This time I've really done it. To make a long story short, my windows installation is completely messed up and (apparently) irrecoverable.

Before we get to how to recover the OS, I need help in moving my files onto CD (that will be the best option) or putting them into a safe partition or something until I can get the problem fixed. Remember, I can't get into Windows at all and reinstalls/repairs are not working. If there's any program/method you can think

I think the hard drive is corrupted in someway and so I get an error every time I try to access the operating system, regardless of how many times I repair it. Attempting to do a clean resulted in a blue screen but I should not do that anyway until I have at least salvaged the data. I have Hirens Boot CD, if that helps anyway.

These files mean the world to me and any help will be immensely appreciated.

If the situation is really messed up but the Hard Drive is physically normal I would do either of the following:

1) Buy an External USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure, they start from the $19, put you Hard Drive inside the enclosure and connect it to another machine from a well known friend or a spare computer at work(if you know a trusty pc technician). Finally transfering data from the enclosure to the CD's or DVD's.

OR

2) The Same as #1 but without the external enclosure, just connect the HD internally to the other computer via the internal cable type used.

OR preferably

3) Buy a new HD (Bigger and faster if possible), install the OS in the new HD and proceed with #1 or #2 on your own computer.

If any of the above options are feasible to you I could provide more detailed OS steps, if required, to aid the process.

Remember always to Back-Up your information periodically in a removable media and store it in a secured disaster-proof place such as safe.

Ok, here is what happens.

When I attempt to do a new install of Windows, the computer gets a bluescreen. When I attempt to do a repair install of Windows, the install goes along alright but then when the screen changes to the "Windows XP gives you great security options bla bla bla" screen with real colors and so on, the setup program asks me to insert the Windows XP CD and go to I:\i386. I click browse but there is no 'I' in the drop down menu. This is absurd since the computer was able to read from the cd in order for me to do the install in the first place. I've tried this with two different install cds and all to the same effect.

So what I've had to do each time is click cancel when it asks me to browse to that folder and then the install seems to go along just fine. But then after it's done, the computer restarts and then as soon as it gets to the Windows XP Professional screen with the blue loading bar at the bottom, the computer gets another blue screen.

I think I have an extra HD which I can connect to the computer. I just need someone to walk me through how I would do this and how I would use the stuff on Hirens boot cd. the problem looks to be with the hard drive itself but then it could be the memory. but i dont have the money/expertise to buy new memory sticks AND a new hard drive right now.

It will not be until at least the weekend before I have the option of going to Fry's to find something.


Could it be that dust has gotten inside the computer? A lot of dust has accumulated in that room as of late.

Oh, and I remember one thing too. And this might be the problem.

We had two consecutive power surges while it was raining yesterday. The computer was on (at least at the time of the first power surge) and I don't think it ever shut down because when I came back it was still on (except that it had restarted itself)

Firstly, You might want to check your BIOS settings, If they have been reset at all your CD-Drive might not be showing up.

In my experience if a windows installation is failing from an otherwise clean, unscratched and legal disc, the likelihood is that your RAM is on it's way out. Power surges can effect the RAM (I'm not sure if new computer models have been designed to address such issues with RAM or not).

I would suggest using a RAM checking utility to see if your RAM's corrupted or not. There are ways to stop certain memory segments from being used, however it does mean that your total available RAM will be less than normal.

(I can't fully explain the methods, but they aren't really mean't for computer novices just techie's that can squeeze a few more months out of an old machine.)

I think I have an extra HD which I can connect to the computer. I just need someone to walk me through how I would do this and how I would use the stuff on Hirens boot cd. the problem looks to be with the hard drive itself but then it could be the memory. but i dont have the money/expertise to buy new memory sticks AND a new hard drive right now.

Well, if it is you're HDD then connecting the spare you have as a replacement maindrive is the best way of proceeding - if things crap out after the second drive is installed, y'can narrow down what the problem is.

To install your drive - pop the lid and have a good squint at the way your current drive is connected - it's very simple: 1 IDE Cable (wide with two connectors, one at the end, one about two thirds of the way along - the slave connector) 1 power connector.

You'll find a few spare power cables bundled together running from the main ATX power supply, these aren't connected to anything they're just spare. One of them will match the power cable being used by your current drive - same coloured cables, same plug end. Sort it out from the rest, keep it handy.

Your IDE cable is already connected to the mainboard, so you don't have to change that end of anything. It has two connection points as described, one at the end of the cable, the other close by. The end connection point should already be connected to your current HDD - that is the where the primary drive connects.

Y'may find its connected via the secondary. This doesn't matter if it is, in fact it makes things easier since it means y'don't have to swop things around, but if your current HDD is connected via the end connection, un-plug it and connect it via the secondary (slave).

Before you do this though, remove the HDD and reset the jumpers on the back to whatever its slave position should be - you'll find a little panel next to the IDE connector with several pins and a jumper. It's currently set to MASTER - you need to set it to SLAVE. Consult either the manual that came with your PC or else see if there's a settings diagram on the actual HDD its self.

Once set to SLAVE, re-connect via the slave connector on the IDE cable and re-seat the HDD in the most convenient slot available.

Once done all you've got to do is connect up your spare HDD to the end on the IDE cable - it's probably already set to MASTER but check just to make sure, seat it in the slot above you're old drive and that's basically it - you've installed you're new primary HDD. Connect the power cable you sorted and you're ready to rock.

Now, if this spare HDD of yours already has an operating system on it you'll need to clear the existing data partition on the drive and re-format. This'll wipe everything on it. Whatever utility you use, be it something third part or FDISK from a previous boot disk of a windows OS, make sure you format the right drive - to make absolutely sure you do this correctly disconnect your secondary (original) drive from the IDE cable and disconnect the power too.

There's two reasons for doing this - one, it'll mean you absolutely won't wipe out the files you want to keep from your original HDD, two, and possibly more usefully, if you're version of XP isn't an upgrade version it'll detect your original installation on you're former HDD (even if it is the slave) and refuse to install.

Therefore, disconnecting the slave drive will avoid this problem. Once you've formatted and installed XP on your new HDD and you're up and running again (or should I say if) shut her down, power off at the mains but leave connected and just reconnect the slave drive.

Boot her up and the computer will locate this "new" slave drive on boot-up.

If the drives functional you should be able to access everything. If not, well, then y'know the drive really is shot. If you encounter the same installation problems with the spare drive as master y'know its not the HDD so you're looking at either RAM failure or else an IDE failure.

Either way its a fifteen minute job providing you sort out your HDD jumper settings before hand.

Mr Anonymous,

I just tried to see if the hard drive I was planning to transfer my stuff to was in good working order but it's not loading the OS at all.. (its using Windows ME, if that says anything..) I'll look at your suggestion tomorrow because I've been at this for the past four hours now to no avail..

I could format it anyway and try to put my stuff on it but I'm not sure if I should take the chance. I'm pretty sure its capacity is far less than 100 GB, which is what I'm going to need optimally anyway. I can chuck 30 GB of music if I have to, yes. So I guess that makes it 70 GB to what I suspect is a 40 GB drive.

What I've done is I used my Acronis True Image disk to see fi I could create images of my partitions and lo and behold (although it didnt work yesterday) its able to browse through my C partition as well as the partitions with my music and games on it.

Now in a worst case scenario, if I had to take the minimal, I simply want the "My Documents" folder on my C drive as well as my programs folder (which is about 30 GB). Problem is, True Image is telling me "Failed to read from the sector 30,546,808 of the hard disk 0" when I try to access my D drive (the one with the programs on it). Since all the image files I made previously are on my D drive, I can't even restore them now. Yesterday, I used Hirens Boot CD and I was able to browse it alright. Today I have tried using my friends XP CD to do a repair install. I figured out what the problem was with the drive. Apparently the computer was only detecting my CD-RW drive and not the CD-R drive. No problem. I did all that and the repair went through without a hitch. To my utter dismay, the blue screen came back again about a half second after the Windows XP loading screen showed up dimly. (Let me mention that whenever I try to do the reinstall, the Windows XP loading screen shows up just fine after it restarts for the FIRST time in order to do the installation proper)

I've saved the essential part of the message here:

STOP: 0X0000007B (0xF9E4963C,0XC0000034,0X00000000,0X00000000)

No driver/program is listed at being at fault. The computer gives some message about me possibly having a virus or something about controllers. I know for sure I don't have a virus because my computer was disconnected from the internet the day of the problem and I had AV running. Neither safe mode nor last known configuration are able to avoid reaching the same error message. In my opinion, this might have something to do with the fact that True Image couldn't access my D drive, which, by the way, used to my J drive until it somehow got relabeled along with everything else..

I'll try again tomorrow with the other hard drive but that's going to be a pain since it looks like I'm going to have to reinstall Windows on that one too to get it working.

Is there any way to .. move the My Documents folder on my C drive at least onto another partition for the moment and afterwards, I'll grudingly wipe out the C partition and see if that helps matters. The problem there though is that the Windows XP install CD only lists two partitions as well as free space. But I have THREE partitions..

If I could at least access my D drive, I would find a way to save the 'my documents' folder, do a restore, and then burn all my essentials as quickly as possible.

What program should I use to try to repair the corrupted part of the drive? Don't know how to access scandisk without Windows.


Aye. It's been a long day..

Oh dear, y'do sound like you've been through the wars....

I'm assuming here that your computer has 1 physical hard drive, partitioned up into three data partitions. Is that essentially correct?

If so that's more than likely the actual root of your problem. From the sound you've installed XP on a FAT32 partitioned drive, and FAT32 and Windows XP, despite what it may say to the contrary on the tin, frankly don't get on. In the slightest.

Now, if I've read your previous posts correctly y'say that this problem originated after an unexpected power-cut, or something very soon there after - NTFS formated drives, although XP like any other version of Windows can crap out and leave errors on the drive, and it does, it does it quite differently and very minimally in comparison to what happens when a Windows system on a FAT32 formated drive crashes out. Instead of a few minor instances of badly written data on the HDD y'get shit loads, and unfortunately XP doesn't ship with anything like an adequate Disk Repair utility to deal with a major FAT32 crap out.

Nothing even close, lamentably.

XP is designed with NTFS in mind and works eminently more stably as a consequence. I know it may be somewhat counter-intuitive to have a large HDD and not want to partition it so at least your data is relatively separate from your programmes and OS - but trust me, you're far, far, far better off choosing one single NTFS partition and investing a few bucks in separate physical drives if you want to store large quantities of data that matters to you constantly on your only machine.

From the sound you've got physical damage to your original HDD, chances are the damage occurred towards the end, the emptiest, part of the HDD, but without being able to make a full physical scan of the drives actual surface you won't be able to determine quite how much damage you've got. Instead you're OS on loading is running into it blind and crapping out as a consequence.

Hence your blue screens.

Sorry for the doom and gloom assessment, but best to get that out of the way first. All, or should I say most, probably isn't lost - I've had a secondary physical HDD crap out on me like this in the past and I managed to recover all but the very last things I was working on. It all depends on how much physical damage has occurred and how full your actual HDD is.

You'll find out soon enough.

You're priority here is to install XP onto a functioning HDD. Don't worry in the slightest about the storage capacity of the replacement drive - 100GB is heaps for what you need because, once you clean install XP directly onto the replacement drive you have on an NTFS partition you have a CD-RW drive I suggest very strongly that you consider using it and backing your data from your corrupted drive to CD as soon as possible.

Trick is of course getting XP up and running.

Set your original drive via its jumpers to SLAVE, install your replacement HDD as MASTER (it's already set that way by default) keep your original HDD disconnected for the time being and just hook up your new replacement.

Format the replacement drive - wipe it clean. Either use a third part utility or FDISK from you're previous computer the ME HDD originally came from. Wipe everything then install to this empty drive.

Because you're leaving your original HDD disconnected for now XP Setup won't detect any previous installation of XP and because you've formatted the replacement it won't detect anything installed on the new HDD - so this way XP will both install and you'll be absolutely certain that you haven't inadvertently wiped anything from your original drive.

Once XP is up and running connect your original HDD to the IDE cable in the SLAVE position, as described in the post previously, also sort out a spare power coupling from the ATX (there's always two of mostly everything) then, even if you're actual system is all minty and fresh out of the box at least you can access both your secondary drive and you CD-RW.

Providing you install using NTFS XP will now be much, much more stable and won't freak out every time it runs into a problem. Try setting a full error check to ascertain the integrity of you're original drive if you wish, I doubt XP will allow you to run it on a non NTFS drive but give it a try at anyrate. If no good transfer your most valuable data over to your new main drive, parcel it up and burn it to CD.

Do this a piece at a time, file by file if you have to.

This is pretty important. If y'go for transferring large blocks of data from a potentially corrupted drive, the instant the OS runs into a damaged section it'll halt the transfer or refuse to even start it. Equally, you must remember, if y'don't defragment your drive often one single file can be chopped up and spread around in little bits all over the surface of the disc - one of those bits may be in a damaged section and again, the transfer won't happen - so, taking it a bit at a time and not block transferring gig's worth of data at a time gives you a better percentage at actually making some headway with the retrieval process.

The point is you're buying yourself time to actually do something about recovering the bulk of the data you wish to retain. If all goes well with the drive swop and the clean install you're out of the woods. Clean as much of the stuff as you can off your original drive and then, respectfully, chuck the thing and get into the habit of using CD-RW disc's regularly in future.

At present no amount of repairing your current XP installation is going to help one little bit - on loading XP will copy loading files towards the end of its current partition, run into bad sectors unexpectedly and throw a blue wobbler every time it tries to load - that drive is irrepairably fucked, but hopefully the bulk of your stored data should remain viable and accessible.

Good luck with it and all the very best. Let us know how y'got on, and whatever y'do, just keep a cool head and concentrate first on getting the OS fully running on the replacement HDD.

Best regards,

A ;)