Blue Screen of Death Options??

[Flake]

I got the blue screen of death on my mame PC last night.  The previous time I had used the pc the last thing I did was to run a disk clean-up and defrag because I thought the pc was running slowly through my front end (maximus arcade).  After the defrag I turned off the computer and last night was the first time I turned it back on and.......blue screen of death appears.

So I would like to explore my options of recovery.  I dont have a Windows XP boot CD.  The PC I purchased from E-bay and all it came with was a two disk set of what appears to be a version of Acronis True Image.  I dont have any experience with the software and for now am hesitant to go any farther for fear of wiping my HD clean.

My issue on the blue screen stated it was a "unmountable boot volume".  I found a fix online for this particular problem but they start with using the XP boot cd, which I dont have.

So if I go through the Acronis True Image prompts will I be OK?  Should I attempt to track down the windows boot CD rather than using the Acronis software?

[severdhed]

the acronis software would be used to completely recover your PC back to the state it was in when you got it.  Often times when you get errors like that, it is due to physical problems with the hard drive.  Is it making any kind of whining or clicking sounds?  if you are worried about data loss, i would reccomend installing that hard drive in another computer as a second drive to backup your data.

you will need a windows xp CD if you want to try to fix this.

here is a link to a great article on how to recover from alot of windows xp startup problems, i have used this method many times and i have a pretty high success rate.  the only times it doesnt work is usually because of hard ware failure, or that the installation is so far gone that it needs reinstalled.

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp

[Flake]

So is this XP boot CD the same as the install CD.....like say if I walked into a store and purchased a brand new copy of XP?

[severdhed]

yes...the xp install CD is bootable.  it will allow you to boot up to the recovery console, or boot up into setup to do a repair install, or a clean install. 

i'd just be a little concerned about the status of your hard drive based on that error

[Flake]

What if the xp install cd is a different one from the one that was used to install my copy of xp?  Is there going to be any license issues?  Or can I just use it to access the recovery console and be done with it from there?

Well the error I posted seems to be one of more common blue screen error messages and there are tons of links out there saying its an easy fix.  Hopefully they are right.  I dont have much experience removing/adding computer components.

One more question, I keep reading about the XP boot disks as being comprised of 6 floppy disks....WTF is that all about?  What if you dont have a floppy drive as most computers dont anymore?  How do you use them on a CD/DVD ROM only computer?

[severdhed]

xp boot floppies are not needed for anything...only if you cannot boot from the CD rom.  If you have to reinstall, you will need a xp disc that matches the license number you plan to use.  if you have an oem xp home license number, you cannot use an xp pro retail CD...etc.

it can be a pain in the butt.

[Flake]

Well OK here is a "fix" I found for this problem but it states you need the XP Pro boot CD. 

http://www.techtips4u.com/kb/sw/SW00014.htm

This fix seems to imply you only need the CD to get to a certain point to fix the problem but then dont need the XP Pro boot CD after that point.  So can I use a different XP Pro CD (other than the one used to install my copy of windows) to go through this trouble shooting solution and fix my problem?  This fix seems to imply I will not need to reinstall windows.

If I'm just going to reinstall windows I could just use my Acronis software.  And if that is the case I think I will try and move and copy my HD first.

[RayB]

BSOD can be anything, from faulty hardware to bad drivers, etc...

First thing I do is clean out dust and re-seat my (cleaned) RAM sticks. Check the video card is snug.

Then boot and see what happens.

[bkenobi]

After reseating components, another thing you can do is remove all non-critical hardware and boot again.  Take out any extra sticks of memory, secondary (or more) HDD's, sound cards, network cards, etc.  Basically, take the system down to bare bones.  If it boots that way, you can start adding things back in.

Also, try going into safe mode.  That will more or less eliminate drivers as the cause.  Hold down F8 when Windows just starts to boot.  I would go without network to start with since it's quicker and not needed for this check, but whatever.

[Flake]

It wont let me boot into safe mode.  Once I select safe mode, a list of drivers scrolls out and then the BSOD reappears.

All this after a damn defrag.  I thought that was supposed to be beneficial to a computer?

[paulscade]

At boot... press F8.... select "boot from last known good configuration"... it's the *easiest* fix... if it works.

[Flake]

Tried that too.....doesnt work.   

[bkenobi]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302

Translation:  If you didn't change anything in your hardware or BIOS,  you are F'd.

It sounds to me like there's a problem with the partition.  The only thing I can suggest is to try recovering the files from the drive by installing the drive in another machine (like was mentioned earlier).  This is the kind of error you really need a XP cd for.

You could try buying a new disc and running the repair utility, but if the HDD is toast, that won't help.  If you can mount the disc on another machine and access the files, you can at least save that stuff before you have to reformat and start over.

[Flake]

I am going to get a copy of a XP CD from my brother and try to access the recovery console that way.  Hopefully you can access this with any XP CD.

[bkenobi]

You won't have a problem with licensing unless the version you have installed is something completely different (Home vs Pro vs Corporate (which is mass licensed Pro)).

[dtechlogic]

Hi
Just download a copy of Linux knoppix  to boot the pc and transfer your mame to another partition or create another partition and transfer the files to it and then reinstall the OS.

[RayB]

I got this problem recently too! It was due to corrupted data in the master boot record.

I booted to command line (I think via my XP install disc... Maybe when selecting Repair option?)

So then in command line, I could not see the files of the C: drive anymore so I ran CHKDSK with the repair option.

It found bad sectors, and whatnot, fixed them, and then I was able to boot to Windows again.

[Flake]

I got this problem recently too! It was due to corrupted data in the master boot record.

You mean you got the same unmountable boot problem and were unable to start up in safe mode?  What exactly was your problem?

I'm really hoping the fix I found (posting in an earlier post) on the internets via the XP install CD works for me.

[RayB]

Maybe not EXACTLY, but sounds similar.
What I got was a BSOD one day while working, and then Windows would no longer boot. It would start loading, showing the logo and then it would just reboot again, and did this over and over. Going into SAFE mode did the same thing, it listed drivers it was loading and then POOF it reboots.

C: drive wouldn't list files. Said there was some error.

Now I just noticed you said you defragged, but did you defrag with full error checking and repair? Just try running CheckDisk (CHKDSK command) with the full repair option and see what happens. (Can't hurt at this point)

[severdhed]

yeah, i'd boot from the xp cd, get to the recovery console, then run a chkdsk /r first. then if that doesnt work, i'd go through the process in that link i posted where you run bootcfg /rebuild.

[Avinitlarge]

I would buy a small HD, 10Gb or so. Install windows on it, Use the drive you have fitted at the moment as a secondary/Slave. See how it goes from there. If its just an OS problem, Your mame, Docs or what ever you have on there should be safe. If you have no windows disk, See if you could borrow one or get one from a source I am not allowed to mention

[Encryptor]

It probably wasn't the defrag that did the damage. It was probably the disk cleanup which I NEVER do. I've never had defrag cause a problem like this.

Try the chkdsk /r solution first.


Encryptor

[Ummon]

Man, I haven't seen 'the screen' in ages on my XP machines.

[Encryptor]

Flake,

Check your email.

Encryptor

[KissMyWookie]

What probably happened was the defrag moved data onto a sector that turned out to be bad ... though I assumed defrag tools verified the data after moving it?

If you have access to another PC, I would download and use "Hiren's Boot CD". It has lots of repair and recovery tools, along with a mini-XP that you can boot into to perform repair tasks on NTFS partitions.

Usually, you would burn it onto a CD (less than 120MB) and select the BIOS on the target machine to boot from the CD drive. You can also install it onto a flash drive (like I did the last time I used it), providing the BIOS allows you to boot from USB flash drives.

Once booting starts and you see a menu, select to boot XP-lite/mini-XP (or whatever it's called - can't remember exactly). Open Windows Explorer and find your drive letter, as they will all be different to what you're used to - the mini XP will take C: and there will also be a ramdrive setup to take another drive letter. When you know which drive letter your old system is on, open the command window (WINKEY+R -> "cmd.exe" -> ENTER) and type "chkdsk [driveletter]: /r" - where [driveletter] might be D, E or something.

The full surface scan will take a long time, but will try to locate the bad sectors and attempt to recover information. You may end up with something that still needs fixing - such as a driver file or windows executable that was corrupted and could not be repaired, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Steve

[Flake]

Flake,

Check your email.

Encryptor

Thanks for the info  (actually thanks to all for your recommendations/comments).  I'm getting a copy of the XP install CD tonight at a wedding I have to go to.  I will try the recovery console solution tonight.........maybe........depending on how much I've had to drink.

Wish me luck

[Flake]

well using the XP install cd to access the recovery console and running a check disk command didnt work.  It only goes to about 35% and says there are one or more unknown unrecoverable errors and that the bootdisk is bad.  I did a fixboot command which says it performed successfully but it still wont work.

Have to try other options posted here, but I was really hoping that one worked.  Does this mean I have a hardware failure?

[severdhed]

that usually means that the drive is bad.  your best be here would be to install the drive in another computer to back up your data (if you need any of it) and get a new hard drive and start from scratch.

[chrimeg]

if you get or have an XP boot disk/CD get to the rvocery console/dos prompt and use the following.

chkdisk /r

This should check your hard drive for bad sectors and repair them. If you are able to boot windows after this use norton ghost or something to transfer your old hard drive onto a new one.

I'd bet your hard disk has bad sectors and defraging caused some sort of corruption when reorganizing the data.

[Flake]

if you get or have an XP boot disk/CD get to the rvocery console/dos prompt and use the following.

chkdisk /r

I already did this with no success.  I have a Acronis recovery disk but someone stated this would restore my PC to its original point.  My whole aim here is to get my computer working without having to start from scratch.  I have all my hard drive backedup as much as I need to but I am trying to avoid all the other software downloads/driver/codec/cab vol/etc/etc/ installs/configs.  Plus if I remember right, I had a hellava time even getting my video card to output to my TV.  All this I'd like to avoid.

[severdhed]

well, i dont know if the acronis recovery disk is different than the standard acronis boot disk, but here is what i would do:

buy a new hard drive and install it as a second drive in the computer
boot from the acronis boot CD and choose "clone disk"

walk through the process to clone your old,defective disk to the new one, it will probably have a bunch of errors, tell it to ignore them.  this will take a long time (probably several hours)

once this is done, remove the bad drive, then boot from the windows xp CD, go to the recovery console, and do the chkdsk /r again.  this time it should not have any problem repairing the file structure.  once that is done, you can hopefully boot back up into windows, assuming that your system files werent too far gone.  you may be missing some things here and there, but more than likely the majority of your stuff should be intact

i have used this method dozens of times when people bring me PCs with problems similar to yours...it usually works

[Flake]

Thanks dude, this seems like my best option so far. 

Questions:

1.  Installing the second drive - all I have to do is install the hardware component?  What I mean is I dont have to have windows up and running for this to occur?  The reason I ask is I cant obviously boot into windows so I just want to clarify that all I have to do is  add hardware and the pc wll automatically detect it.

2.  The Acronis software - never used it before but I assume I can try using this software and if for whatever reason it doesnt give me a "clone" option I can abort at any time without already starting the process of wiping my hard drive clean?  I dont want to get into the process and then have no way of reverting back.

[RayB]

UH, you definitely add a harddrive with the POWER OFF, so obviously no Windows running.

[lanman31337]

Let me know what the blue screen is.  I need the 0x000000, just the first one, and if it's inaccessible boot device, page fault in non paged area, etc.. please.

[severdhed]

yeah, shut the PC off and connect the second drive.  if you are using IDE drives, make sure the jumpers are set properly.  i dont know what is on the acronis disk you have, if you are worried, you could always disconnect your old hard drive and boot from the acronis disk to see what it does. 

[Flake]

Let me know what the blue screen is.  I need the 0x000000, just the first one, and if it's inaccessible boot device, page fault in non paged area, etc.. please.

0x000000ed (00x8b091030, 0xc000009c, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

thats all it says other than the text about "your computer has detected an error..............."

[KissMyWookie]

What was the defrag and disk cleanup tools that you used - was it a Powerquest product by any chance? ...As I searched those error codes and just read something about a problem with a Powerquest driver (pqv2i.sys) causing similar errors: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892000

Steve

[Flake]

Just normal windows desk cleanup and defrag utility you access through applications from the start button.

[Flake]

One other tidbit I have forgotten to mention is that oddly enough, my USB keyboard didnt work after this error popped up.  I had to get an older keyboard with those older pin connectors.  Also, I'm not sure my IPAC is registering either since I couldnt use my mouse cursor using my control panel trackball after I had popped in my Acronis CD at one point.

Whats the deal there?

[severdhed]

i have had problems with acronis boot disks not recognizing ps2 mice if usb mouse support is enabled in the bios

[Flake]

OK, if I'm going to replace my existing hard drive, do I set the current (corrupt) hard drive to master and the new HD to slave?  If so what happens when I clone over to the new HD?  Do I then have to reset it as the master/single drive after the old HD image has been copied over?  I can imagine leaving it in a slave position?

Also there seems to be some wire hanging lose on the very bottom right of the motherboard.  Its  little white cable/wire with the words "power led" on the black end of it.  There are also some other blue, red, green and white cables plugging into the same area as this disconnected cable.  The mother board text on the area HLED, SPK and RST.  God could this be my issue?

[severdhed]

those are the front panel connectors, the one that says "power led" is for the power LED (surprise!!!)  it is not necessary.  the others should be for the speaker (just for beeps) power switch, reset switch, and Hard Drive LED.  the only one you really need connected for it to work is the power switch.

when both drives are in, it shouldn't matter which one is master and slave, as long as there is one of each (or they are both set to Cable Select).

once you take the old one out, make sure the new one is either set to Cable Select or Master.  some drives will have a different setting for Master with a slave present, and Master - single drive.  make sure it is set appropriately .

[fallacy]

I have been doing helpdesk computer support for the last 5 years. It sounds like your hard drive went bad; bad sectors on it. Only thing you can do is get a new drive.

[Flake]

---fudgesicle--- I bought the wrong damn HD, mine is a SATA not EIDE.  Thats what I get when I purchase something before looking under the hood.

[bkenobi]

You can get an adapter if it's too late to trade it.

[Flake]

No big deal, I found a SATA HD for much cheaper on Ebay and will use this EIDE HD for my jukebox computer.  Its only 80 GB and completely maxed out.  This way I should be good to go on this computer for a VERY long time.

I'm just pissed because I wanted to start this process tonight and now have to wait for the SATA HD to show up.

[severdhed]

well, good news, since it is SATA you wont have to worry about jumpers

[Flake]

OK just to clarify a few things while I wait for the HD to get delivered.  I wanted to throw out my plan of action so if there is something I'm doing wrong  I can figure this out before I blow something up.

1.  Install new SATA HD into tower.  (old one still present).
2.  Run from CD, the Acronis recovery CD.  Choose clone HD.
3.  Shut down computer?
4.  Remove old failed HD from tower.
5.  Boot computer from XP install CD to recovery console.
6.  Run "chkdsk /r" from DOS command.
7.  Start windows as prompted.
8.  Shut down windows and remove XP install CD?
9.  Boot computer normally with no XP install CD......and hopefully all will be well with the world?  Assuming the cloning command worked.

Anything I'm missing?

[KissMyWookie]

Anything I'm missing?

Cloning the HDD won't repair any data that was damaged - you'll still need to run a repair on Windows, and possibly reinstall some of your apps (whichever are having problems running and appear corrupt).

If it boots into Safe Mode, but not Regular Windows, then a driver(s) for your system are corrupt and will need to be removed via safe-mode. If you can then boot into Windows normally, reinstall the drivers for your system and see if everything else is running okay.

If a standard repair option (from the WinXP CD) doesn't work, install Windows over the top of the old one - this keeps your data intact buy will write a new registry.

Steve

[Flake]

you'll still need to run a repair on Windows

And how does one do this?  "chkdsk /r"?

If a standard repair option (from the WinXP CD) doesn't work, install Windows over the top of the old one - this keeps your data intact buy will write a new registry.

So your saying if my step by step process doesnt work in my last post, then simply throw in the XP Pro install CD, and start the process of installing windows?  This wont write over all my files that I'm trying to save?

[severdhed]

depending on how bad it is, the chkdsk /r may fix it enough to get it to boot.  if not, you boot from the CD, and start setup..and do a repair installation of windows..this will keep your data intact

[Flake]

So if I run a repair installation from the startup disk on my NEW cloned HD, this should fix any problems I have while keeping ALL my files/programs/general settings intact?  If this is the case, why would I even bother trying to run the "chkdsk /r" on the new cloned HD and just go straight to the repair installation?

[KissMyWookie]

A repair install will overwrite any service packs, hotfixes or other patches you have on your system - meaning you'll have to reinstall all of those after repairing ... which takes a long time and is a hassle.

Have you not done a "chkdsk /r" on the original disk yet?
If you have, then there's no point in running it again on the cloned drive.

[Flake]

Yea I already ran a "chkdsk /r" on the bad drive.  Its only gets to about 35% and says there is some unknown or unrecoverable error.....blah....blah....

So I'm going to have to do repair intall of windows then huh?  I guess thats a better alternative than using Acronis to bring me back to square one with no Mame/other emulators/CP wizard/Cab Vol...setup on it.

I'm assuming Mame/other emulators/CP wizard/Cab Vol will still be there after a repair installation is run from the XP install CD?

[severdhed]

you should still run the chkdsk /r on the cloned drive, because it couldn't succesfully run on the old one.  if you clone it and run chkdsk /r, it may be enough to get you back up and running...without doing a repair install. 

if it does come to a repair install, your data and programs should be intact, but you will have to install all service packs and windows updates.  still alot better than starting from scratch

[KissMyWookie]

I'm assuming Mame/other emulators/CP wizard/Cab Vol will still be there after a repair installation is run from the XP install CD?

It's impossible to say exactly what was corrupted. You might be lucky and have the corruption limited to Windows system files - in which case the Windows repair install will fix it - but it could have also corrupted some of your mame data.

I would recommend finding a copy of SpinRite and running that. It can take 20+ hours to run, but will attempt to recover data even from bad sectors at a very low level on the hard drive...
http://grc.com/spinrite
Apparently, there are a lot of success stories from IT pros and it has been under development for the past 16 years.

Steve

[LeedsFan]

I had blue screens of death on my latest project, together with random shutdowns etc. It was a brand new Mini ATX and it turned out to be something really simple. I was using the U360 without a powered hub (connected directly to USB on the PC). The U360 registered fine in Windows, and worked fine in the Ultimarc programming software. But in Mame it wasn't responding. Plus I was having these really irksome reset problems with BSOD. A powered hub sorted all this out in one go! All runs sweet as a nut after that. 

[Nogginboink]

A STOP 0x000000ED is an UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185 describes this STOP code.

What is the second hexadecimal number in parentheses? That tells you the 'reason' for this crash.

My suggestion would be:

1. Remove the hard drive from this computer.
2. Mount this hard drive as a secondary hard drive in another computer running Windows
3. Back up any data you want to keep
4. Run chkdsk /f on this filesystem
5. Put the drive back in the machine and see if it boots.

[KissMyWookie]

What is the second hexadecimal number in parentheses? That tells you the 'reason' for this crash.

He posted that on the first page of this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=96593.msg1018968#msg1018968

[Flake]

Finally got my hard drive cables and began the cloning operation over the weekend.  Started on Saturday around 4pm and its STILL RUNNING.  The timer claimed another 5 days was in the works last night.  I'm using that Acronis software.  Is it really supposed to take that long?  Seems like a reallly long time, but it is running and appears to be working as far as I can tell.

[jasonbar]

It took me about half an hour to copy 1 40GB drive (20GB full) to another 40GB drive using DriveImage XML.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97163.msg1024283#msg1024283

-Jason

[Flake]

Mine is a 250 GB HD and its loaded with content.

[protokatie]

You seem to already be going ahead with this, but if I had caught you earlier, I would have suggested backing up data files to DVD or another HDD, then do a full clean install of XP on a new HDD and copy the data files over. The down side to this would be that any applications would need to be reinstalled, but this is the only real sure way. As per having my own problems in the past, I store my data on a separate HDD than the one the OS is on. An extension of this concept is to install your apps on a different HDD than the OS as well, but this has limited benefit.

PK's recommendation for the future: Install OS and Apps on one HDD and set up your data directories on another. Include a directory on the 2nd HD that has all of your DL's (app DL's for instance) which will make it easier to install your apps if such an event pops up again. For thouroughness, I also copy my entire MAME directory, even if the paths dont match, they can be made to match.

[Flake]

Success!  Ten days the damn Acronis software ran but I'll be damn if it all appears to be working.  What a relief.  Thanks to all for your help!   

[KissMyWookie]

Success!  Ten days the damn Acronis software ran but I'll be damn if it all appears to be working.  What a relief.  Thanks to all for your help!   

That's very good news.