrictions within msconfig. I was able to get to the desktop, and the system as been stable for the last 15 minutes.
Any additional suggestion?

Aguillon1949

"system as been stable for the last 15 minutes" - very possible that your hard drive is faulty (if only 15min).

Download ultimate boot cd from here:
www.ultimatebootcd.com

Burn it cd and the boot from cd - scan hard drive.

Or maybe you have hard drive test in bios.

Or if its a dell mashine then at boot click F12 and Diagnostics.

Alternatively (if its running good in safe mode) you can boot into safe mode and update all drivers.

Hello,

I have read all the messages, you should do antivirus scan now to ensure that it wasn't a virus that caused the problem. Scan with your anti-virus and also download malwarebytes anti-malware, update and scan with it.

Hope it helps

ASKER

warturtle,

let me check on that, and I am hopping that you are correct, because this is really strange. I have no clue. Specially, because I started to have similar issues with my laptop and I can't even get that unit to bootup. The only way I can get to the desktop, is by going on safe mode. Do you know what I need to activate in ms config so that I can connect to the internet and download the latest antivirus signatures and antimalware updates/

Hello,

You will have to use 'Safe Mode with Networking' to be able to connect to internet and download latest definitions of your anti-virus. Presumably, you have an antivirus on your computer and a firewall as well. If you can update them and do a scan whilst you are still in safe mode, that should help us figure out what the actual problem is.

If your antivirus catches something, then you can try booting normally as before and install malwarebytes anti-malware. I don't think that you can install anything new in safe mode, so you can do that after the initial problem of not starting up is resolved.

Try that and tell us your observations.

Sorry, I didn't answer your question completely:

In msconfig, you should have to enable all windows standard files as well as antivirus and firewall and anti-spyware (if you have them installed already). After that, you can reboot in safe mode and carry out the update and subsequent scans.

Hope that helps.

ASKER

I will try your suggestions.

Aguillon1949

ASKER

Well guys,

I figured out the problem... it was a bad memory chip. I replaced it, and everything is working fine. Now tell me how I should split the points.

Hello,

Good to see that the problem has been resolved. Each comment box has a button that says Accept Multiple Solutions. Click that, and you will see a page that allows you to assign points to any of the comments in the thread. There is a grade box at the bottom of the page.

Note: The total of the point splits must equal the original amount you assigned to the question, and no comment can receive fewer than 20 points. The Comment that was posted first is the Accepted Solution, and the rest of the comments are Accepted Solutions.

ASKER

About UltimateBoot CD....
I created this CD; the ISO image is fine, but when I try to use it in my defective laptop, it completely ignores the CD.
I have the boot order in the laptop to go to the CDROM first, but the UltimateBood CD is ignored.

Any suggestion from anyone that has used this program?

You have to use "Burn image", because if you burned just like 1 file to cd then it wont work.

Or you can extract iso and burn all extracted files in to cd.

Did you burn the program .iso file to a CD using XP's built-in CD burning? If so, that is your problem. The .iso file has to be burned through a commercial (such as Roxio or Nero) or freeware CD burning program (such as CDBurnerXP) that can burn a CD image to make a bootable CD. That is what an .iso file is: an image of a CD.

http://cdburnerxp.se/

ASKER

I only use Nero. It has an option to burn ISO files, and that is exactly what I did. I verified the burned file, but still does not work.

Hmmm... insert that CD into the computer right now when you're logged into windows already and see if it starts up the setup process for you or not. If it doesn't that means that the boot CD has not been prepared completely, possibly something is missing from it then.

So most likely it's a faulty cdrom, but first try to boot from other bootable cd's and if it boots from other cd's, then iso file was corrupted or nero failed to burn it correctly.

ASKER

I have tried booting from other bootable CDs, and they work.
Do you happen to have the exact size of the ISO file? The one I have is 117,844kb.
Once I verify the size, I will burn another CD, hoping it will work.

You can download nero MD5 checksum verifier from here:
http://www.nero.com/redir.php?id=4553
UBCD 4.1.0 checksum: [MD5 ] cfed7ac541890d26dc863cdb4489862c
UBCD 4.1.1 checksum: [MD5 ] 220721fb734186b9d54e4fbacdfc035d

And if it fails to verify, then you'll need to download it again.

ASKER

Ok, I have the checksum verifier, and I have a silly question... where do I get the info that goes in the step 1 field?
I've never used this tool before.

Thanks.

Hello,

Nothing to worry, no question is silly question unless you ask me what my name is without reading it...lol.. the MD5 values are mentioned in Aliokas's last post, choose the value that corresponds to the version of the Universal Boot CD that you've installed. Just copy that text and paste in step 1.

ASKER

Simple enough, thank you!

ASKER

Ok, the files match. I will proceed and report the results.

Thank you.

ASKER

Well... the results are still negative. My laptop won't recognize the UltimateBoot CD.
The ISO image I burned passed the verifier test, but still won't work.
Grrrrr.
I guess I have to look at other options.

Open cd in windows, can you see files or iso file?

ASKER

Yep.... it says ubcd411.iso

So thats what i said, u didn't expand image (burn from image), you just burned it as a file.
Go to Nero Express and pick "Disc Image or Saved Project" and bur it again.

ASKER

Aliokas,

You are a Genius!

I can finally get to work on this,

Thank you!!

No problem ;)

ASKER

Any suggestion as to which tool (from the available list in the program) for the hard drive in my Toshiba Tecra M1?
The specs give me the following description: CMS® 80GB 5400 RPM 2.5 PATA Universal Notebook Hard Drive

Thanks.

ASKER

Hopefully this is my last related question. Should the UltimateBood CD, allow me to not only check my hard drive, but also and just as important, copy my data from the hard drive to an external USB hard drive?

I think toshiba uses own (toshiba) hard drives, but i think that there is no big difference between programs.

Why you want to copy data using ubcd? Copy it from windows.

ASKER

The problem, is that my laptop is practically dead, and the only option I have it wipe out the hard drive and start from scratch. I will do that but I want to save my important files.
None of the repair options using the OS CD work, and if I select the install option allowing the OS CD to detect the existing installation of Windows so that it can repair it, it wont detect it.
That is why I am looking for workarounds.

If you can boot to windows up to the point, that you can shut it down properly (i mean shut down icon). Then WinXP CD will detect existing partition and you can do "repair".

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ASKER

I have tried to boot in safe mode and all the other options, but it wont get pass the first progress bar; it just stays at about 30% if I select the last know good command.

I will attempt some of your other suggestions, but for that I have to buy a new hard drive, which may be a good thing anyway.

If its faulty, then you'll have to by new one anyway, so it's not a loose, but pull it anyway to check an buy correct one : ATA or SATA.

ASKER

Yes, and like I said, the most important thing for me, is to rescue my data files. I purchased a program called Data Genius from Spotmau, and so far I consider it a piece of junk, because it has not worked. Their tech support is lookig at my issue (it's not allowing me to copy my data files), anyway that is a different story.
I will buy a new hard drive and try to rescue the data from the existing hard drive.

Hello,

You can try and do something else as well, although its going to be a bit different possibly from what you've tried before. Get a Ubuntu Linux Live CD and just pop it in your computer, you don't have to install anything and the system will boot from the Live CD, then if your hard-disk is still ok, you might be able to access the data on it and copy it into an external USB hard-drive without any problems. You don't even have to buy the live CD, you can download it for free from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Just select the Desktop 8.10 version (the first one in the list) and download the ISO file and then burn it in the same way that you've done before. Unless your Data rescue software does the trick, you may have another option this way.

ASKER

I burned the image, and when I ran the verification, it found three sector errors, so the verification failed. Do you know if this due to the CD (brand new), or caused by the original file?

Thank you.

ASKER

Never mind about the last comment. I tried a new CD and the verification worked.

ASKER

Turtlewar:
On of the options in the first menu, when I bootup with Ubunto, is to install its software... do I need to install to be able to copy my files to my external hard drive.

Thank you.

Hello,

You have to choose 'Start or Install Ubuntu' and that will allow you to boot into Ubuntu, if only you want it permanently, then you can double click on the Install icon on Ubuntu desktop.

More instructions with pictures are here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall

Hope it helps.

ASKER

Warturtle:

Hello,

When I get to the Ubuntu Desktop (without installing it in my system), it allows me to see my defective hard drive; however, when I try to access it, I receive the following error: "Unable to mount S3A1293D003 DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, ot the network connection was broken."

I was hoping that by accessing my hard drive, I then would be able to copy my critical data files to the external hard drive.

Any ideas?

Thank you.

Hmm... I am going to suggest you to try another thing: download a software called PhotoRec. Its a free software and will help you recover data from the hard-disk. I don't know how bad the hard-disk is now, but this software completely ignores the underlying filesystem and goes straight after the data. I was about to suggest to use this on Ubuntu, but I noticed that its also possible to do it in Windows now.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Step by Step instructions are here:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

Try that and let us know, how it goes. There are other utilities built within Ubuntu that could be of assistance as well such as ntfsprogs, but its best to keep it as a last option, because they may erase the data on disk.

There another software called TestDisk on the same website, that can also help. I am sorry, its command-line based but there are step by step instructions on how to use it completely.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Hope it helps.

ASKER

Warturtle:

It does not look like PhotoRec or Test Disk include an ISO image to bootup the system with either program.

Thank you.

If you boot in Ubuntu, open the Terminal window and type

ntfsls -a /dev/hda0

/dev/hda0 is the damaged hard-disk, feel free to change it to whatever your computer assumes it to be. This will basically attempt to list the files within the volume without mounting it.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/ntfsprogs

I am hoping that ntfsprogs package is enabled by default. Please let us know, if this is working or not.

ASKER

Hello,

I've given up on this project. I have a new hard drive, and I am going to start from scratch. Here is my final question, do I still have a shot at recovering some of my data from the old hard drive once it is removed from the laptop? If so, what would I need?

Thank you.

Hmm.. are you able to connect the damaged hard-drive as an external USB hard-disk via caddy to a working computer? If yes, then you can use Photorec to extract the files that you have on the disk. I hope that I have answered your question. You can select what files you want to recover including .doc, .xls, etc...

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ASKER

I've already started the installation process on the new blank hard drive, but still, I will take a look at the article, because my important data is still in the old hard drive.
I can always pop in the old hard drive and see if the steps in the article help me in any way.

Thank you very much.

ASKER

Thank you everyone for the effors. I decided to replace the hard drive, and hopefully, I will be able to extract my important data from the old hard drive even when is out of the laptop. Cheers!