Do I need a new hard drive?

[AdamW81]

On start up my computer pops up with a screen saying windows system file is missing and to put the xp disc in and hit "r" for repair. Well that didnt work but having the cd drive boot first pulls up windows repair. After probably 20 minutes of doing its repair stuff it goes to a blue error screen. A friend said its likely my hard drive. Anyone have any ideas I should try before buying a new hard drive?

Dual 3200 AMD
LanParty Ultra-D
2g Ram
Windows XP
7800 GT Nvidia

Something like that (from memory i got all this awhile ago)

 

[Dahak]

depending on what the error indicates maybe.
1) you can from another computer download the diagnostics software from the hard drive maker
2) download memtest from memtest86 and let it do atleast 1 pass to see if memory is fine
3) if that passes than boot up off the install cd and go into recovery console and once you get to the command prompt type in chkdsk /p /r and see if it works after

 

[bchivers]

Dahak
What does the "/p" stand for.
Thanks.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AdamW81
On start up my computer pops up with a screen saying windows system file is missing and to put the xp disc in and hit "r" for repair. Well that didnt work but having the cd drive boot first pulls up windows repair. After probably 20 minutes of doing its repair stuff it goes to a blue error screen. A friend said its likely my hard drive. Anyone have any ideas I should try before buying a new hard drive?

Dual 3200 AMD
LanParty Ultra-D
2g Ram
Windows XP
7800 GT Nvidia

Something like that (from memory i got all this awhile ago)

As another poster said, run chkdsk /p. If that doesn't fix it, you've got a corrupt registry...I imagine it's actually saying something like

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/307545

the error message shown there. That will fix the problem. Even better is if you can boot with a BartPE boot CD, make a backup of the 4 registry files, and then copy the System Restore versions (you DO leave System Restore running, right?) into the c:\windows\system32\config directory.

 

[AdamW81]

I ran memtest it was fine. I run from disc and never get to a recovery console, it checks a bunch of things then jumps to a blue screen. The error says:

BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO

and goes on to say to make sure all new hardware/software is properly installed and to uninstall it etc but nothing was added before the computer started doing this.

 

[dclive]

Create a BartPE boot CD, using the tools found on Bart's site.
Ensure that the chkdsk function is enabled when you make your BartPE CD.
Boot with that CD.
Run chkdsk on the volume in question, until it comes back with no errors.
See if you can then boot your box.

 

[AdamW81]

i dl'd and ran the bart boot disc. It goes to loading Bart PE directly to a blue screen says

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

I made the disc on a different computer running windows xp.

 

[dclive]

Does the BartPE CD correctly boot that other computer?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AdamW81
I ran memtest it was fine. I run from disc and never get to a recovery console, it checks a bunch of things then jumps to a blue screen. The error says:

BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO

and goes on to say to make sure all new hardware/software is properly installed and to uninstall it etc but nothing was added before the computer started doing this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/326679

Do as the article says if that's the error you're getting. Easy to test...

 

[AdamW81]

Well I tried changing my memory from an old computer but it didnt like that so I just put the original memory back in and got strange new things happening now.

Barts will run and I am currently doing chkdsk. chkdsk /p wont work it doesnt recognize p so I did chkdsk c: /r. I think the /r will only check everything but not fix it. At any rate, its running now and going slowly along.

If I don't boot from cd and try to escape to BIOS I now only have the options to change boot sequence, the normal bios menu does not come up.

If I don't do anything it gets to the windows loading screen (with blue bar filling up) and restarts itself every time, will just keep doing this if I dont turn it off.

 

[redbeard1]

dclive

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/326679

I have been using a variation of the way MS describes this fix for a while. It is suprising how often this can fix crashed systems. That said, in about 1/3 of the cases I see the error as described in the article, the hard drive has begun to make bad sectors, thus causing the corruption. Download the latest diagnostic tool for your make of hard drive and see what it comes up with.

 

[bwatson283]

run the HD manufacture tools cd

 

[AdamW81]

I ran the diagnostic tests on the hd and it didnt find any errors. The computer still restarts at the windows loading screen. Any other ideas? Maybe it is registry errors.

 

[dclive]

And in safe mode?

 

[AdamW81]

Safe mode works. I went and and used system restore to jump back to a previous date that worked but it still restarts everytime at the loading screen for windows if I just start up normally. This is so weird

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Try doing a SFC /scannow from a command prompt, it will verify system files and fix if needed

 

[AdamW81]

Well now not even safe mode works again. It hangs up and restarts.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: AdamW81
Well now not even safe mode works again. It hangs up and restarts.

Drive is tits up then

 

[AdamW81]

so it is the hard drive? Its weird because diagnostics didnt find any issues with it

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AdamW81
so it is the hard drive? Its weird because diagnostics didnt find any issues with it

If safe mode won't boot, can you tell me what happens when you try it? It just shows a line at the bottom of the screen as XP starts, then it reboots? No BSOD?

If so, when you go in via Recovery Console or BartPE (do those work now, too?), give me the minidumps (insert a USB stick before booting PE and you can then copy dumpfiles to it).

 

[AdamW81]

When I tell it to go to safe mode it spits out a ton of lines saying:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition1\WINDOWS\system32\"x"

where "x" changes each line and is a bunch of different things.

It spits out probably 30 lines like that then restarts itself.

 

[AdamW81]

Ok maybe it is a memory issue. If I switch my 2 1gb of ram (switch their slots) I get either the original problem or I get to the windows loading restart problem. If I try taking one out and leaving one in the computer won't start at all. Shouldn't I be able to leave one in and the other out?

 

[btcomm1]

It could very well be a corrupted registry.

but as someone else asked, does the bartpe cd work on another computer but not this one?

Sometimes random issues like this could be a bad motherboard or memory. Could be capacitors are bulging or leaking might want to physically inspect it.

 

[dclive]

The stop code suggests RAM. Can you put some known good RAM in there?

Your motherboard sets the timings by reading the SPD on the RAM, right? You aren't hard-coding or setting timings on your own?

 

[AdamW81]

I am not doing any changes to timing. I bought a new hard drive and started putting windows on it and got a blue screen again saying that "IQRL_NOT_LESS__OR_EQUAL"

What's weird is I can't seem to try out just one stick of RAM. If I remove either one I get the long beep on start up from the motherboard. I guess I can go buy some more and see if it works. I read that this Lanparty nf4 ultra-d is finicky with its DIMM slots.