Solved problems

[John Johnson]

Since I posted a few of things, I will post how they were solved.

Very slow WinXP shut downs.
Spybot was finding a DSO exploit in the Registry. I check fix it.
Turns out it did not. I manually delete them.

An error in Events Log said some file in Software Distribution, Data
Storage could not find its source on G drive. (where Windows once
was). I finally found the file with the references and change G to C.

My main drive and some Windows files was acting in an strange way.
where Windows Event Log said their were bad Blocks,
After running Spin Rite on my new Wester Digital SATA drive and
finding no errors I did a repair install of WinXP to fix any corrupt
files and now the drive wouldn't event boot. Assume its a bad drive
and getting a placement. Had a good backup via Ghost.

Then late Tuesday my internet connectivity was completely off.
Pacbell told me it was a network outrage in the Los Angeles area.
I called back every 6 hours or so and they insisted that it was there
fault.
Finally got hold of guy this morning and he said no, no problem with
my line.
After going through the normal checks I disabled System Suite Firewall
and that fixed it.
Somehow I or some how it got check to stop all traffice.

For the moment all is working find.

Thanks for the help on some of these issues.

 

[John Doe]

Since I posted a few of things, I will post how they were solved.

I think most technical help people appreciate that. I certainly do. Thanks.

<snip>

 

[David Maynard]

Since I posted a few of things, I will post how they were solved.

Very slow WinXP shut downs.
Spybot was finding a DSO exploit in the Registry. I check fix it.
Turns out it did not. I manually delete them.

Then put them back.

That is a bug with spybot that they keep saying they'll fix but don't seem
to have done yet. The 1004 zone (in every user instance under HKEY_USERS)
should be a double word 3 instead of the (I think but can't check as I've
fixed it) text 3.

An error in Events Log said some file in Software Distribution, Data
Storage could not find its source on G drive. (where Windows once
was). I finally found the file with the references and change G to C.

That's probably a cloning issue and can happen when you boot a clone with
the old drive still in the system.

My main drive and some Windows files was acting in an strange way.
where Windows Event Log said their were bad Blocks,
After running Spin Rite on my new Wester Digital SATA drive and
finding no errors I did a repair install of WinXP to fix any corrupt
files and now the drive wouldn't event boot. Assume its a bad drive
and getting a placement. Had a good backup via Ghost.

I'm betting that's a cloning issue too. The drive was confused with some
files expected on the old 'G' drive and a 'repair' made it even worse as a
repair isn't going to reassign drive letters (for installed programs, etc.)
but it *is* going to 'install' the new files to the current boot drive. So
files get further confused between the old 'G' drive and the current 'C'
with now different version levels.

 

[John Johnson]

Then put them back.

That is a bug with spybot that they keep saying they'll fix but don't seem
to have done yet. The 1004 zone (in every user instance under HKEY_USERS)
should be a double word 3 instead of the (I think but can't check as I've
fixed it) text 3.

This is what was in there
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings\Zones\4]
@=""
"DisplayName"="Restricted sites"
"Description"="This zone contains Web sites that could potentially
damage your computer or data."
"Icon"="inetcpl.cpl#00004481"
"CurrentLevel"=dword:00000000
"MinLevel"=dword:00012000
"RecommendedLevel"=dword:00012000

That's probably a cloning issue and can happen when you boot a clone with
the old drive still in the system.

Yes thats what it was. Changed that drive level manually after I
found the file seems to have fixed that.

I'm betting that's a cloning issue too. The drive was confused with some
files expected on the old 'G' drive and a 'repair' made it even worse as a
repair isn't going to reassign drive letters (for installed programs, etc.)
but it *is* going to 'install' the new files to the current boot drive. So
files get further confused between the old 'G' drive and the current 'C'
with now different version levels.

I was getting bad block errors and before it happen I was having
problems that seem to correspond with a bad drive. These started to
occure without any immediate prior changes.

Tried to do another Ghost from the other now good drive as C and did
not have the other drive attached and it wouldn't boot.

Then did the Winxp repair and again without the other drive it still
wouldn't boot.

 

[John Johnson]

Alsoi after making those changes the two problems, mainly the very
slow shut down stopped. I was getting these DCOM errors and those
stopped.

 

[David Maynard]

John Johnson wrote:



Then put them back.

That is a bug with spybot that they keep saying they'll fix but don't seem
to have done yet. The 1004 zone (in every user instance under HKEY_USERS)
should be a double word 3 instead of the (I think but can't check as I've
fixed it) text 3.

This is what was in there
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings\Zones\4]
@=""
"DisplayName"="Restricted sites"
"Description"="This zone contains Web sites that could potentially
damage your computer or data."
"Icon"="inetcpl.cpl#00004481"
"CurrentLevel"=dword:00000000
"MinLevel"=dword:00012000
"RecommendedLevel"=dword:00012000

Sorry, I said that wrong. It's the 1004 key (should have 3 in it) under
zone 0 in each user instance under HKEY_USERS, not 'current user'. Editing
current user won't accomplish anything as it'll get replaced by the
specific user settings (from HKEY_USERS) when 'whoever' becomes the
'current user'.

Yes thats what it was. Changed that drive level manually after I
found the file seems to have fixed that.

Problem is, changing just one, or a couple of, thing(s) doesn't 'fix' it.
Might make that one thing appear to work but there'll still be scads of
other drive 'G' vs 'C' problems and you can't 'change' the system drive
letter once windows has locked onto it.

I was getting bad block errors and before it happen I was having
problems that seem to correspond with a bad drive. These started to
occure without any immediate prior changes.

I'm thinking it got 'bad block' errors because it wasn't the drive it
thought it was.

Tried to do another Ghost from the other now good drive as C and did
not have the other drive attached and it wouldn't boot.

Then did the Winxp repair and again without the other drive it still
wouldn't boot.

Well, I don't know what "other now good as drive C" means, or what is on it
(is there another drive along with this 'good' C?), but not booting is a
classic case of a mixed drive clone problem. It won't boot because as soon
as Windows comes alive, and starts using it's registry entries, it can't
find anything because the registry entries are pointing to a drive that
isn't there. Put the original drive it was cloned from back in and it boots
because, while the 'new' drive appears completely normal with everything on
it, XP can use the old files on the old drive: where the registry is
pointing to.

Repair can't fix that.

Have you tried booting your 'now good C' with no other drives installed?

 

[John Johnson]

Well, I don't know what "other now good as drive C" means, or what is on it
(is there another drive along with this 'good' C?), but not booting is a
classic case of a mixed drive clone problem.

A few weeks ago I cloned a good runing SATA drive to another drive for
back up purposes. They were later both running at the same time.
Seemingly without any problems.

Then I started to get a series of errors on the SATA drive, (including
a lot of bad block references and very slow shut downs.) so unplugged
that and ran the back up drive. That then had the DCOM, the Registry
and the very slow shut problems. I fixed the things I mentioned and
now its running fine.


It won't boot because as soon

as Windows comes alive, and starts using it's registry entries, it can't
find anything because the registry entries are pointing to a drive that
isn't there. Put the original drive it was cloned from back in and it boots
because, while the 'new' drive appears completely normal with everything on
it, XP can use the old files on the old drive: where the registry is
pointing to.

Repair can't fix that.

Have you tried booting your 'now good C' with no other drives installed?

The thing is everything on the drive Im working on now seems to be
working fine. No errors listed in the Events Log as there were. And
especially no long delays in shutting down.


I did find other references to Spybot giving false positives but it
might be possible I did have some sort of mal ware which that was
using it and giving me the DCOM errors. The key, just one line, I
delete was actually blank.

I did clone this current drive (actually a parition) to the other and
unpluged this one and that one still won't boot. It also got
seriously hung up on trying to do a repair install like it was
finding a bad sector. Took 6 tries just to get all the way through.
When finished it would not boot.
I guess I could try and to a complete fresh install and see if that
works.

 

[David Maynard]

A few weeks ago I cloned a good runing SATA drive to another drive for
back up purposes. They were later both running at the same time.
Seemingly without any problems.

Then I started to get a series of errors on the SATA drive, (including
a lot of bad block references and very slow shut downs.) so unplugged
that and ran the back up drive. That then had the DCOM, the Registry
and the very slow shut problems. I fixed the things I mentioned and
now its running fine.


It won't boot because as soon



The thing is everything on the drive Im working on now seems to be
working fine. No errors listed in the Events Log as there were. And
especially no long delays in shutting down.


I did find other references to Spybot giving false positives but it
might be possible I did have some sort of mal ware which that was
using it and giving me the DCOM errors. The key, just one line, I
delete was actually blank.

I did clone this current drive (actually a parition) to the other and
unpluged this one and that one still won't boot.

That's why I asked if you've tried the 'current drive' by itself. If your
current drive is dependent on a second one then the clone would as well.

It also got
seriously hung up on trying to do a repair install like it was
finding a bad sector. Took 6 tries just to get all the way through.
When finished it would not boot.
I guess I could try and to a complete fresh install and see if that
works.

Good idea.

Simpler would be to run the manufacturer's diagnostics on it (then try the
fresh install). You should always do that prior to attempting an RMA anyway.

 

[John Johnson]

That's why I asked if you've tried the 'current drive' by itself. If your
current drive is dependent on a second one then the clone would as well.


Good idea.

Simpler would be to run the manufacturer's diagnostics on it (then try the
fresh install). You should always do that prior to attempting an RMA anyway.

Im convinced that it was a bad drive.
I had both drives running almost identical drives with no problems.
My MB can boot to each. I had it set that way to daily copy data
files to the second drive so I would always have a current back up
drive.
The first main problem was the Bad Block notices in
Windows and some irratic behaviors. Then the very slow shut downs.
I then I took that drive off line and booted to the secondary drive.
No more bad block errors but some other problems.
When these were fixed I then Ghost back etc.