Windows has killed itself AGAIN!
- Thread starter sjt269
- Start date
I have absolutely no idea how, but I've managed to get the hard drive to such a state that the entire file system is corrupt, and other PCs can't read it. To the best of my knowledge, I've done nothing to the file system between having it in this PC, putting it in mine and getting locked out of the recovery console, and then putting it back in here...there was no change made to the file system, but nothing recognises it. Even the Windows Recovery Install doesn't see a Windows install on the disc, and it needs to totally format it to get anywhere with it. 
Also, as an added bonus on my lucky day, the backup hard drive has managed to lose a .dll file from the system32 folder, and now I can't get that one to work either (though I'm hoping I'll be able to get it back eventually, I'm off to try it now). I can't see any way out of this that doesn't involve me losing all my photos, recordings, etc etc...it's goodbye 120Gb of data, I think. Two hard drives corrupt, both running on the same hardware...maybe it's not a hard drive problem after all. Or maybe I'm just an idiot who kills everything he touches, I don't know. Either way, it's not good.
I'm looking at that link now dmpoole, I'm just not too optimistic about it doing anything if the whole file system is corrupt. I'll see what it does and maybe give it a go if it looks vaguely promising.
Also, as an added bonus on my lucky day, the backup hard drive has managed to lose a .dll file from the system32 folder, and now I can't get that one to work either (though I'm hoping I'll be able to get it back eventually, I'm off to try it now). I can't see any way out of this that doesn't involve me losing all my photos, recordings, etc etc...it's goodbye 120Gb of data, I think. Two hard drives corrupt, both running on the same hardware...maybe it's not a hard drive problem after all. Or maybe I'm just an idiot who kills everything he touches, I don't know. Either way, it's not good.
I'm looking at that link now dmpoole, I'm just not too optimistic about it doing anything if the whole file system is corrupt. I'll see what it does and maybe give it a go if it looks vaguely promising.
Hurrah for the triple post...
Anyway, got the backup hard drive working again (on it now). Funny thing happened when I put my dead drive back into my brother's PC to try to copy it...Windows XP chkdsk kicked in right at startup, which it never did any of the other times I tried it in his PC (and which I'd done several times myself via the recovery console) and tried to fix the disk.
So, the hard drive is undergoing a pretty rigorous checkdisk scan...Windows went right through and deleted a whole lot of corrupt stuff (including some mp3s ripped from CDs, I noticed, so who knows what else I've now lost) and has been trying to repair the hard drive, I think. The thing is, for the last hour, it's been showing the same message: 'Inserting an index entry in index $0 for file 659'.
The message is flashing slightly at the bottom of the screen, like more indexes are being created constantly, but it's been doing it for roundabout an hour, which seems like an awful long time. I thought it was maybe re-indexing the entire hard drive or something, but I'm a little unsure if the PC is working, or if it's crashed. I don't want to power it down, because powering down during a chkdsk can cause bad things to happen.
Anyway, got the backup hard drive working again (on it now). Funny thing happened when I put my dead drive back into my brother's PC to try to copy it...Windows XP chkdsk kicked in right at startup, which it never did any of the other times I tried it in his PC (and which I'd done several times myself via the recovery console) and tried to fix the disk.
So, the hard drive is undergoing a pretty rigorous checkdisk scan...Windows went right through and deleted a whole lot of corrupt stuff (including some mp3s ripped from CDs, I noticed, so who knows what else I've now lost) and has been trying to repair the hard drive, I think. The thing is, for the last hour, it's been showing the same message: 'Inserting an index entry in index $0 for file 659'.
The message is flashing slightly at the bottom of the screen, like more indexes are being created constantly, but it's been doing it for roundabout an hour, which seems like an awful long time. I thought it was maybe re-indexing the entire hard drive or something, but I'm a little unsure if the PC is working, or if it's crashed. I don't want to power it down, because powering down during a chkdsk can cause bad things to happen.
Get yourself a spindle of DVDs (not cheap rubbish mind). Stick the HD in your brother's machine (if he whines, deck him 
), WinRAR all your files. Use the fastest compression in WinRAR - with a spindle of 25 DVDs (over 100gb of data) that cost you less than £10, who cares?
Once WinRAR has compressed your files into 4.3gb files, burn them to your DVDs.
TBH, I'd use 7-Zip - compresses faster and better than WinRAR, IMO. Just remember to tell it to split to volumes.
), WinRAR all your files. Use the fastest compression in WinRAR - with a spindle of 25 DVDs (over 100gb of data) that cost you less than £10, who cares?Once WinRAR has compressed your files into 4.3gb files, burn them to your DVDs.
TBH, I'd use 7-Zip - compresses faster and better than WinRAR, IMO. Just remember to tell it to split to volumes.
I was going to do that, except for the following reasons:
1) Would take bloody ages.
2) Having to keep an eye on the PC all the time to keep switching DVDs would annoy me.
3) He doesn't have a DVDRW.
My DVDRW on my PC is apparently (so says the LiteOn support staff who can't type proper English) broken and should be returned, since it can't actually burn DVDs, so I'd need to wander out and buy a new one in order for that plan to work. I've got DVDRs though, plenty of 'em, just nothing to burn!
PC seems to still be stuck on the same chkdsk thing. I haven't tried to restart or anything in case it's doing exactly what it's meant to be doing.
1) Would take bloody ages.
2) Having to keep an eye on the PC all the time to keep switching DVDs would annoy me.
3) He doesn't have a DVDRW.
My DVDRW on my PC is apparently (so says the LiteOn support staff who can't type proper English) broken and should be returned, since it can't actually burn DVDs, so I'd need to wander out and buy a new one in order for that plan to work. I've got DVDRs though, plenty of 'em, just nothing to burn!
PC seems to still be stuck on the same chkdsk thing. I haven't tried to restart or anything in case it's doing exactly what it's meant to be doing.
How much data are talking about compressing? My machine can compress about 4gb/hour with Winace (and Winace is slooowww). 7-Zip should be able to knock through a DVD much quicker.
As for your DVD writer. I think your motherboard is up the swannie, not the drives - try your DVD writer in your brother's machine. For the sake of a 5 minute swap over, I'd do it.
Chkdsk...hmm...give it until 3, before hitting the power button, TBH.
As for your DVD writer. I think your motherboard is up the swannie, not the drives - try your DVD writer in your brother's machine. For the sake of a 5 minute swap over, I'd do it.
Chkdsk...hmm...give it until 3, before hitting the power button, TBH.
basmic said:
There's about 120Gb on the drive, and maybe 30Gb 'I'd really like to save', and another 20Gb 'can't-live-without' data on it. That's a guess, so it may be a little on the high side.
basmic said:
My brother is away out golfing til about 8 tonight, so I've got the PC til then to play about with. I was going to leave it a little longer, but I shall assume you know what you're on about.
basmic said:
Y'think?
I was going to get a new machine at the end of the year, but I'll be lucky if this one manages to last that long.
I'll give the DVDRW in his PC a go. I'm on exam leave atm, so I can steal his PC tomorrow/midweek to burn the stuff to DVDs, assuming I can regain access to the hard drive if chkdsk fixes the corrupt-ness of it.
:edit:
chkdsk lives! It's now replacing invalid security files, or something like that.
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Just done my own benchmarks with my 0.98gb (1032.52mb) My Documents folder.
Using Fastest compression, for both 7-Zip and WinRAR.
7-Zip = 939mb in 6:35 - 8.36gb/hour
WinRAR = 934mb in 3:15 - 16.84gb/hour
So I know which I'd go for.
Might as well add a recovery record too, while you're about it.
Using Fastest compression, for both 7-Zip and WinRAR.
7-Zip = 939mb in 6:35 - 8.36gb/hour
WinRAR = 934mb in 3:15 - 16.84gb/hour
So I know which I'd go for.
Might as well add a recovery record too, while you're about it.
Heh, thanks for that. Should take me maybe 2 hours to back up a reasonable amount of stuff (or to compress it, anyway) that I can burn to disc and cherish forever.
The PC is still replacing the invalid security files, its done about 90000 so far and it's showing no sign of stopping.
What's a recovery record? It sounds like something I should already know, but I can't quite figure out what.
The PC is still replacing the invalid security files, its done about 90000 so far and it's showing no sign of stopping.
What's a recovery record? It sounds like something I should already know, but I can't quite figure out what.
If chkdsk is still running, but appearing to be progressing, then I'd take my chances and let it finish it's job.
In the meantime, get that old 10gb drive in your machine, install XP and Nero on it in any old fashion - then get ready to burn.
In the meantime, get that old 10gb drive in your machine, install XP and Nero on it in any old fashion - then get ready to burn.
basmic said:In the meantime, get that old 10gb drive in your machine, install XP and Nero on it in any old fashion - then get ready to burn.
Drive is in and installed, but the DVDRW doesn't burn!
Tis going in the other PC once chkdsk is done, then it'll be time to burn.
gareth170 said:
This is my second one Hitachi, and I've had quite a few problems with it, but almost all the problems have stemmed from me being stupid rather than from it being mechanically faulty. The first one reached the end of it's lifespan after 6 or 7 years, so I can't complain about that one not doing its job (though I wish it had let me know before it packed in - I couldn've backed it up!).
I've got no grudge against Hitachi, I've just been unlucky/an idiot. I think luck is what it comes down to in the end...some people just get good luck, and some get bad.
Right, the drive is un-corrupt and I can access it as a slave drive once more. Can't do a repair install of Windows, it throws up an error about some password not being what Windows expects it to be - I haven't set any passwords, so I dunno what that's about.
Not got time to get everything packed away in archives tonight, but I'll do it either tomorrow or on Tuesday (got an exam Tuesday morning, so might need tomorrow for revision...don't want to be running to the PC every 20 mins to check on it). After that, I'll get everything burned to DVD if I can get the drive working, then format the HDD and do a clean install of XP.
I'm still concerned about the DVDRW not working, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If it turns out that I really do need a new one, then I might just buy a new HDD and keep the current one as a slave. £20 for a new DVDRW, or £30-40 for a new hard drive, where I end up with more space, all my files, and less all round hassle. I'll see what happens, and I'll probably post back here after I've done/not done whatever I decide to do.
Thanks for all the help, guys.
Not got time to get everything packed away in archives tonight, but I'll do it either tomorrow or on Tuesday (got an exam Tuesday morning, so might need tomorrow for revision...don't want to be running to the PC every 20 mins to check on it). After that, I'll get everything burned to DVD if I can get the drive working, then format the HDD and do a clean install of XP.
I'm still concerned about the DVDRW not working, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If it turns out that I really do need a new one, then I might just buy a new HDD and keep the current one as a slave. £20 for a new DVDRW, or £30-40 for a new hard drive, where I end up with more space, all my files, and less all round hassle. I'll see what happens, and I'll probably post back here after I've done/not done whatever I decide to do.
Thanks for all the help, guys.
basmic said:
In the recovery console, it just says 'incorrent password' and I get 3 chances to enter it correctly.
With the repair install, I didn't have to enter anything. Windows got to the stage where it restarted the PC to complete the installation from within Windows itself, but when the system rebooted, I just got a white cursor on a black background, then an error box naming a .dll file (I think) that Windows didn't know the password to. I can go photograph that error message, I'll do it just now.
The dead HDD is back in my machine, as a slave drive for now. All the files are there, I just haven't got the registry entries to run some of the programs and games, but I can live with that. For a while, at least.
That's the message. It only appears on screen for a few seconds before disappearing, then the PC restarts itself. Sorry its such a bad image, I went to take it again to try to get a better one, but the message only just flashed up, and I missed it.
:edit:
Just Googles lsass.exe and it tells me that that error message could be pointing towards a virus, apparently...Active Virus Shield never picked up anything.
That was just one result though, I'll keep looking.
:edit2:
Apparently there's lsass.exe (lower case L) and Isass.exe (upper case I), and the I one is a virus, so maybe this isn't a virus I'm looking at here. Hope not. No way I can tell, really.
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