Cipher.exe trouble...???? PLEASE HELP!!!

[Phillip Lee]

I ran across an article on MS Website that showed how to
use the cipher.exe utility in Windows XP.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;315672

It basically explains that whenever you delete files from
you computer, they are still accessible with the
appropriate software. Cipher.exe is supposed to overwrite
the parts of your hard drive that contains deleted data.
I have a 40gb hard drive with a c: and d: partition. I
recently deleted everything off the d: partition and
decided to run this cipher.exe utility. I opened a
command window and typed in:

c:\>cipher.exe /w:d

It appeared to be doing as the article said. It looked
like it was overwriting the sectors of the d: partition
with new hex values. When it was finished I simply closed
the command window. Everything seemed fine, but later on
that day, I rebooted my machine and it booted up to a blue
screen of death. I have tried everything in my arsenal to
fix it but I can't get pact that screen. So far I have
been unsuccessful at finding a fix on the MS website. The
blue screen says this:

STOP: 0x00000024 ( 0x001902f8, 0xf79b2704, 0xf79b2404,
0xf71c0411 )

ntfs.sys - address f71c0411 base at f7152000
Datestamp 3b7dc5d0

Any help would be greatly appreciated, other than telling
me to format the hard drive....NOT AN OPTION!

DESPERATE and FRUSTRATED!!

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


| I ran across an article on MS Website that showed how to
| use the cipher.exe utility in Windows XP.
|
| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
| us;315672
|
| It basically explains that whenever you delete files from
| you computer, they are still accessible with the
| appropriate software. Cipher.exe is supposed to overwrite
| the parts of your hard drive that contains deleted data.
| I have a 40gb hard drive with a c: and d: partition. I
| recently deleted everything off the d: partition and
| decided to run this cipher.exe utility. I opened a
| command window and typed in:
|
| c:\>cipher.exe /w:d
|
| It appeared to be doing as the article said. It looked
| like it was overwriting the sectors of the d: partition
| with new hex values. When it was finished I simply closed
| the command window. Everything seemed fine, but later on
| that day, I rebooted my machine and it booted up to a blue
| screen of death. I have tried everything in my arsenal to
| fix it but I can't get pact that screen. So far I have
| been unsuccessful at finding a fix on the MS website. The
| blue screen says this:
|
| STOP: 0x00000024 ( 0x001902f8, 0xf79b2704, 0xf79b2404,
| 0xf71c0411 )
|
| ntfs.sys - address f71c0411 base at f7152000
| Datestamp 3b7dc5d0
|
| Any help would be greatly appreciated, other than telling
| me to format the hard drive....NOT AN OPTION!
|
| DESPERATE and FRUSTRATED!!

 

[Phillip Lee]

I can see how this would work for some people but my case
is unusual. I can boot to the cd just fine, but when I
hit Enter to install XP it goes to the same blue
screen.....and the same happens when I hit R for the
Recovery Console. Any suggestions??

EVEN MORE DESPERATE THAN BEFORE!!!

 

[Drew Cooper [MSFT]]

This sounds like hardware trouble. Any connection with cipher.exe is
probably coincidental. Stop 0x24 means that something in ntfs.sys went
belly-up. Here's a TechNet entry for it:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prmd_stp_swhw.asp

Unfortunately, the best suggestion there is to run chkdisk and you can't
even boot into the recovery console to run it.

I don't suppose you can swap the drive into another machine or put another
drive in your machine (assuming it's not a bad drive controller or somesuch)
to retrieve the data? Alternately, I'm sure there are lots of 3rd-party
recovery apps available.
If you have encrypted files, be sure that you copy not only the files but
your user profile - that's where your keys are.

 

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

Phillip,

I am having the identical problem in 2007. It sounds like you know
pretty much what you are doing, and I'm sure you fixed it by now. It
appears that I have 1 bulged capacitor. It's been that way for 3 years
and worked fine, until now. I am confident that is the issue as I have
swapped known good drives. You are right, there is no safe mode to go
to or even repairing or reinstalling the OS. I'm also frustrated that
I now have to either buy a new MB or admit it's close enough to
obsolete and strip it.