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Thread ID: 85160	2007-12-02 01:34:00	Dead(ish) computer	jwil1 (65)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
616984	2007-12-02 01:34:00	Hi all, I have a friend who has a dying PC (c'mon, it's a Dell:)) - when loading XP MCE it loads for about 10-15 secs then goes to a BSOD. "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down 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 antivirus software. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run chkdisk/f to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer." Thats the jst of it anyway. He says his kids have been downloading stuff 'but nothing out of the ordinary'. He doesn't think it is a virus - I have no DOS virus scanner so cannot tell. Have tried booting the PC from the XP MCE disc - says the main partition on the HD has a file system "Unknown". I guess this means that part of the HD is corrupt. ALso tried booting from an XP live CD (BartPE) - C: showed up in file mgr but showed a total size of 0.0KB and free space of 0.0KB. HD is SATA. Is there anything I can do? i don't have a PC with a SATA interface so I con't take it away with me and copy stuff off it. He has bought an external HD he hopes to back the system up onto. Should he take it into a shop and have them clone the internal drive onto the external one, then reinstall XP on the internal HD and copy stuff from the external back onto the internal drive or do something else? Have tried swapping out RAM sticks, changing SATA connectors no the mobo - no difference. Safe mode does not work. Last known good does not work. All help appreciated.	jwil1 (65)
616985	2007-12-02 01:39:00	Does it show the name of a file or driver?? Whats the stop error #?? So, it doesnt get as far as getting into Windows then?? Will it boot into safe mode?? Have u tried selecting last known good configuration, after pressing F8??	Speedy Gonzales (78)
616986	2007-12-02 01:45:00	Does it show the name of a file or driver?? Whats the stop error #?? So, it doesnt get as far as getting into Windows then?? Will it boot into safe mode?? Have u tried selecting last known good configuration, after pressing F8?? No stop error number or driver given - just something like 0x0000000000 Doesn't boot into Windows EXCEPT if running software from CD (Bart PE) As already stated Safe mode/last known good don't work	jwil1 (65)
616987	2007-12-02 01:51:00	Cant do much else, besides find someone else who has SATA. To see if there's actually anything on it. But by the sounds of it, its dead as. Or as u said corrupted. I would check the SATA cable (if the power isnt coming from the PSU). The adapters have a habit (if its got a molex adapter on it), of coming out. And that'll definitely stop it from working.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
616988	2007-12-02 03:15:00	Try a bootable Linux CD....	johcar (6283)
616989	2007-12-02 09:47:00	I had a similar problem a while ago. Turned out that the "boot.ini" file was corrupted and it didn't know where to go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [boot loader] timeout=3 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Save the above in notepad to the C: root directory (assuming that C: is your active partition and the 1st Primary partition).	mzee (3324)
616990	2007-12-03 07:39:00	I fixed a similar problem this weekend. I fixed it with a live Linux CD and ntfsprogs. ntfsfix simply marked it as needing repair and Windows repaired it on next boot. God only knows why the system doesn't do this on its own. If you have the Windows/Recovery CDs then you may also be able to get to a repair console. From there you can run chkdsk to repair it.	TGoddard (7263)
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