Recovery Console: XP Home Edition

[Beldar]

My XP Home machine started acting wacko about a week ago. Errors, and
applications had to close, and other strange behavior that I could only fix
by rebooting. Things got progressively worse, and now it reboots itself
near the end of the startup sequence - always. I can't access the machine
normally. I can, however, start it in Safe Mode; and when I do, it doesn't
reboot. I'm trying to repair XP using Recovery Console per the six
floppies; I don't have an XP CD. Running the repair, after I select
C:\Windows, I'm returned to the DOS prompt, and there I sit. Nothing else
happens. Can anybody help??

 

[Rich Barry]

Usually the Recovery Console is used to repair the boot.ini or the
registry. If you an get into XP using Safe Mode try a
System Restore. Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System
Tools>System Restore.

 

[Guest]

If you can go into safemode without problems, then it could be a problem with
a device or something in your startup thats preventing a normal startup.
Have you tried using your f8 and selecting the last good configuration
startup option? Have you gone into safe mode and remove "all" your startups?
(run > msconfig > startup tab > disable all) While still in safe mode, be
sure to see if you have enough swap file. sometimes the automatic setting
isn't helpful and need to set the space manually. try a min of 2 and maybe a
max of 1300. Also, go into your power management and turn off any of the
options that are set, including the backup battery. Also, physically unplug
any printers, usb hubs, modems, etc. from the pc. Only leave your monitor,
mouse, and keyboard pluged in. Then reboot for normal windows startup and
let us know what happens....

 

[Plato]

floppies; I don't have an XP CD. Running the repair, after I select

One should always own the CD for the OS they want to continue using.

 

[Beldar]

I agree. I would love to have one, but Emachines doesn't include one.

 

[Beldar]

I tried all the suggestions, nothing worked and now I can't boot in Safe
Mode either; it just keeps rebooting.

So, I removed the hard drive, changed the jumper from Master to Slave and
installed it as a second hard drive on my other computer. Guess what; the
#2 computer kept rebooting! So I removed it from #2 and now #2 is OK again.

Looks like the hard drive is somehow causing the issue, even if installed as
a Slave.

I'm going to change the jumper to Cable Select and try it again in #2. If I
can't boot #2 with the 'bad' hard drive in it, I've got a problem, because I
don't see how I can get the data off of it.

Anybody got any suggestions???

 

[Beldar]

Well Cable Select didn't help either.

Next I'm going to install again in #2 as Slave and try to start up #2 in
Safe Mode.

If I'm lucky and I'm able to start then I should be able to copy data from
the problem drive to the good (master) drive.

If this doesn't work and nobody else has an answer, I'm going to hang
myself.

 

[Beldar]

I can't boot up #2, even in Safe Mode, as long as I have the problem hard
drive installed. I remove it and all is OK.

In My Computer/Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings, under
System Failure, I unchecked Automatically restart. Then I booted up with
the bad HD installed. I got a Blue Screen with the following:


"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage
to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your
computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps, disable or
uninstall any antivirus, disk fragmentation or backup utilities. Check your
hard drive configuration and check for any updated drivers. Run chkdsk /F
to check your hard drive for corruption, then restart your computer.

Technical info:

stop: 0x00000024 (0x001902FE, 0xFA2AF814, 0xFA2AF10, 0xF9B051FC)

NTFS.sys - address F9B051FC base at F9AF8000 Datastamp 41107 eea"


Ideas, anyone????????

 

[Plato]

I agree. I would love to have one, but Emachines doesn't include one.

It's not up to your vendor to supply one. It's up to you to buy one.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It's not up to your vendor to supply one. It's up to you to buy one.

Or to choose only to buy machines where the vendor supplies one.

 

[a_bandini]

I can't boot up #2, even in Safe Mode, as long as I have the problem hard
drive installed. I remove it and all is OK.

In My Computer/Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings, under
System Failure, I unchecked Automatically restart. Then I booted up with
the bad HD installed. I got a Blue Screen with the following:


"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage
to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your
computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps, disable or
uninstall any antivirus, disk fragmentation or backup utilities. Check your
hard drive configuration and check for any updated drivers. Run chkdsk /F
to check your hard drive for corruption, then restart your computer.

Technical info:

stop: 0x00000024 (0x001902FE, 0xFA2AF814, 0xFA2AF10, 0xF9B051FC)

NTFS.sys - address F9B051FC base at F9AF8000 Datastamp 41107 eea"


Ideas, anyone????????

I'm having the same problem right now. stop 0x0000024 ntfs.sys. i
have tried everything you've described, plus the win2K 4 disk approach
with ntfs disabled - that didn't work either - "could not find entry
point" error when attempting to run chkdsk on the bad volume. since
both of my volumes are ntfs, there is no chance of trying to fix this
via the standard recovery console. my next shot is to download the
knoppix image (www.knoppix.org) and try using their ntfs fix utility -
some have stated good results with that approach. If anyone has any
better ideas, i'm all ears.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

Beldar wrote:

Yep; I've seen this too... something in the file system that crashes
NTFS.SYS, and therefore anything that relies on NTFS.SYS, e.g...
- Windows XP
- Windows XP Safe Mode
- Windows XP Safe Mode Command Only
- Windows XP installation CD boot
- Windows XP installation CD boot, Recovery Console
- HD-booted Recovery Console
- Bart PE CDR boot
- MS WinPE CDR boot (untested, assumed)
- any Linux using Capture to shell NTFS.SYS (untested, assumed)
- any DOS drivers shelling NTFS.SYS (untested, assumed)

That also means no ability to run ChkDsk, either.

Here are things that don't use NTFS.SYS, that work:
- BootIt NG, including the file system error check
- ReadNTFS non-TSR access untility for DOS
- free read-only DOS TSR NTFS driver

More on SystemInternals NTFS drivers for DOS... the free one that is
read-only doesn't need NTFS.SYS, but AFAIK the pay-for one that can
write as well as read does rely on NTFS.SYS

In my case, BootIt NG could image off the volume and resize it without
detecting any file system errors on the error check. Also, ReadNTFS
could "see" the parts of the file system that I was interested in, and
copy off files without errors. Finally, HD Tune passed the hard drive
as physically OK, and MemTest86 passed the PC's RAM as OK.

So, what was the situation? What appears to be a mildly-deranged NTFS
(or perhaps an NTFS with no file system logic errors at all) that
nevertheless crashes NTFS.SYS as soon as any attempt is made to read
it - thus locking one out of everything on that volume. NASTY.

I'll stick to FATxx for now, thanks...

-- Risk Management is the clue that asks:

"Why do I keep open buckets of petrol next to all the
ashtrays in the lounge, when I don't even have a car?"

 

[Britt Dickson]

Check out BartPE . It's a superior boot disk on a CD. Can help you fix
boot.ini , etc. w/o mounting the drive(s).

Then you can diagnose the endless reboots, etc., hook up one drive at a
time, then combinations, and master slave
settings, and you should be OK.

Britt Dickson