[BrianDrab]

Let's try this please.

 

Step#1 - Mount/Fix Registry
1. At the command-prompt please type regedit and hit enter on the keyboard.
2. The Registry Editor will open. Please click the mouse on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as shown below.

 
3. Click the File menu and select Load Hive.

 
4. Click on the Computer icon and identify the drive letter for your Main hard drive. The size of the hard drive will be a good indicator. Most times it is C: however.

 
5. Assuming your main hard drive has a drive letter of C:\, double-click this.
6. Then double-click on the Windows folder.

 
7. Then double-click on the System32 folder. You may have to click on the vertical scroll bar to move down and see all the folders.

 
8. Then double click on the config folder and you should see something like the following. Click on the file named system and click Open.

 
9. You will be prompted for a Key Name. You can type anything in here but I recommend something like SickMachine as shown below. Click OK.

 
10. If we are lucky you will get something like "One or more files containing the registry were corrupt and had to be recovered by use of log files. The recovery was successful."
      If not, let me know what happens at this point.
 
11. Next click on the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you will see a new key named SickMachine as shown below. Please click on this key.

 
12. Click on the File menu and select Unload Hive. Answer Yes to the message asking if you are sure.

 
13. You can close the Registry Editor now.

 

I'd like to know how these steps go before we try and reboot your machine again. Thank you.

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OK I got to step 9 and it locked up again. Can't close open windows or type command now.

[Alikhat68]

OK I got to step 9 and it locked up again. Can't close open windows or type command now.

[BrianDrab]

Unfortunately I kind of expected that since chkdsk wouldn't finish. It's unlikely it would work but while I'm putting together next steps you can restart to the command-prompt again and try the chkdsk command again. Let me know how it goes and I'll be back with you.

 

Thanks.

[Alikhat68]

OK.  I'm pretty sure the same thing is happening as last time.  With stages 1-3 the files or bytes processed counted and had percent complete while it was running.  Stage 4 just has the blinking underscore...and this is what it did the last time.

[BrianDrab]

You can stop it. When you go into the BIOS is there an option for diagnostics? On many machines there will be an option to run diagnostics on the hard drive and/or memory. Would you mind checking for me?

 

Thank you.

[Alikhat68]

The tabs are: Main, Advanced, Security, Power, Boot and Exit.  None seem to have diagnostic capabilities. All seem to be ways to set or reconfigure or just provide information.

[BrianDrab]

Let's run some tests on your hard drive to see if it's healthy enough to go on. First we need to identify the manufacturer of your hard drive. Please follow the steps below.

 

Step#1 - Identify Hard Drive Manufacturer

If you already know the manufacturer of your hard drive you can skip this step and just let me know who it is (i.e. Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, etc.).

 

1. Please download the Ultimate Boot CD file to the Desktop of your Working computer. When you click the Ultimate Boot CD you will be brought to a page to download it.

    Ensure you click one of the links under Download Locations as shown below. It can sometimes be confusing on which links to click on. The file name will be ubcd532.iso.

   
     
2. Insert your USB drive into your working computer. Note: Please ensure that there isn't anything on the USB drive that you need as we will be formatting it.

    If you have another USB drive other than the one you have been using that would be ideal. If not then just re-use the one we have been using.

3. Right-click on rufus-1.4.10.exe and select Run as administrator (I'm assuming your working machine is at least Windows Vista). Answer Yes to Allow if prompted.
4. If you are asked to check for application updates. Just answer No.
5. Please select the ISO file that you downloaded in bullet#1.

6. Click the Start button.
7. When it's Done click the Close button.

8. Put the USB drive in your sick computer and boot to the USB drive. If all goes as expected you will be at the main menu of the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) as shown below.

   

 

9. Use your arrow keys on the keyboard and arrow down to the menu item HDD and hit enter on the keyboard.

10. On the next menu that appears arrow down to Device Info and Management and hit enter.

11. On the next menu that appears arrow down to DiskCheck V4.3.0 and hit enter.

12. Let the utility run and eventually it should detect your hard drive (within a few minutes at the most). You should see a screen as follows.

     

13. Please reply back with the Name of the drive detected. In the example above it would be WDC WD10EARS-00MVWB0.

 

[Alikhat68]

Does it look something like this? WDC WD3200JS-22P?

[BrianDrab]

Yes! You have a Western Digital drive. I'll provide instructions for that shortly.

[Alikhat68]

OK.  It was listed in the BIOS.  I remembered seeing it when I set it to load from USB first.  It was on the boot tab screen.

[BrianDrab]

Awesome! If you haven't already please follow bullets 1 through 7 from my last post as that's the tool we will be using to do the hard drive tests.

[BrianDrab]

Step#1 - Disk Drive Diagnostics

     
1. Put the USB drive containing the Ultimate Boot CD in your sick computer and boot to the USB drive. If all goes as expected you will be at the main menu of the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD).

   

 

2. Use your arrow keys on the keyboard and arrow down to the menu item HDD and hit enter on the keyboard.

3. On the next menu that appears arrow down to Diagnosis and hit enter.

4. On the next menu that appears arrow down to Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS V5.22 (Western Digital) and hit enter.

5. Let the utility run and eventually it should come up with a License Agreement screen.

6. Hit the ESC key on your keyboard to get out of this screen. You will be prompted to hit Y or N to accept the agreement. Please hit Y on the keyboard.

7. Arrow down to Quick Test and hit enter. Hit R to run if prompted. This test will take about 5 minutes to run.

8. When the test is done if all is well it will state something like Test Completed Without Errors. Error/Status Code: 0000. Let me know what yours says please.

9. If the Quick Test had an error/status code other than 0000 then don't go on and simply let me know in your next reply. If the Quick test completed without errors then proceed to the next steps.

10. Hit ESC on the keyboard and then select Extended Test. Hit R to run and let this one go. It may take awhile. Let me know the results of this when complete.

 

Thank you.

 

  

 

Items for your next post

1. Results of the Quick Test and Extended Test (if run).

[Alikhat68]

It had no errors on the quick test, so ran the extended test and it also says no errors found error/status code: 0000

[BrianDrab]

Unfortunately it looks like your Operating System may be corrupt beyond repair. We have only one option left however the procedure does not guarantee full recovery of the system to a previous state. You mentioned initially that you were thinking of upgrading to Windows 8.1. It's important to note that there is no direct upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 8.1. You would need to do a fresh install of Windows 8.1 which would basically erase your Windows XP installation. Also it would be advisable for you to increase the memory in your machine if you were going to do this.

 

So before we continue I would like to know what your goal is at this point.

1. Do you have your data (i.e. documents, pictures, etc.) backed up somewhere? Do you need to retrieve information from this machine at this point?

2. Do you want to attempt the final option to make your machine bootable again?

3. Are you going to simply upgrade to Windows 8.1?

 

Please let me know what your goal(s) are at this point. Thank you.

[Alikhat68]

OK.  That is actually what I figured before it completely took a nose dive, I'd been looking into changing the OS.  Can you upgrade directly to 8.0?

 

1.  Yes, I have pics and documents that I am not sure are backed up so would like to get those off.  I also, have Quicken data etc that I'd like to get as the last back up on the USB is 9/10..  I do have Norton Restore on my USB but can't figure out how it is helpful...

 

2.  By not recovery to previous state, does that mean I will lose my data or is this a way that I might retrieve it before I wipe the operating system?  If my data will be mostly available so I can retrieve, then yes I'd like to try

 

3.  Ultimately, I think I have no choice but to install Windows 8 or retire the computer.  I did run the windows 8 Wizard and it said my computer could be upgraded.  I'm not sure if all my memory slots are used.  When going through he BIOS it looked like there may be 2 slots that I could add to.  This is not something I'm terribly familiar with though I've seen it done and it looks simple enough.

 

Thank you for all your help!