[smashguy37]

My computer keeps getting random blue screens of death, whether it's just booting up, I have multiple applications open, etc. They involve such errors as "KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR" or a "process or crucial thread has failed" or something to that effect. Then the computer wants to start a memory dump. I'm having a difficult time trying to pin point the problem. I tried running chkdsk to scan my C drive, but it said "file record segment 103302 is unreadable" along with two other unreadable ones and exits. Can somebody point me to some software to run or methods to check?

I also tried doing a system restore from a month ago when I had this problem (http://www.geekstogo...ps-t211011.html) because I made a good restore point, but Windows is missing all my restore points now for some reason.

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Random errors can be very difficult to diagnose.

A common culprit is faulty memory, you can run memtest86+ test to check this out.

Click this for a guide to using Memtest

Click this to download Memtest

If your memory passes fine, then post your make/model of hard drive, we'll run some tests on this next.

Troy

[Troy]

Random errors can be very difficult to diagnose.

A common culprit is faulty memory, you can run memtest86+ test to check this out.

Click this for a guide to using Memtest

Click this to download Memtest

If your memory passes fine, then post your make/model of hard drive, we'll run some tests on this next.

Troy

[smashguy37]

I'll run it. I ran memtest in the past because I thought my RAM was bad, but it was because I clocked it to 667 in the BIOS from the original 533, which the RAM is supposed to be able to do, but it's because I have a mobo that takes DDR1 and 2 RAM and it didn't like the 667 speed.

[smashguy37]

Interesting, wasn't memtest always a blue screen with a lot of different tests on it? The one I downloaded is a small window that has a percentage regarding "coverage". Anyway, it's at roughly 125% and I still have no errors...I think this test goes on indefinitely, but I'm fairly confident RAM isn't my problem.

I use 2 500GB WD Caviar hard drives by the way.

[Troy]

That doesn't sound right about the memtest. I would try creating it again. How can it be running at 125%?

Here is a link to Western Digital's hard drive diagnostic tool.

Troy.

[smashguy37]

This is what I used:
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

Before it was lke a blue DOS screen but now it's like an actual piece of software. It says 100% should give you a good idea, but you can let it go further to make absolute sure. Anyway, shortly after my last message I got one error. However, with the aforementioned problems I'm sure it's not the cause of the sudden BSOD, because memtest told me before it was faulty, but the guys at a local store ran memtest for a couple days and got nothing (this was a few months ago). I'll check out the hard drive tool. At this point I might just restore my computer to an earlier version and start fresh.

[Troy]

Try again with the links I gave you before - post #2.

[happyrock]

another thing you may want to try...go into the bios and set the ram settings to auto ...
make sure you aren't overclocking ANYTHING...
overclocking can and does cause system instability and when that happens the only fix is to back off until your system is stable

[smashguy37]

Everything was running smoothly, then bam, back to the blue screens of death.

I couldn't boot back up for a bit, and then chkdsk was running some tests, telling me I had bad file record segments (unreadable). The hard drive diagnostic that was posted failed on my main C drive instantly, saying it had bad sectors. My second 500 gig drive for projects checked out fine though. My next step is to backup any remaining important files off my files partition, which is proving difficult with Windows sometimes moving slowly, taking forever to boot, crashing etc.

Is there any way to repair these bad sectors? Or is physically screwed up and I should just toss it? Then I have to find out if I still have a warranty on it. I've only had this hard drive for a few months too, geez.

[smashguy37]

By the way, my last BSOD mentioned "ftdisk.sys". Apparently this might be malware if "it's in system32" but I found it in system32/drivers/ftdisk.sys. Does this look like a virus?

[happyrock]

I couldn't boot back up for a bit, and then chkdsk was running some tests, telling me I had bad file record segments (unreadable). The hard drive diagnostic that was posted failed on my main C drive instantly

this is telling you the hard drive is dead or dying...
to try to recover your data...you have 2 choices...remove the drive and slave it to a working computer and copy / burn the data to dvd's/cds or a another hard drive...
OR you can try using puppy linux...it loads and runs in ram.......

get puppy linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its memtest86.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yor data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb hard drive..or flash drive...just have it/them hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...
==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Edited by happyrock, 16 October 2008 - 10:45 AM.

[smashguy37]

Thanks for all the help guys. I have pretty much everything backed up now, just some more stuff to go through. I'm going to try to find my receipt and see if I can get some sort of exchange, but I doubt it. Oh well, drives are so cheap nowaday anyway, at least this way I can start fresh and make some good image files. Thanks.

[happyrock]

yep on the cheap drives...just ordered a 320GB samsung SATA WITH 16MB buffer for $43.99 from zipzoomfly 2 days ago

[Troy]

Yes, I'll add a voice to that. Samsung hard drives have been extremely cheap over here in Australia, of recent.

I like Samsung drives, good performance.

Although it would be best, if you could find the receipt and get it replaced - then it shouldn't cost you anything.

Cheers, and it's good news we found the problem - and you managed to backup your data!

Troy

[smashguy37]

Well, I always seem to post too soon. I was transferring the very last batch of files and my computer froze, crashed and won't boot up at all. It says I have a corrupt file in my system32 folder and I should push to get to recovery console, but I can't get anything to work. The last files I was transferring were huge amounts of small files for a game my wife plays...I probably already had most of them backed up, but I dunno.

So I just went through the fun of putting back in my old school 40 gig drive which is full, slow and needed a couple drivers, but it's up and running until I get a chance to buy a new drive and start fresh.