Windows wont boot after attempted restore

Hi, allow me to explain the situation.

I recently installed linux on a backup harddrive set as the slave drive, i had problems with the boot manager and got frustrated and decided to just remove it.

I did fixboot and fixmbr to reset the boot manager and it was fine.

I booted up windows, it was fine, but it wouldnt regonise any drives installed, like my CD-RW or my slave drive.

For some reason i dont know why, i decided to do the windows recovery on the disk, but i accidently (yea, i know how the hell do you do this by accident!) - setup up windows to install over the current windows xp pro sp2 edition. It as already going through the process of installing and rather then pulling out the plug i just let it carry on hoping it would be all ok.

It installed but gave me weird error, "has not passed the Windows Verification Test, the software will not be installed" something along those lines, sorry for not being more spercific. This happened on 'Finalizing installation, it carried on installing then rebooted, bios runs, checks disks, then blue screen appears for about 0.1 of a second and the monitor turns off and it reboots. I tried reinstalling several times, same errors, same reboot.

So i installed windows on my backup drive, which is now running as G:\, which has two NTFS partitions. D:\ being parition from my first install of windows, which ran along side linux.

Now, i can see all the files on C:\, access all the programs, play all the games, etc... so i assume there is nothing wrong with the registry, so now im confused as to why windows will not install over an old one..

Any ideas, am i going to lose my C:\, id rather save it, it has so much data on it, i dont have the disk space of cd's to save it all

 

Hello Andrew,

Any ideas, am i going to lose my C:\, id rather save it, it has so much data on it, i dont have the disk space of cd's to save it all
From what I'm reading, C was never the boot partition, so why would you think you will lose it?

i can see all the files on C:\, access all the programs, play all the games, etc... This isn't any different then what was before, correct? The only difference is your boot partition.

So i installed windows on my backup drive, which is now running as G:\, which has two NTFS partitions. D:\ being parition from my first install of windows, which ran along side linux.
So is it running ok? If so, why not use D as your new backup partition, get rid of the old XP installation after moving what ever files you want saved. Format it via Control Panel > Perfornance & Maintenance > Admin tolls > Computer Management and right click on the partition and > format.

Can't answer your question about why you error on the install.

I hope I'm reading your post correctly.

Regards - Charles

 

As a wild guess I suspect that you had SP2 installed and used the original XP CD for the reinstall. This will not work and may be the reason for the "has not passed the Windows Verification Test, which would ligitament.

Once SP2 is installed it must be used for any further repair or reinstalls.

BillyBob

 

Hi BB,

you had SP2 installed and used the original XP CD for the reinstall. This will not work
If true, the procedure then would be to wipe first - the "clean" install; sounds reasonable. That would always be my preferred method.

Regards - Charles

 

charlesvar

Sorry i may of confused you.

My original install of windows was on the C:\ with my second harddrive partitioned in two, one with a NTFS, for windows, then had a second partition which had windows installed.

When i deleted Linux, and had problems booting the C:\ i formatted the linux partition and installed Windows on there.

From that boot of windows i can see all the files, the installed applications etc... and run them.

I managed to get a copy of Windows SP2 bootable CD from my flat mate, i had no problems installing that, i did not get any errors but it still will not boot up, it goes to the disk check, bios scroll etc... all that rubbish, then the monitor shuts down and the computer restarts.

 

Hi Andrew,

Ok, then My Computer > right click > properties > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery > Settings > and un-tick Automatically Restart under System failure. Lets see what the blue screen error is.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Andrew,

Another thought as well - use the Recovery Console (boot with the XP cd) and try a fix of the boot.ini record (which is always on C) which is probably mangled right now. The sequence of your actions as you wrote them is that you did that before the bad install, correct?

Regards - Charles

 

Hi,

I unchecked the automatic system restart, so it shouldnt, but it still does.

Boot.ini looks like this on the C:\

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT= "Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

 

Hi Andrew,

Go back into the RC and try chkdsk with the /r switch - see what happens.

I unchecked the automatic system restart, so it shouldnt, but it still does.
I don't what that's an indication of, hope somebody else does.

BTW, can you boot into safe mode? If so, maybe a chance to go back to a good config. Try that after running chkdisk.

Again from what I read in your first post, if booting into your second installation, no problems, correct? Now, i can see all the files on C:\, access all the programs, play all the games, etc...

FWIW, my boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "XP on D" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

I can't spot anything obviously wrong with yours - the differences are about Pro/Home. Maybe someone running Pro will spot something.

EDIT:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S

Your default is to the C install. Normally XP sets the 2nd install as the default, you can change that in that Startup/Recovery page (at the top) and change the timeout.

Regards - Charles

 

You could try changing the /NoExecute=OptIn to /NoExecute=AlwaysOff

This should turn off DEP which I see isn't present in the other OS. Maybe it's the difference.

 

I did a checkdisk, found one error and fixed, still doesnt work, and i did what zander said and still wont boot.

I cannot boot in to safe mode or last known config either

 

You could try booting using the step by step confirmation choice in the menu you use to get to safemode to maybe get an idea of what it is that's giving you the problem. I'm thinking that if you find the file that's causing it to crash, perhaps you could boot to the OS that works and do something with it from there. For example, if you got lucky and the file was something that wasn't critical to windows itself you could try renaming it from the other OS and maybe it would boot. There may be more problems beside that but it might get you in. Worth a shot.

 

As charlesvar said, it would be helpful if i could find out what the blue screen message is, but it reboots to fast for me to see the message, anyone know how to stop it rebooting?

 

There may be I don't know of any way. Did you try the step by step thing?

 

Another thought. You could boot it using the bootlog option. It'll still crash but it'll put a file in the root of the drive that named ntbtlog.txt and it might give a clue as to what's causing the problem. Have a look at the log file after you try to boot it see what the last item in the log is. You should be able to enable the boot logging in the the same menu where you select safemode. I don't remember exactly what it says but it's quite obvious when you see it. If you can't enable the log there for some reason, edit your boot.ini and add /bootlog to the end of the entry for the problem OS.

 

I do not think we are the only ones confused. I think you whole system is confused with the multiple installs of Windows.

When you make changes etc. you may not be making them in the same Windows setup that the system is trying to use.

I may be WAY, WAY off base but I do not think this will straighten out till you can get the system BACK TO ONE install of Windows.

Especially if as I mentioned before, you attempted to reinstall XP using the origianl disk but had SP2 installed.

Ok. You said that you got SP2 to install with no errors. BUT with more than one Windows install did it go to the proper location ?

BillyBob

 

Ok i got the error log to display, it says something is wrong with my harddrive and it is stopping the boot up to prevent damage to my system, it advises me to do a chkdsk /f in the recovery console, but when i do that, it says its not a valid / command - the only commands availble are /r /p

And i cannot find ntbtlog.txt anywhere on my system

BillyBob, the windows partion on G:/ is a basic sp1 install, nothing updated,
The C:\ was a sp2 updated, but then i tried to reinstall windows on a sp2 bootable cd and i get the above error on reboot, i had the error before the G:\ installation of Windows was installed

 

OK. Wait for someone with more knowldeg than I have to answer here.

But If you had SP2 ( which is not really a Windows install but an update ( alias SERVICE PACK ) and you used the original XP CD then I think you are licked.

Now please note the above is only written from an interpetation of what I read.

I have no ideas at all on that.

BillyBob

 

If you can see the drive from the new windows installation, why not run chkdsk on it from there? Click start>run and type cmd. Then at the command prompt type chkdsk /f c: or you could use the /r switch instead. It's probably what you should be using anyway. If you want to know what the various switches do, at the command prompt, type chkdsk /?. You'll get a list of available switches and what they do. If you do this it tells you that you have to reboot for chkdsk to run, be sure to boot to the good OS when you reboot the computer.

 

why not run chkdsk on it from there?
Zander, he wrote that he tried that already with the r switch.

Andrew,

id rather save it, it has so much data on it, i dont have the disk space of cd's to save it all
What do you mean here?

That drive is suspect, no matter what happens. You have access to the drive from the 2nd install, start thinking about saving that data.

Regards - Charles