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Thread ID: 36680	2003-08-16 07:15:00	Does this sound like a dodgy HDD partition to you?	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
168206	2003-08-16 07:15:00	Hi Team I've got a problem with one of my W2K boxes that I can't solve and I'm thinking it might be the HDD . It is a 20 GB Quantum Fireball partitioned into an 8 GB C: drive and a 12 GB E: Make sure you are sitting comfortably as this is a long post . :( I went to download the Blaster patch from Microsoft this morning but found that I needed to apply the service packs first . I hadn't bothered before now because it was working fine and I subscribe to the principle of not fixing things that are not broken . I installed SP1 of a PCW cover disk, which went OK, and after looking for a PCW disk with SP2 and not finding it I did a PF1 search (D'oh) and found that SP3 would do the job . I checked the SP3 installation instructions and found that I needed to run sfc /scannow first, so I started that and it was all downhill from there . The scan was very slow and on one occasion rebooted part way through, then progressively I got kmode_exception_not_handled errors for ntoskrnl . exe & win32k . sys, registry file failures, random restarts, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all . Safe mode wouldn't work properly, variously rebooting and hanging etc, sometimes appearing to boot OK and other times giving more error messages . So, I decided to revert to my latest Ghost image file (from early July) and start again, but after restoring the entire C: partition I found that even that version wouldn't boot properly either and gave similar fault messages . To add to my woes, unfortunately so did the original backup image from over 18 months ago . I finally gave up when I once again got a message to put in the W2K CD to allow Windows to check that all files were the correct type or version, and it told me it was the wrong CD! Rightly or wrongly I assumed that my ghost image would rewrite the entire C: partition from beginning to end, effectively removing any nasties that might possible have been present in boot records or anywhere else for that matter . I ran the W2K version of scan disk under safe mode (eventually, after several false starts) and that came up ok but kept getting occasional blue screens during boot with file errors being corrected (by autorun disk check "for consistency errors"), followed by an automatic reboot which perpetuated the cycle . I Googled all the error messages but nothing seemed remotely relevant . It was those file name errors that finally made me think the disk might be shonky . I had no real reason to believe that there was anything wrong with this computer before this saga began, I just thought it prudent to apply the MS patch . However, this is the box referred to in This Thread ( . pcworld . co . nz/thread . jsp?forum=1&thread=37533&message=182935&q=power+good#182935" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz) so perhaps it could be the drive . Since that post, most of the time I have had to press the reset button to kick off the boot cycle, but every now and then it started OK . Bit of a novelette really, but the circumstances are truly weird so I thought I'd lay it all out and see what the experts say . Cheers Billy 8-{) :|	Billy T (70)
168207	2003-08-16 07:40:00	Forgot to mention, I'm running behind a NAT Router and ZoneAlarm so the Blaster worm does not figure on my suspect list for the spontaneous reboots. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
168208	2003-08-16 13:08:00	sound like your drive might be on the way out....	robsonde (120)
168209	2003-08-18 00:52:00	Billy, seeing you’ve got Ghost I guess you’ve may also have Systemworks. Just wondered if Disk Doctor or Win Doctor would throw any light on the problem? Shures seems another queer one.	B.M. (505)
168210	2003-08-18 03:53:00	I tried to run those off the CD B . M . but couldn't get any menu items that led anywhere useful . The only feature that would run seemed to be NAV . Maybe I was doing something wrong . Since PF1 was down I decided to try a few more options but without success . Booting off the Win2000 CD and trying a repair failed miserably because various files produce messages: "not copied correctly" or "cannot copy file xxxxx" . So did trying to do a full reinstallation of the OS . Skipping the faulty file simply brought up a succession of 7 or 8 files that would not copy, making me think my CD could be damaged . It does have some minor scratches but nothing that can't be polished out, but that won't solve the basic problem . A final attempt to reload an image file produced an unbootable result so I am forced to conclude that the disk is faulty . Every procedure I tried produced the same net result but with different file name or fault details . The only one that was halfway consistent was reinstalling the most recent image and that baulked on an ntkrnl file which suggests that its resident loaction or sector is kaput . One day I will get a problem that responds to plain old ordinary advice, even if I have to fake the fault to get the result . :D Thanks for the help guys . Cheers Billy 8-{) :(	Billy T (70)
168211	2003-08-18 04:44:00	Your right Billy, a lot of SystemWorks can’t be run from the CD. It must be installed. May still be worth installing and then un-installing. Then again, it may depend which version you have. I made the mistake of upgrading from 2000 to 2002 only to find some of the real useful utilities had been removed. You can imagine my joy experiencing such a downgrade. :_| Bob	B.M. (505)
168212	2003-08-18 05:03:00	Hi Billy Do you have DMA enabled? It's strange that there has been no other signs of bad sectors or the other usual warning signs plus it seems to be centred around your OS. Do you have the disc utility that came with the HDD, usually on floppy. if not download from the manufacturers site. I haven't worked with a Fireball in a while (better than the Bigfoots, just) I found that they and their cousins the Bigfoot tend to go rather quickly, sorry, anyway theirs bound to be a diagnostic utility like the Seatools and Disk Wizard for Seagate drives which you can boot to. HTH Murray P	Murray P (44)
168213	2003-08-18 05:16:00	Your error message at MS ( . microsoft . com/default . aspx?scid=http://support . microsoft . com:80/support/kb/articles/Q294/7/28 . ASP&NoWebContent=1" target="_blank">support . microsoft . com) and this ( . microsoft . com/windows2000/en/messages/5267 . htm" target="_blank">www . microsoft . com) and here ( . osr . com/ntinsider/1999/kmode_except . htm" target="_blank">www . osr . com) Will keep looking and reading but, it looks, from what I've seen so far, to be an OS/driver/hardware thing, no faulty disc drives have been refered to, yet . Any new hardware, upgrading the w2k OS can cause this too? HTH Murray P	Murray P (44)
168214	2003-08-18 05:44:00	Whats the exception No? eg, 0x80000002: STATUS_DATATYPE_MISALIGNMENT More reading for your pleasure: NT 4 (www.stompinc.com) , 2003 (www.osr.com) , and this optimistic little beauty from tek-tips (www.tek-tips.com) :( Cheers Murray P	Murray P (44)
168215	2003-08-18 06:07:00	May be bad memory . As soon as you start loading service packs, restoring GB sized backups, you are (i) using all your memory, and (ii) doing things (like decompressing) which require it to be perfect . Everything else you do can "tolerate" errors because you know you can't spell (or add, subtract or multiply :D), and any blue screens are written off to "software does that" .	Graham L (2)
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