hive corrupted...

[Arvind]

Hi,

I have a dell 600m laptop with XP home. It is not booting.
Re-installing the OS is my last option since I have some important data
in it.

I have tried several of the tricks online, but none of them work
because the entire c:\windows
directory is not seen. Tricks include using recovery console and
replacing the 4 hives with the ones in repair directory (not working
because c:\windows is not seen on startup of recovery console, only c:
is seen). Also, commands like cd windows, md tmp etc. do not work. I
get the message "access denied".


Does any of u know a place in Dallas where they will diagonize laptop
issue related things at a reasonable price? If any of u is an expert
on such things, please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix
this.

Thanks,

Arvind

 

[John John]

From the recovery console do chkdsk /r then try the repair procedure
again.

John

 

[Danny Wareham]

You could also try the less technical way and do a repair install. You
won't lose any of your data.

You need an actual Windows XP installation CD.

Here are instructions:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

You could also try this beforehand:

Press F8 repeatedly when booting. When you get to the boot screen select
"Last Known Configuration". It might fix it.


--
Danny Wareham, President
WareSoft Software

XP Smoker - The Hot Performance Booster for Windows XP
http://www.xp-smoker.com

Popular Software at Great Prices
http://www.waresoftsoftware.com

 

[Arvind]

Thanks for the tips Danny and John.

Danny, I have a XP home CD from Dell that came with my laptop, will
that work?

John, I have tried the chkdsk /r, I just got a message that "one or
more unrecoverable errors occured" and a restart did not fix. Should I
then try the fixboot or fixmgr or something (I saw this somewhere
online)? Pls advice.

Danny, I have tried both safe mode and the last known configuration,
they both give me a "c:\windows\...\system is corrupt, try to recover"
message.

Thanks a lot for your time once more.

Arvind

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi,

I have a dell 600m laptop with XP home. It is not booting.
Re-installing the OS is my last option since I have some important data
in it.

I have tried several of the tricks online, but none of them work
because the entire c:\windows
directory is not seen. Tricks include using recovery console and
replacing the 4 hives with the ones in repair directory (not working
because c:\windows is not seen on startup of recovery console, only c:
is seen). Also, commands like cd windows, md tmp etc. do not work. I
get the message "access denied".


Does any of u know a place in Dallas where they will diagonize laptop
issue related things at a reasonable price? If any of u is an expert
on such things, please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix
this.

Thanks,

Arvind

Sounds like it may be more than the hive that is corrupted, but you may have
simply set a policy that limits the scope of the Recovery Console.

You might consider removing the drive and attaching it to another system via
a USB-hard disk connector, and getting your important data *off* it before
proceeding.

If you're having other problems with the drive, consider replacing it with a
new drive, doing a clean install, and then copying your data back over from
the old drive.

HTH
-pk

 

[Arvind]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks. I'd really appreciate it if you could mail me instructions on
how to do the hard drive back up you have mentioned above.

I also sometimes get a message like

"PBR for descriptor 2 loading...done

A disk read error occured
Press alt+ctrl+del..."

Dell diag shows that hard drive can be accessed but some parts/blocks
are corrupted (cannot be read from). Does this suggest anything to
you?

Thanks,

Arvind

 

[Jim]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks. I'd really appreciate it if you could mail me instructions on
how to do the hard drive back up you have mentioned above.

I also sometimes get a message like

"PBR for descriptor 2 loading...done

A disk read error occured
Press alt+ctrl+del..."

Dell diag shows that hard drive can be accessed but some parts/blocks
are corrupted (cannot be read from). Does this suggest anything to
you?

Thanks,

Arvind

The message means that the hard drive is about dead. You need to get
whatevery you can off that drive as soon as possible.
Jim

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks. I'd really appreciate it if you could mail me instructions on
how to do the hard drive back up you have mentioned above.

It's very simple. Get a USB drive case of the correct size, remove the
hard disk from your laptop, and attach it to the case.

The method varies depending on the construction of the laptop. Some
laptops use an extra header on the hard disk pins, and that has to be
removed. It just pushes on.

I also sometimes get a message like

"PBR for descriptor 2 loading...done

A disk read error occured
Press alt+ctrl+del..."

That can sometimes mean that the BIOS needs updating to deal with issues
with attached USB devices.

Dell diag shows that hard drive can be accessed but some parts/blocks
are corrupted (cannot be read from). Does this suggest anything to
you?

Yes, it suggests that you should replace the drive soonest, before it fails.
If your Dell came with XP install disks, this is pretty straightforward.

HTH
-pk

 

[Arvind]

Hi all,

Thanks once for all the amazing info. But it looks like I'm screwed.
The micro center guy told me that the hard drive is clicking. I made
the mistake of trying to reboot too many times and ran too many dell
diag tests the last three days without knowing about all this.

Quick question, if my dell diag can turn the hard drive on/off, do
tests called march test, write test and pass but fail occasionally on
read tests, does it not mean that hard drive is okay and only parts of
it are corrupted?? Then what is this clicking thing??

Do you guys think that this needs a new hard drive install. I saw
prices like $115 installed for a new 60GB hard drive. Sound
reasonable??

Arvind

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi all,

Thanks once for all the amazing info. But it looks like I'm screwed.
The micro center guy told me that the hard drive is clicking. I made
the mistake of trying to reboot too many times and ran too many dell
diag tests the last three days without knowing about all this.

Quick question, if my dell diag can turn the hard drive on/off, do
tests called march test, write test and pass but fail occasionally on
read tests, does it not mean that hard drive is okay and only parts of
it are corrupted?? Then what is this clicking thing??

Do you guys think that this needs a new hard drive install. I saw
prices like $115 installed for a new 60GB hard drive. Sound
reasonable??

Arvind

Actually almost all laptop drives make some clicking noises, and some
mention this in the documentation as normal behaviour. There isn't a lot
of space for sound deadening material in a laptop drive. So sound, by
itself, isn't necessarily an indicator of failure (on the other hand, there
are some loud whacking (as very distinct from clicking) noises that are
never a good sign).

If the diagnostics report any kind of drive failure, replace it. Continued
hammering at it with tests will only shorten its remaining life.

If the disk is experiencing errors, replace it. It's almost certain that
the value of your time - and the value of your data - is higher than the
cost of a new drive. You will probably spend less time installing a new
drive than trying to figure out why this one is failing and how to wring the
last bit of time out of it - and it will still ultimately fail, taking your
data with it.

Do a little research on drives available in your area. Laptop drives are a
little more expensive than desktop drives, and there are significant
differences between them. Most laptop drives are in the 4500-5400 rpm
range, but you can get 7500rpm drives that may improve system performance
(and cost more). And brands are not equal; see what is available to you
and google it.

Where I live, one store that I know has competitive prices advertises a
60-gig 5400rpm laptop drive for CDN$111. THe 80 gig model is CDN$119.
The 80 gig 7500rpm drive is CDN$169.

Installation is easy, but it's important that you also get a means of
attaching your old drive to the system after you've got it up and running.
Get a USB drive case, these can run about $25 for the basic models that will
take a laptop drive. These also use a special cable with three ends - the
drive is powered by the USB ports and a single port will not provide enough
power to run the drive. Do not attach this until *after* you have the new
drive up and running and updated. Then, you can migrate the data to the
new system. Note that you may have to take ownership to gain access to
your account folders.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

HTH
-pk