[HallaSoldierJuudai]

I am having a major issue with my main computer. Once the BIOS has finished loading, it hangs at a blank black screen, with no signs of checking the hard drive (no HDD light, etc.), or loading XP in any way. There are no error messages, or any other information on the screen between BIOS load completing and the blank screen.

Prior to this, the system would "blue screen" at apparently random intervals. This blue screen would be a similar color to a BSOD, but with no text or information on it. I suspect that this was due to overheating, as when I booted the system quickly afterwords, it would "blue screen" soon after Windows had loaded the log-in prompt (10 min, tops).

The specifications for the system are the following:

OS: Windows XP Home Edition SP3
CPU: Single-core 1.80GHz clock speed
Physical RAM: 1.00GB

The 70GB C: partition on my hard drive was also nearly 96% full.
The only CD drive installed in the computer is nonfunctional for unknown reasons.
I have no repair 3.5" floppy diskettes, but my system does have a drive for them.
I have the Repair Console installed, but without bootability or a CD drive, I'm not sure how useful it would be.

I would like to be able to fix this in a way that does not harm data on the drive, if the drive is not beyond repair.

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I have the Repair Console installed

Do you mean the Recovery Console is installed on the HDD and is it one of the options after the BIOS screen.

Is the HDD shown in the BIOS enter setup by pressing F2 normally on first post, maybe delete.

Do you know the make of the HDD

One of your problems although it may not be the cause of this is 96% of usuage on the HDD. This is close on having too little free space.

[Macboatmaster]

I have the Repair Console installed

Do you mean the Recovery Console is installed on the HDD and is it one of the options after the BIOS screen.

Is the HDD shown in the BIOS enter setup by pressing F2 normally on first post, maybe delete.

Do you know the make of the HDD

One of your problems although it may not be the cause of this is 96% of usuage on the HDD. This is close on having too little free space.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

The Repair/Recovery (whatever) Console would be in the "choose an OS" menu below my actual OS, if that menu were accessible. So, yes, the RC is present on my hard drive.

After checking the BIOS, it can see my HDD, and gives the following info about it:
Model: ST3160812A
Drive Mode: AUTO
Capacity 160 GB
I remember the drive being a Seagate drive.

Of the 160GB, the system "drive" is a partition that is roughly half of that. And yeas, I know that I need to address the free space issue and will soon.

After checking the BIOS, the system booted to the boot menu and I have left it there. The options are:
Windows XP Home
Microsoft Recovery Console

After hearing the issues, what should I do?

Edited by HallaSoldierJuudai, 04 September 2010 - 02:33 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

Boot to the Recovery Console
go to a c command prompt
If it is NOT already at C
type "cd\" without the colons
Then type "chkdsk /r"
If it starts chkdsk leave it and when complete exit recovery console and see if xp will then load.

http://pcsupport.abo...sc/p/chkdsk.htm

Edited by Macboatmaster, 04 September 2010 - 03:07 PM.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

I selected the Recovery Console and was presented with the following error message:

File \CMDCONS\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded.
The error code is 7

Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit.

After pressing a key, the system rebooted, and I was once again placed at the blank black screen with no HDD activity after BIOS loading. This time, however, a cursor blinked twice between the BIOS load and the nothing.

I did leave the comp at the menu for the time it took between my post ant the time I saw your post.

Edited by HallaSoldierJuudai, 04 September 2010 - 03:45 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

Have you made any changes in the BIOS setup.
If so and you are not certain what you have sone go back into BIOS and load default settings.
NOTE this ONLY applies if you have changed anything and are now not sure.

Download this from Seagate on to a floppy and test your drive
http://www.seagate.c...000dd04090aRCRD

Edited by Macboatmaster, 04 September 2010 - 04:36 PM.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

I tried booting my system to Windows because it"s the only accessible one with a floppy drive, and the following occurred:

Windows cannot start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\System32\Drivers\ntfs.sys

What now?

[Macboatmaster]

Please make the floppy in the download link from Seagate and run the floppy following the instructions.
Read the instructions on the link under Seatools for Dos

Edited by Macboatmaster, 05 September 2010 - 02:41 PM.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

The only available system with a floppy dive is the system I am trying to fix. I have replaced the CD drive with a working one however, so I am now able to run the XP setup disc, Linux, etc.

[Macboatmaster]

We are going round in circles here.
I know that is the system
You cannot run chkdsk on Recovery Console you said
I want you to run a disk check, so the link is the Seagate tools for that drive to check the disk/.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 05 September 2010 - 03:35 PM.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

I cannot put anything onto a floppy disk, as the only drive available easily is the one in the problem computer. I can now run the Recovery Console through the XP setup disc because I replaced the CD drive with a working one. I can also now do any number of other things requiring a working CD drive.

[Macboatmaster]

Well put it on a CD then and change boot device to CD

Edited by Macboatmaster, 05 September 2010 - 04:30 PM.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

I booted to Seatools and ran the Long Test. The log states that my drive passed both the DST and the Long Test itself. No errors were found by the tool.

What now?

[Macboatmaster]

Load Recovery Console on the CD
When in Recovery Console go to a C command prompt, presuming that C is the main HDD carrying Windows
Type "chkdsk /r" without colons.
See here for instructions
http://pcsupport.abo...ss/rconsole.htm

Edited by Macboatmaster, 06 September 2010 - 07:40 AM.

[HallaSoldierJuudai]

I have completed the chkdsk.

Output:

C:\WINDOWS>chkdsk /r
Volume created 12/28/06  07:55p
The volume Serial Number is 6c2b-3458
CHKDSK is checking the volume...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK found and fixed one or more errors on the volume.
 81923432 kilobytes total disk space.
  8144280 kilobytes are available.

     4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 20480858 total allocation units on disk.
  2036070 allocation units available on disk.

C:\WINDOWS>▄

Edited by HallaSoldierJuudai, 06 September 2010 - 03:08 PM.