[thebouncer]

I'm having a really bad computer day my moms computer died...

It is a gateway fx530b windws windows pro xp sp3
Upon bootup i get the following error message "Missing or corrupt file c:\windows\system32\config\system."

I know usually this is a corupt registry or bad hard drive.

I tried running a chkdsk in recovery console but it refuses to run saying something to the effect that their are too many errors. When I am in recovery console if you try to access the C: drive it says the floppy is not accessible. However using a Norton ghost disk I can still see the file and folder structure and it looks fine but I cannot image it as it wants cd key and this is installed on my pc. I dont want to void the license.

The Hard drive was supposed to be RAID 1 but it was never setup properly I discovered it is set for RAID 0 (striped) instead. It is using the Intel Matrix Storage Driver. The RAID is built into the BIOS. It is two Western Digital 250GB Drives overall used space in windows I believe was under 30GB total. I think the RAID Array is why recovery console will not run. I checked for the drivers on gateway.com downloaded them and tried slipstreaming them into an xpsp3 pro cd i have using nlite the cd boots I get to recovery console and then I am given two choices and the drive letters switch back and forth c:\ or h:\miniNT othertimes they will be listed opposite. If I try to log on to c:\ I get a BSOD with Bad Pool Caller. I think it is the raid drivers causing the issue for the SATA drives. I then ran UBCD and ran Memtest +86 which came up find with no errors after multiple passes.

This pc has no floppy so I cannot do the f6 insert raid drivers during the XP Setup.

I am out of ideas can anyone please help ? I need to find a way to at least get the data off if I have to wipe it out.

Edited by thebouncer, 26 August 2011 - 10:50 AM.

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thebouncer

Firstly may I say that I have insufficient knowledge of RAID to be of real help on this issue. You of course will already know, it being apparent from your post, that RAID 0 has no parity, no mirror and therefore a failure in one disc is a failure of the complete system.
Regarding the original error on boot and in case it is that

"Missing or corrupt file c:\windows\system32\config\system."

Have a look at this, it may help
http://www.geekstogo...tem32configsys/

However the error on running chkdsk

I tried running a chkdsk in recovery console but it refuses to run saying something to the effect that their are too many errors

tends to suggest there is a serious file corruption or indeed even a disk failure.

When receiving this report

As the computer does not have a floppy drive, may I just clarify that you were NOT keying F6, as that is used to load the RAID driver from the floppy. It is not used when running a Nlite with the RAID driver slipstreamed.

Finally

If I try to log on to c:\ I get a BSOD with Bad Pool Caller.

As you have eliminated the ram issue, it appears we may be back to another hardware error

At this stage I would run Western Digital disk analysis and see where we go from there.
http://support.wdc.c...&sid=30&lang=en
I would use the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Dos CD

Edited by Macboatmaster, 27 August 2011 - 04:26 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

thebouncer

Firstly may I say that I have insufficient knowledge of RAID to be of real help on this issue. You of course will already know, it being apparent from your post, that RAID 0 has no parity, no mirror and therefore a failure in one disc is a failure of the complete system.
Regarding the original error on boot and in case it is that

"Missing or corrupt file c:\windows\system32\config\system."

Have a look at this, it may help
http://www.geekstogo...tem32configsys/

However the error on running chkdsk

I tried running a chkdsk in recovery console but it refuses to run saying something to the effect that their are too many errors

tends to suggest there is a serious file corruption or indeed even a disk failure.

When receiving this report

As the computer does not have a floppy drive, may I just clarify that you were NOT keying F6, as that is used to load the RAID driver from the floppy. It is not used when running a Nlite with the RAID driver slipstreamed.

Finally

If I try to log on to c:\ I get a BSOD with Bad Pool Caller.

As you have eliminated the ram issue, it appears we may be back to another hardware error

At this stage I would run Western Digital disk analysis and see where we go from there.
http://support.wdc.c...&sid=30&lang=en
I would use the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Dos CD

Edited by Macboatmaster, 27 August 2011 - 04:26 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

For recovering your data Puppy is proabably your safest procedure.
That said if there is serious HDD corruption, or damage to the read/write head it may not be possible.
Please see this link.
http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/

Edited by Macboatmaster, 27 August 2011 - 03:59 PM.

[thebouncer]

I was able to get my copy of acronis to put the c:\documents and settings file zipped to my external hard drive. The 17GB zipped file does unzip using winrar but will not work using windows built in unzip capabilities as it reports the zip file is invalid. Winrar will unzip it but throws an error about the archive being damaged at the end of the unzip it has a problem with the internet temporary files as they exceed 260 charcters on the unzip so it invalidated those (no big deal on that).. I have decided to wipe the system clean and reload but instead of being mirrored or any raid I am going to use disk 2 as a backup drive pending both drives pass western digitals tests

It does not seem to me like the mirroring is worth it as it adds further complication to the recovery also it would seem this raid is software based not hardware but i could be wrong as dedicated raid controllers go for several hundred dollars.

I will let you know what I find out. I had run the western digital drive diagnostic on drive 1 but it seemed to do something odd during the tests i believe this is because of the raid 0 still being set so I am going to break the raid array and then retest.

[thebouncer]

I checked both disks using western digital drive diagnostics neither one reported a problem. So it looks like the hard drive is good however the bios is taking a very long time to start up I have a feeling this is having more hardware issues. My parents have bought a new pc so we are going to trash this one since it is useless and constantly has issues it seems.

[Macboatmaster]

My parents have bought a new pc so we are going to trash this one since it is useless and constantly has issues it seems.

Well I was going to suggest you seek advice from one of the members more qualified in RAID than me., although I am not certain that many of the problems you mention have anything to do with the RAID array per se.

However if you are proceeding as quoted, there appears to be no point in further investigation of the issue.

Good luck with it and good luck with GeekU

[thebouncer]

Thank You, They were fed up with the problems. Unfortunately the computer used a BX motherboard which intel killed about a year after it debuted that also led to their decision.


I see you have tech academy in your sig is that something else here at GTG or is that something else ?

[Macboatmaster]

APPRENTICE.
In otherwords, three months probation and if I am lucky enough to be successful, then Technician - Staff member. No Malware qualification involved.
PM if you wish.

[thebouncer]

APPRENTICE.
In otherwords, three months probation and if I am lucky enough to be successful, then Technician - Staff member. No Malware qualification involved.
PM if you wish.

Good luck to you!