bad pool caller

[Guest]

I have been running Windows XP media for about 1 year. This weekend, my
computer did not boot up into windows but froze just before completion and
went into this endless loop of trying to start into windows. when I tried to
go to safe mode it then came up with a blue screen that stated:
BAD_POOL_CALLER
Stop Ox000000C2 (OxOOOOOO43, Oxc4f39OOO, Ox00000000, OxOOOOOOOO)
I have been trouble shooting it at the neighbors (he knows a fair amount
about computer hardware and software) We know for sure it is not memory, it
is not hardware but it is probable driver related. I have a partitioned
harddrive and we have done a check disk and most of the computer except for
one area can be read. We don't know the drivers involved. We need to know
what drivers are involved and how to look at them. Right now we have another
driver connected to the computer and it can see files and program. The
original driver is still connected too. I want to avoid reloading all the
software and losing all my updates. Can you tell me what I need to know about
the drivers?
Sincerely,
Cathy Hanck

 

[Malke]

I have been running Windows XP media for about 1 year. This weekend, my
computer did not boot up into windows but froze just before completion and
went into this endless loop of trying to start into windows. when I tried
to go to safe mode it then came up with a blue screen that stated:
BAD_POOL_CALLER
Stop Ox000000C2 (OxOOOOOO43, Oxc4f39OOO, Ox00000000, OxOOOOOOOO)
I have been trouble shooting it at the neighbors (he knows a fair amount
about computer hardware and software) We know for sure it is not memory,
it is not hardware but it is probable driver related. I have a partitioned
harddrive and we have done a check disk and most of the computer except
for one area can be read. We don't know the drivers involved. We need to
know what drivers are involved and how to look at them. Right now we have
another driver connected to the computer and it can see files and program.
The original driver is still connected too. I want to avoid reloading all
the software and losing all my updates. Can you tell me what I need to
know about the drivers?
Sincerely,
Cathy Hanck

When you say "driver" do you really mean "drive" as in "hard drive"? Because
it doesn't make any sense to say you have "another driver connected".

If part of the hard drive can't be read, then your hard drive has failed or
your file system is corrupted. The former is a hardware issue and not
"driver related"; the latter might possibly be fixed with a repair install
but there is always the possibility that a clean install will be required.

You can test the drive with a diagnostic utility downloaded from the hard
drive mftr.'s website. You will create a bootable cd or floppy with the
file you download, then boot with that media and do a thorough test. If the
drive fails any physical tests, replace it.

You *might* be able to pull data off the hard drive by slaving it in a
working XP box or with data recovery software, or even by booting with
Knoppix (a Linux distro that runs from cd) or a Bart's PE. However, the
more you mess about with a failing hard drive, the greater your chances are
of destroying data. After you do the drive diagnostic you'll know if this
is a physical problem or not.

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ (Bart's PE)

If it is a physical problem and the data is critical, contact a professional
data recovery company such as Drive Savers (www.drivesavers.com) or Seagate
Data Recovery. This is not inexpensive, usually starting at around $500USD
and going up from there. If the drive is physically healthy and the file
system is messed up, get the data as described above and then 1) try a
repair install; 2) or a clean install if the repair does not work.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install
How-To
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#reinstall_Windows - What you
will need on-hand

Malke

 

[Guest]

Dear Malke: I am sorry I was not clear - by drive I did mean hard drive. My
neighbor has a spare hard drive that we hooked up to. We wanted to see if the
new drive (hard drive) would be able to upload the recovery disk. It took
about an hour but it did. I have copied your post to my Microsoft
wordprocessor on my desktop on my old computer. I am going to make notes so
we can follow your directions. We have used the Linux software (that was
yesterday) and it could see the files, and did some fixes. We have one area
that is bad. So, I think what you are saying in your reply may be useful. I
will let you know. I appreciate your quick response.

Sincerely,

cahanck

 

[Malke]

Dear Malke: I am sorry I was not clear - by drive I did mean hard drive.
My neighbor has a spare hard drive that we hooked up to. We wanted to see
if the new drive (hard drive) would be able to upload the recovery disk.
It took about an hour but it did. I have copied your post to my Microsoft
wordprocessor on my desktop on my old computer. I am going to make notes
so we can follow your directions. We have used the Linux software (that
was yesterday) and it could see the files, and did some fixes. We have one
area that is bad. So, I think what you are saying in your reply may be
useful. I will let you know. I appreciate your quick response.

You cannot use Knoppix to write to XP unless your file system is FAT32. The
main reason for using Knoppix is to copy the data off the questionable hard
drive onto something else so you can restore it later.

It does sound like your original hard drive is failing. Do the diagnostics
as I suggested to be sure.

Malke