OS Crash

[Guest]

Well, I used to always laugh at everyone that had a hard drive or computer
problem because I have never had a major problem with my PC - until now.

I had a power spike while I had my PC on (and it is plugged into a surge
protector) and it caused the PC to shut down. After that, it wouldn't boot up
into any mode. Not normal mode, any of the safe modes, or last know good
config mode. It always ends at a BSoD with a 'Bad Pool Caller' error.

I cannot get it to boot from the Windows XP CD as it always ends up back on
the BSoD. I also can't load the Windows Recovery Console from the CD, just
get the blue screen again.

I did get the PC booted using a Live CD version of Linux (which I am using
now) but it won't give me any access to the hard drive and I really don't
know that much about using Linux to get much passed the basics with it. I
tried using Winternels ERD Commander 2005 and when it boots up with that
from the CD to the screen where you select what OS you want to repair, it
doesn't even show that there is an OS on my hard drive!? And when I select
'none' for operating system and it finishes loading, it shows all of my
drives (floppy, DVD-ROM, and DVD-RW) except for my HD.

I ran all the Dell diagnostics from the utility partition (all 5 hours
worth) and all the hardware (I have a Dell XPS 400 that is only 6 months old)
passed all the tests, so I know it isn't a hardware issue. I got online with
Dell at work (before I was able to d/l a copy of Linux at work) and they told
me that I need to reformat the hard drive. I contacted Microsoft and they
said it is Dell's problem even though it is pretty clear that it is a
Microsoft problem with XP.

I really don't want to format my HD since I have a ton of stuff on it and I
didn't back any of it up to CD or DVD (I know, I'm a dumbass, but like I
said, in over 15 years I have never had a catastrophic failure). Does anyone
have any suggestions as to how to save and recover the data on my HD? I have
a SATA drive and I went looking for an enclosure for it so I could bring it
to work and try and access it as an external drive, but in the entire city
of Denver, no one has an enclosure so I had to order one which probably won't
be here for a week. So if anyone can suggest something that I haven't tried,
it would be appreciated!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Well, I used to always laugh at everyone that had a hard drive or computer
problem because I have never had a major problem with my PC - until now.

I had a power spike while I had my PC on (and it is plugged into a surge
protector) and it caused the PC to shut down. After that, it wouldn't boot
up
into any mode. Not normal mode, any of the safe modes, or last know good
config mode. It always ends at a BSoD with a 'Bad Pool Caller' error.

I cannot get it to boot from the Windows XP CD as it always ends up back
on
the BSoD. I also can't load the Windows Recovery Console from the CD, just
get the blue screen again.

I did get the PC booted using a Live CD version of Linux (which I am using
now) but it won't give me any access to the hard drive and I really don't
know that much about using Linux to get much passed the basics with it. I
tried using Winternels ERD Commander 2005 and when it boots up with that
from the CD to the screen where you select what OS you want to repair, it
doesn't even show that there is an OS on my hard drive!? And when I select
'none' for operating system and it finishes loading, it shows all of my
drives (floppy, DVD-ROM, and DVD-RW) except for my HD.

I ran all the Dell diagnostics from the utility partition (all 5 hours
worth) and all the hardware (I have a Dell XPS 400 that is only 6 months
old)
passed all the tests, so I know it isn't a hardware issue. I got online
with
Dell at work (before I was able to d/l a copy of Linux at work) and they
told
me that I need to reformat the hard drive. I contacted Microsoft and they
said it is Dell's problem even though it is pretty clear that it is a
Microsoft problem with XP.

I really don't want to format my HD since I have a ton of stuff on it and
I
didn't back any of it up to CD or DVD (I know, I'm a dumbass, but like I
said, in over 15 years I have never had a catastrophic failure). Does
anyone
have any suggestions as to how to save and recover the data on my HD? I
have
a SATA drive and I went looking for an enclosure for it so I could bring
it
to work and try and access it as an external drive, but in the entire
city
of Denver, no one has an enclosure so I had to order one which probably
won't
be here for a week. So if anyone can suggest something that I haven't
tried,
it would be appreciated!

There's something easy you can do, since you can't get the external
enclosure yet, and since there may be issues with the drive, and you already
know there *is* data you want to recover.

While you may not be able to get the enclosure easily, you probably can get
a replacement drive easily. They aren't expensive these days and are
trivial to install. You may not even need to get a SATA drive for this
purpose, though you'll probably want to.

Then, remove the current drive, and connect the new one. Install XP to it.
Once that is done, you can re-connect the old drive and copy the needed data
files.

Finally, once the data is safely copied, you can take the new drive out,
reinstall the old one, and fix it knowing that your data is saved. And
when the enclosure arrives, you have something to put in it, and use as a
regular, disconnectable backup drive.

Installing to a new drive will also tell you if the problem actually is
hardware other than the drive itself.

HTH
-pk