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Blue Screen = big trouble for me!


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#1
thetitan

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Hello and Happy New Year to everyone :whistling:

I recently acquired a Toshiba Satellite Laptop M30X - 118 from a family member. Awesome, right?

Was working excellently until this morning until I suddenly got a blue screen message - it was on for maybe about 1 second, and I only noticed 'kernel32' somewhere in the text, which rings a bell.

So the laptop restarted automatically, and went through the standard intro screen until a black screen appeared and said something along the lines of 'Windows did not start properly last time, here are your options:"

And then it listed things like safe mode, last normal config, start windows normally. So then I try all of the options, but each time, it restarts and goes back to the same black screen.

The original blue screen appeared when I was just doing standard work...was checking my email on aol.com, and had a couple of other windows open. I had only installed a bit of software from Google which speeds up loading time on the internet a few hours before, but that's the only thing.

I really need some help please, I have to retrieve my college essay which is due on Monday...classic computer crash - happens when you need it most! I don't think 'my computer crashed' will be a valid excuse considering we've had about a month over Xmas!!!

I would appreciate any help tremendously.

Thank you so much for your time.

Best wishes

Dave
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#2
piper

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Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go.

First let's try to get your computer to boot by using the Recovery Console.

Do you have your Windows XP CD?

Put it in the cd-rom drive and shut the machine OFF. Power the machine back on and watch the screen for the prompt "Press any key to boot from cd"...press the spacebar once.

This should take you to a "Welcome to Setup" screen...Press R to load Recovery Console"

On the next screen, select your operating system by typing the number to the left of it. In most cases, this will be 1. C:\WINDOWS...so type 1.

If you are prompted to type a password, leave it blank and press "Enter".

This should take you to a command prompt...C:\WINDOWS>

Type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". Note the space before /r. You may be told the volume is in use and asked if you want to schedule this to run on the next boot...type Y and press "Enter". This should start the chkdsk operation.

If the machine doesn't reboot automatically, but returns to command prompt, type exit and press "Enter". The machine should reboot...do not press a key to boot to cd...let it boot to the HDD.

This will be a very long check and may appear to start over a few times...this is normal, let it finish. 60 to 90 minutes for this check is not unusual. It should then automatically boot to Windows.
Please bear with me as I try to gather additional information to help resolve your issue.

Please post the results, good or bad. We'll go from there.
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#3
thetitan

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Hi Linda

Thank you so much for your response.

After I typed in 'chkdsk /r' and pressed enter, it started off well enough, so I was hopeful...but then it got to 19% and stopped, saying:

"This volume has one or more unrecoverable errors" or something like that.

I tried again a couple of times, but it stopped at 19%.

Once again, your help would be tremendously appreciated!

Thanks so much

Dave
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#4
piper

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I'm not a hardware expect, but it sounds like the hard drive has died. I'm going to try to get a second opinion.

In the meantime, to try to get your file off the bad drive, if you have another computer available, you could try taking the bad drive out of your computer, installing it in the other computer as a secondary/slave drive, browsing it and seeing if you can recover your file. Of course, you could just purchase a new hard drive, install Windows, and install your old hard drive as a slave.

I'll get back to you any with updates I get from my colleagues.
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#5
piper

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I got this from Wannabe1.

This could be a bad HDD as you suggested to the OP, but it also may be a file system corruption or a problem with the registry. As there is important data involved and the OP has the installation cd, I would suggest a Repair Installation.

If that fails, we can try a parallel installation which may allow this member to recover the school work.

See Microsoft article 316941 for instructions on parallel install. Scroll to Install Windows XP to a new folder.

Please post the results.
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#6
thetitan

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Hi Linda

Thanks again for your help.

I went to this page:

http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

In the screen below this sentence: "Note: If you install a fresh copy, all data on that partition will be lost!"

Instead of the screen which they are showing on that page, I get the following:

----------------

Windows XP Home Edition Setup

The following list shows the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on this computer.

Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select an item in the list.

To set up Windows XP on the selected item, press ENTER.

To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C.

To delete the selected partition, press D.

(Then there's a box with the following info:)

57232 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

C: Partition1 [Unknown] 57224 MB < 57223 MB free >
Unpartitioned space 8 MB


Then at the bottom of the page it says:

ENTER = Install D = Delete Partition F3 = Quit

---------------------

What do I do next?!!

Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dave
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#7
piper

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Hang in there - checking on it.
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#8
wannabe1

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Hello thetitan...

We're going to have to try a parallel install on this one.

On the screen you just mentioned, select the partition windows should be installed on (C: Partition1 [NTFS]) and press Enter

You will be asked if you know what you're doing...press C

Then you'll see formatting options. Use the arrow keys to select "Leave the current file system intact (no changes)" and press Enter

You may get a warning about already having a Windows folder...press Esc

Now you'll have the option to name a folder...type 0 (zero) so the folder name will be WINDOWS0...press Enter

Windows will install to the new directory...the next reboot, let it boot to the HDD.

This will likely leave you with two Windows installations and you will be prompted which one you want to start when you boot. We'll address both these issues once you are up and running. You may have to Take Ownership of the data from the old install in order to recover it. We'll also want to get the drivers off the old install before we remove the old Windows folder.

Let us know how this goes. Give us a shout if you run into problems.

wannabe1
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#9
thetitan

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Hello

Thank you for your response.

I tried your first step of pressing 'enter', but it says:

----

An error occurred while Setup was updating partition information on:

57232 Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3.

------

Pressed F6, and then it said that 'Windows XP is not installed on this computer, computer will reboot in 15 seconds'...

Thanks

Dave
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#10
wannabe1

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Do you have important files on the machine that need to be recovered?
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#11
thetitan

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This sounds ominous... :blink:

I had some important files but it's not the end of the world if I can't get them back. Obviously if there's a way I can recover the files then I'd like to explore that avenue, but not if the chances are really low and it takes too long! I'd probably prefer to have the laptop up-and-running today...I have a system recovery disk which erases everything if there's no solution.

:whistling:

Thanks a bunch

Dave
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#12
wannabe1

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An error occurred while Setup was updating partition information on:

57232 Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

This is not good. It indicates either that the partition itself is corrupt, or the HDD has failed.

You may be able to pull your documents using a HDD enclosure and using the machine you are on now to recover them. This would require that the HDD be removed from the laptop, install it in the enclosure, and connecting it to the machine you are on now via USB. Enclosures start at about $25.

If you can get by without the data, go with the recovery set...that should format the drive and write a new partition. If you go this route, watch your options...some Toshibas will give the option for a non destructive recovery. If you see that option, try it first...if it works, your data will be left intact.
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#13
thetitan

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Hello

I tried to do the Recovery Disk thing...got to the point where it basically said "Are you sure you want to do this, it will delete everything"

So I pressed 'enter', started processing everything then got this nasty screen which just said: !!!ERROR!!!

Then it went to quite a long page which said "Error 29005" and loads of other stuff. If you need any of the other info on that page then please let me know.

Thanks

Dave
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#14
wannabe1

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Was there anything about Norton Ghost in the errors you saw?

Check the cd...make sure it's clean and isn't scratched up.

Do you have a floppy drive in that lappy?
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#15
thetitan

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Nothing about Norton Ghost. The CD is brand new (first time I took it out of its sleeve!) and doesn't have scratches. The laptop doesn't have a floppy drive, but I do have an external one which may work if needed.

Now it seems like we're trying to save the actual laptop instead of recovering the data!

Thanks again
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