[thechi]

will do. i have managed to save some vital work files, but there is a lot more i need to back up. i am backing up to an external hdd... do you have any suggestions as to how or what software i can use to back up all of the files? i usually just do it manually, but i'd like something that will back up everything in one big swoop and also regualrly maintain.

i will be back in a few hours... have to eat dinner and run a ew errands.

thanks again for all your help.

PS: when i think of the last think i was doing before all this happened.... i was trying to install software for a mini print server. i do remember getting a weird little pop up window and assumed it was a part of the netgear software, but it didn't have a title bar on it. it kept going through a series of, what i thought to be tests to get the server to connect. i really don't remember what it said, now. but i managed to uninstall the software and drivers before the BSOD/reboot issue started. i wonder if that was the culprit.

but i will be happy to run some diagnostics per your instruction. i hope it's not a hardware issue. i would at first guess think not... the machine is about 7 months old and the ram was upgraded less than two months ago. i've never had any problems until tuesday, and like i said it all happened after the failed print server install.

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For making images of you drive, Acronis True Image works pretty well, but it isn't free. I usually back the data up manually.

You're probably right about the install causing this and the chkdsk may have straightened things out for good. BUT...read/write errors can cause a corrupt file system and those can be caused by a slew of things. Won't hurt to make sure everything is in good shape.

[wannabe1]

For making images of you drive, Acronis True Image works pretty well, but it isn't free. I usually back the data up manually.

You're probably right about the install causing this and the chkdsk may have straightened things out for good. BUT...read/write errors can cause a corrupt file system and those can be caused by a slew of things. Won't hurt to make sure everything is in good shape.

[thechi]

sounds good. i think i'm going to back up manually, and then later if all goes well, get some software to make an image. (i'd like to have a few copies on ext hdds... in case i have more issues i have a few different places to get my files from)

it will most likely take me a while to back up tonight. when i'm done with that i will let you know so you can instruct me through the tests, at your earliest convenience.

again, thank you so much for your help. i can't tell you how much i appreciate it.

[thechi]

wannabe1

so i managed to back up most of my data last night, but had a few crashes shortly afterwards. this time though, i was booted back into windows. each time i came back into windows, i got a pop up stating 'system has recovered from a serious error'. the error reporting states the stop is caused by a device error. i don't know how to post an external link here, so i've attached a screencap of the page i was sent to.



i shut down windows all together and await your instructions.
thank you.

thechi

[wannabe1]

Is this a name brand machine? If so, what is the make and model number?

I'm going to need more information about your platform. Please download WinAudit and run it on your machine. Save the report as an Adobe PDF document and e-mail it to me. I will PM you with my address. If you have problems with this, let me know and I'll walk you through it.

Also download the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool and create the disk as outlined under "Quick Start Information". Put the disk you create into the troubled machine and restart...it should boot right to the diagnostics and begin testing the RAM. This will run until you tell it to stop by pressing the X key on your keyboard. Let it run for about an hour unless you start seeing failures...any failure on any test will be indicative of bad RAM. Let me know how this goes.

Once I have had a look at the WinAudit report, which will tell which HDD you have, we'll get the diagnostics for that and give it a good test. This is where I'm thinking the problem is, but we'll wait and see what the report and the diagnostics reveal before we go any further.

[thechi]

sent you information via pm and email.

talk to you soon....

thanks...

thechi

[wannabe1]

That's a goofy looking report if ever I saw one. Your HDD is being reported as a virtual drive. It also shows 3 cd drives installed? There is no information on the RAM except for reporting how much is installed...in fact, there is a lot of missing information.

The error logs do indicate a problem either with the HDD or the HDD controllers. BUT...if you DO have 3 optical drives installed, there may be primary/master conflicts or non-terminated controller problems.

I need another look with another program. Please download Everest, install it, and run it. On the toolbar, click on "Report" and choose "Report Wizard". Click Next...click Next...click Finish. It will scan the machine and generate a report. In the report window, click on "Save to File" (upper left)...click "Save". This report will be saved to C:\Program Files\Lavalys\EVEREST\Reports as Report.htm. Send me that file.

Do you happen to know what brand HDD is installed in that machine?

[thechi]

sorry for the confusion.... i sent you a separate email when i tried to send the report, explaining my machine. that one didn't get get kicked back to me, so i don't know what happened.

anyway.... it is a VM... i have a macwannabe1...

i am on a macbook, running winxp on a parallels virtual machine. i have a 120GB hdd with a about 32GB of space allocated to xp. i have recently updated my ram from 2x512 to 2x1GB, 900MB of which is allocated to xp when it's running.

i've not yet run the diagnostic, because i haven't been sitting in front of the computer this whole time. i'm wondering if it will even work not, since the audit didn't really work. i'll wait for your instructions.

thanks.

thechi

[wannabe1]

Nope...Everest won't read the mac.

Virtual Machines are a whole new ball game...and one I'm not very well versed in, I'm afraid.

How's the mac running? Is the problem only with the virtual machine?

[thechi]

the mac side is running fine... it's just xp that giving me errors. i am still getting that device driver error. it must not have uninstalled the driver when i uninstalled the application for the mini print server. i really believe that's the culprit. i haven't had any problems with this machine except for this issue, and it happened the very next time i rebooted after the failed install/uninstall.

[wannabe1]

The System Restore Service is running...do you have a system restore point you can go back to?

[thechi]

i have a few.... sept 7, 8, 9 and 11. the 11th is when i attempted the mini print server install.

[wannabe1]

See if it will restore to the 9th.

[thechi]

it restored back to the 9th.... so far so good....

[wannabe1]

Cool!

Keep me posted.