[Dennis Jones]

Hello out there there...

I am need some help with a serious "blue screen of death" issue that I am having. I recently loaded some software (VSO convert to DVD software). After loading the software, I accidentally unplugged my PC. After restarting my machine, and getting the machine was shut down unexpectedly error. I tried going thru Advanced Options and I actually picked all of the options at least once and with all of the options, I kept getting the infamous "blue screen of death" with the following error:

STOP: 0x0000008E

win32k.sys - address bf841CBD base at BF800000

Datestamp 422511a2

I keep getting this error right after I pick any option within Advanced Options. It will get to the Windows XP logo and after about 10 seconds, I get the above mentioned error. Please help....any suggestions to get past this? I am going to reload it with either Windows XP Pro or Vista anyways at some point, but I do have some files that I would like to get off there before that happens. Please HELP!!!

I don't have the original installation disk, and I have downloaded a RC.iso that doesn't seem to work either (unless I am doig something wrong). All I need to do is obtain some info off of the hard drive before I try to reload it with Windows XP Pro or Vista. I am sure that one of the ways that I can get what I need off of the hard drive is by physically removing it out of the machine and making it a slave drive on another machine or using an external hard drive case.

Does anybody know of any way I can do this w/o reomving the hard drive first? Is there anyway of getting around the infamous blue screen of death?

[Advertisements]

Unplugging the PC while Windows was running has most likely caused file-system errors. Such errors, if not bad enough to prevent Windows starting, are usually fixed by running XP's 'error checking' tool on the 'dirty' partition. Of course, you don't have that option since Windows won't start.

If you can borrow an XP CD (same version as installed), you can perform a repair install, instructions here:
http://www.michaelst...pairinstall.htm
Borrowing a CD to repair a genuine installation of Windows is all perfectly legal.

If the drive/partition is a FAT32 and not a NTFS one, you can boot the PC from a Windows 98 startup floppy and run the 'scandisk' utility which is on that floppy to try and fix the file-system errors, but alas, scandisk.exe (being a DOS utility) cannot even see NTFS partitions, much less check them for errors.

[pip22]

Unplugging the PC while Windows was running has most likely caused file-system errors. Such errors, if not bad enough to prevent Windows starting, are usually fixed by running XP's 'error checking' tool on the 'dirty' partition. Of course, you don't have that option since Windows won't start.

If you can borrow an XP CD (same version as installed), you can perform a repair install, instructions here:
http://www.michaelst...pairinstall.htm
Borrowing a CD to repair a genuine installation of Windows is all perfectly legal.

If the drive/partition is a FAT32 and not a NTFS one, you can boot the PC from a Windows 98 startup floppy and run the 'scandisk' utility which is on that floppy to try and fix the file-system errors, but alas, scandisk.exe (being a DOS utility) cannot even see NTFS partitions, much less check them for errors.

[The Admiral]

With the XP CD, you can also check the disk. When you boot from the CD, a blue Setup screen will come up with a few options: installing Windows or Repairing Windows. Press R to repair windows. It will open a Command Prompt into which you can type "chkdsk C: /r" (without the quotes) to check the drive for errors. Do this before attempting a reinstall, it may solve your problem.

[Dennis Jones]

What if I don't have the original disk for the computer? Is there some type of boot disk I could download?