Need some Crash Help

[Frank]

I thought I was pretty good but can sure use some help now.
Windows XP Home SP2, two hard drives + other "stuff"

A few days back my system crashed, on re-booting my hard drives were
"empty". So I restored both drives using Acronis Trueimage from a
backup only a couple of days old.(stand alone using a bootable CD)

On rebooting, after a few minutes.... Crash.
On rebooting, got the "NTLDR no found", checked the drive(s) and both
were again "empty". I have repeated this process a few times and the
same result.

So, I restored the drives again using Acronis TI from a bootable CD,
rebooted to a Win 98 floppy, ran ScanDisk and then Norton NDD. Booted
from my XP CD, went into the Recovery Console and ran CHKDSK /R .... No
problems found.
Rebooted this time into Windows normally..... Crashed again.

Any ideas ?

 

[Jerry]

Have you run the hard drive diagnostics that are usually available form the
manufacturer's web site?

 

[Frank]

Good idea, went to Seagate, got SeaTools, built a bootable CD and ran
their diagnostics....... No Problems found.

 

[Gerry]

Frank

Please post a copy of the Stop Error Report.

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Right click on
the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Properties, Advanced,
Start-Up and Recovery, System Failure and uncheck box before
Automatically Restart.

Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure until you have
resolved the problem. Check for variants of the Stop Error message.

An alternative is to keep pressing the F8 key during Start-Up and select
option - Disable automatic restart on system failure.

If you are using a wireless keyboard and the F8 key does not work
substitute a wired keyboard and mouse for this exercise only.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Frank]

Did all your steps.
Ran for about 6 hours today, crashed and I got a white screen.
Sorry, no error code shown
Both hard drives were "empty" again, so Restored with Trueimage (again)
There just has to be some corrupted data out there that Norton and
CHKDSK are not finding.
Best Hard Drive scanner/fixer recommendation ?

 

[Gerry]

Frank

What is your computer make and model? Is it a laptop or desktop? How old
is it?

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer for the last boot. No
Information Reports or
Duplicates please. Indicate which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Frank]

The problem with reviewing the Event Log is that when I have a "crash"
both my hard drives are "empty"/no file structure, so I have to Restore
to a previous backup.

The system has been running for about 6 hours now in Safe Mode Windows.
I got to thinking.... NTFS is supposed to be better, so I converted from
FAT32 to NTFS...
Well almost.. My D: drive converted... for my C: (system) drive, it
cranked away for hours and finally came up Still at FAT32.
(space is not a problem... only using 50g our of 300g)
The NTFS Conversion of drive C: was run when Windows was restarting so
there should have been no conflicts.
I went to MS KB to see if there was a NTFS conversion logfile to see
what might have happened but did not find any reference.

I think this is some kind of data problem but each time I restore I run
CHKDSK and there are no problems.
Any recommendations for a super heavy duty Disk "scanner" (besides Norton)?
Chance of a hardware controller problem seems to be slim because I can
do all the Restores and Backups with no errors.
Wonder if I should Repair Windows from the CD?

Thrashing about I know... but this is frustrating not being able to fix
this problem.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

One frequent problem with the convert app is that the Fat32 disk should use
4K clusters for the format., and often Fat32 from older Windows do not.

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Mark L. Ferguson

..

 

[Frank]

This data has been around for a long time, but the actual drive is new.
Any tools out there to change the cluster size?

 

[Gerry]

Frank

http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Frank]

Repaired Windows from the CD and it seems all is back to normal.
Sure must have been "confused"

 

[Frank]

Using Acronis Disk Director I changed to 4k size and CONVERT still
failed and left me with FAT32 again.

But that is a secondary problem.
My system still crashes in Normal Windows boot BUT can run for days in
SAFE Mode with no problems.
When it crashes, on re-booting, my drives are "empty" and I restore
using TrueImage.

I have scanned my HD's many times after reloading - before running Windows.

I did find an entry in the Events log of a problem with the folder
\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs of a corrupted header and
following the KB, renamed the folder... no help

When running Normal Windows:
Windows Update always fails and shortly thereafter there will be a crash.
Sometimes there will be a crash if I just open Windows Explorer.

I am at a loss.
Would booting to SAFE w/Network prove anything?
While sure not at the top of my list, would installing Vista Home
Premium do anything for me? (I am fond of XP)