Author Topic: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)  (Read 45695 times)

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billkwando

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2010, 07:23:20 AM »
Why not run Bootcng again - but with some instructions this time - it might work

Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
  • When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
  • When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  • If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you have to use from the Recovery Console.
  • When you are prompted, type the administrator password, and then press ENTER. (generally for XP this is blank)
  • At the command prompt, type bootcfg /list, and then press ENTER. The entries in your current Boot.ini file appear on the screen.
  • At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results.
  • Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file:
  • When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y:
    Total Identified Windows Installs: 1

    [1] C:\Windows


    Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)

  • You receive a message that is similar to the following message:
Enter Load Identifier
This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER.
This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

  • You receive a message that is similar to the following:
Enter OS Load options
When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER. [/i]

Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.
Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console. Your computer restarts, and the updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message
[/list]

Ok, this means I have to find an XP Pro disc now, lol.........and it needs to be slipstreamed with SP3, right? I assume I can't use my regular Home disc for this.

Also, my OS was originally Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.....shouldn't I type that? FYI MWXPMCE is based on Pro (it's actually pro with some update rollup thingies)

Also, I wonder if it will get rid of the 2 extra "OSes" I made (upon booting....where you have select one) when I mistyped the OS name while doing bootcfg (twice!)
« Last Edit: March 11, 2010, 07:32:46 AM by billkwando »

Offline mkis

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #16 on: March 11, 2010, 07:51:13 AM »
bilkwando

the only time I had issue like yours - even though I know it commonly happens - I went straight to boot into Last known good configuration as i posted above. This worked so obviously averted worsening of situation. I cannot say the following is best solution because I've never tried it before, Someone here may help out.

from this website you can get dr web cure-it rescue disk  http://www.freedrweb.com/livecd/?lng=en
I dont even know if this is best site to download from.

download to disk obviously using a clean computer, or burn to disk, whatever you are directed to do.
and give it a go as last resort rather than reformat.

But first wait to see if essexboy has more to offer because he knows about these things.
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billkwando

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #17 on: March 11, 2010, 02:26:43 PM »
bilkwando

the only time I had issue like yours - even though I know it commonly happens - I went straight to boot into Last known good configuration as i posted above. This worked so obviously averted worsening of situation. I cannot say the following is best solution because I've never tried it before, Someone here may help out.

from this website you can get dr web cure-it rescue disk  http://www.freedrweb.com/livecd/?lng=en
I dont even know if this is best site to download from.

download to disk obviously using a clean computer, or burn to disk, whatever you are directed to do.
and give it a go as last resort rather than reformat.

But first wait to see if essexboy has more to offer because he knows about these things.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll check that program out. With TestDisk, I'm able to see the D: partition but still not the C: one. However, I am able to see the files from C: inside of D:. Will a windows bootcfg /rebuild fix the damaged boot/partition.......stuff?

I'm willing to try the windows thing first, but I'm just worried about it overwriting or altering C: in a way that makes it harder to recover. It shows as RAW in My Computer, w/ no size shown.

Offline mkis

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #18 on: March 11, 2010, 05:39:36 PM »
billkwando, I'm not sure whether I can help much at the moment but someone should be along shortly.

using TestDisk, can you transfer files to the C: that you can see inside yr D: ?
I am not familiar with TestDisk.

I will look it up, but perhaps if you could explain for the forum support what functionality you have with TestDisk. Or is that it, you just have what you have outlined? I guess you stuck wit Read Only as well.

However you say bootcfg /rebuild. Does that mean you can bring up a command-line and run commands.

If so, there are some extra boot options available thru running msconfig

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Offline Gopher John

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2010, 06:28:49 PM »
@billkwando,

Stick with essexboy, and follow his instructions strictly.  Provide all the feedback he requests.  He's led others on this forum to a solution after their malware infections.
AMD A6-5350M APU with Radeon HD Graphics, 8.0GB RAM, Win7 Pro SP1 64bit, IE11
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Common to both: Avast Premium Security 19.7.2388, WinPatrol Plus, SpywareBlaster 5.5, Opera 12.18, Firefox 68.0.2, MBam Free, CCleaner

billkwando

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2010, 07:22:09 PM »
billkwando, I'm not sure whether I can help much at the moment but someone should be along shortly.

using TestDisk, can you transfer files to the C: that you can see inside yr D: ?
I am not familiar with TestDisk.

I will look it up, but perhaps if you could explain for the forum support what functionality you have with TestDisk. Or is that it, you just have what you have outlined? I guess you stuck wit Read Only as well.

However you say bootcfg /rebuild. Does that mean you can bring up a command-line and run commands.

If so, there are some extra boot options available thru running msconfig

Teskdisk lets you search for, examine, and fix missing/corrupt partitions. I can see the missing files, and it even says I can copy them.

As I mentioned, I could previously do bootcfg, but doing it wrong messed that up so I can't get into the recovery console (BSOD). Depending on what EB says, I'm going to try it again with an actual XP disk instead. Before I was doing it with my HP's recovery drive.


@billkwando,

Stick with essexboy, and follow his instructions strictly.  Provide all the feedback he requests.  He's led others on this forum to a solution after their malware infections.


Trust me, I plan to!
« Last Edit: March 11, 2010, 07:23:59 PM by billkwando »

Offline essexboy

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #21 on: March 11, 2010, 10:02:19 PM »
That is good - if you have backups of all your data and licence keys, alas not everyone does that 

billkwando

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #22 on: March 11, 2010, 10:44:38 PM »
That is good - if you have backups of all your data and licence keys, alas not everyone does that 

Exactly.

I had some questions for you above. :)

Offline essexboy

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #23 on: March 11, 2010, 11:11:41 PM »
Ooops missed that

Quote
Ok, this means I have to find an XP Pro disc now, lol.........and it needs to be slipstreamed with SP3, right? I assume I can't use my regular Home disc for this.
Any disc will do as you are accessing the recovery console only

Quote
Also, my OS was originally Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.....shouldn't I type that? FYI MWXPMCE is based on Pro (it's actually pro with some update rollup thingies)
You will need to use the Microsoft Windows XP Professional designation

Quote
Also, I wonder if it will get rid of the 2 extra "OSes" I made (upon booting....where you have select one) when I mistyped the OS name while doing bootcfg (twice!)
Yes you can put it all right in one go

Reatogo will also give you the option to copy files from the missing (?) installation to disc

billkwando

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #24 on: March 12, 2010, 07:00:27 PM »
Ooops missed that

Quote
Ok, this means I have to find an XP Pro disc now, lol.........and it needs to be slipstreamed with SP3, right? I assume I can't use my regular Home disc for this.
Any disc will do as you are accessing the recovery console only

Quote
Also, my OS was originally Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition.....shouldn't I type that? FYI MWXPMCE is based on Pro (it's actually pro with some update rollup thingies)
You will need to use the Microsoft Windows XP Professional designation

Quote
Also, I wonder if it will get rid of the 2 extra "OSes" I made (upon booting....where you have select one) when I mistyped the OS name while doing bootcfg (twice!)
Yes you can put it all right in one go

Reatogo will also give you the option to copy files from the missing (?) installation to disc

Ok, so I booted from my XP disc and after XP finishes all of its preparatory steps, it goes to start XP and *pow!*, the infamous 7B STOP error (BSOD). Suggestions? Or should I break down and try to fix it with TestDisk? I've attached my TestDisk log in case you wanted to take a look at it. Like I said, it sees all the files from C: (dr-xr-xr-x), but doesn't seem to see the C: partition. D: partition (the one that works) is the -r--r--r-- files. Maybe if you're like Joe Pantoliano in The Matrix, you can see my pr0n!  :P :P :P

I noticed some graphical corruption on the XP disc's startup blue screen, as well as misspellings while booting up, so it seems that Avast didn't get rid of my boot sector virus while it was getting rid of my OS. ;)

Any suggestions to remedy the BSOD, or other suggestions? I aint giving up! :D

I guess I should count my lucky stars that Reatogo boots. Too bad I can't get on the internet with it. I'd like to get my C: drive accessible so I can burn some backups with IMG Burn, at least.....but if I can completely fix Windows, that would be fine too. ;)
« Last Edit: March 12, 2010, 07:05:07 PM by billkwando »

Offline essexboy

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #25 on: March 12, 2010, 07:20:49 PM »
From a look at the Test data  it appears that part of the HDD is corrupted

Quote
A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable

At this stage I would suggest a data recovery programme from the running drive

Have a look at this http://www.partition-tool.com/partition-recovery-wizard/

Offline mkis

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #26 on: March 13, 2010, 03:42:53 AM »
That's what I thought it might be. actual bad sectors with the virus reaming the hard disk like in the old days. You can use a floppy boot disk 98SE/Me that to get independent surface scan. Its a graphic scan  and if you get red spots then thats it, choose repair might save for while, but not really.

if you've got a floppy drive and want to try, here goes

Get bootdisk    http://bootdisk.com

Make sure floppy set first device to boot - then boot into windows and when command prompt comes up type scandisk and go thru scan until it asks if you want to do surface scan and do that. The scan is done in DOS and its a pretty good indication - well, final anyway.

« Last Edit: March 14, 2010, 07:28:59 PM by mkis »
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bobo1

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #27 on: March 14, 2010, 12:24:20 PM »
Yes best use a dos startup disk win 98 disk will do but this will only scan FAT32 partitions only max size 32000MBs on scandisk.

If you are using NTFS partition then your are out of luck!.

Still best to reformat your troublesome computer with viruses the easy way to ensure that you are clean! Windows xp will load in 43mins EASY! if you boot from CD Rom & do remove del partition create new partition FAT 32 or NTFS and do full format. If format fails then you have a US hard drive with bad sectors, But you can play about with the partition size depending where the bad sectors are ie. If the bad sectors are in the middle of the drive then if the drive size is 40 GB then create a main partition of 18GB to start with! Good luck!

billkwando

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #28 on: March 14, 2010, 06:27:32 PM »
From a look at the Test data  it appears that part of the HDD is corrupted

Maybe not, actually.

Man.....it just keeps getting better and better. Went out and bought a brand new WD 500gb SATA drive today. Get home, open the case and discover there's not one but TWO hard drives, aaaaaand no room for a new one!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have.....a RAID! Geez louise.

I'm wondering if that's why it looked like my HDD was corrupted. Because there are two and you were looking at the report from only one of them. I'm soooooo screwed. Aren't I? I should've gotten suspicious when I saw the same HDD listed twice. The good news is that you can see into the 2nd one also with Testdisk.

I was going to back up my data to the new HDD and then do a nondestructive recovery from my recovery drive. This reinstalls Windows, but doesn't delete any other files (supposedly) so you have to reinstall your apps, but everything stays where it was. My concern is that since the C: partition (oh LOL what a euphemism THAT turned out to be!) is unreadable, that the "non-destructive recovery" wil overwrite everying, or otherwise corrupt C: worse than it already is.

Taking into account that all my data is most likely fine, other than my boot sector......and that I have no ability to backup, what do you recommend?
« Last Edit: March 14, 2010, 06:31:39 PM by billkwando »

Offline essexboy

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Re: Reboot loop after boot scan (can't get into safe mode)
« Reply #29 on: March 14, 2010, 06:49:00 PM »
As that is a RAID drive it is way beyond my knowledge........ However, I know some people who do have the knowledge and skill.  ;D

If you could go here and start a new topic, then send me a PM there (same username)  I will get one of the Techs to give you a hand

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Hardware-Components-Peripherals-f9.html