Anyone who is knowledgeable about Windows XP, Please Help Me!

[bubbajan21]

Help! Two days ago, I restored my laptop to one month earlier to try to recover my contacts in MS outlook that got deleted. I used the windows restore, and set it up to restore overnight. When I woke up, the error message shown in the video was on the screen. I have tried using the Windows XP disc to get into recovery mode to restore the missing file, but every time I try to get to the recovery console it goes to the blue screen. I think if I can get there, I can restore the file and get Windows to open again. I've attached a link to a video showing exactly what my computer does. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwMQrEMluWA

You can skip from 0:40 to 2:10, it is just the disc going through everything.

Thanks in advance!

[StereoInstaller1]

If you are getting BSOD in the repair console, first thing I would do is find another computer and swap RAM.

[bubbajan21]

I might try that, but I did run a hardware test, and it came out all good. Do you still think I should try swapping RAM?

[equate975]

7B is typically boot device error, IE boot sector is fucked up or MBR is hosed. I don't typically see it booting off a disc. The ntoskrnl.exe error supports this, I would look for a bad boot.ini, just do a fixboot and fixmbr in the recovery console.

Ram is hard to diagnose sometimes, you can run memtest 86 or a variant of it like EVERYONE will suggest, but I have only 1 single time ever seen it actually detect bad ram.

I would put my money on your hard drive though, download and burn this:

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

Do the advanced test and see what it comes up with.

However I would highly suggest pulling the drive out, or booting off a live cd and backing your data up first.

[TexasTerp]

Here's a great resource that explains the BSOD stop codes and what you'll need to do to fix them:

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/43519-windows-xp-blue-screen-of-death-stop-codes/

[bubbajan21]

7B is typically boot device error, IE boot sector is fucked up or MBR is hosed. I don't typically see it booting off a disc. The ntoskrnl.exe error supports this, I would look for a bad boot.ini, just do a fixboot and fixmbr in the recovery console.

Ram is hard to diagnose sometimes, you can run memtest 86 or a variant of it like EVERYONE will suggest, but I have only 1 single time ever seen it actually detect bad ram.

I would put my money on your hard drive though, download and burn this:

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

Do the advanced test and see what it comes up with.

However I would highly suggest pulling the drive out, or booting off a live cd and backing your data up first.

I tried swapping RAM, didn't fix it. How do I backup my Hard drive? I'm not familiar with "booting off a live cd."

[bubbajan21]

OK, I used google / Wikipedia, and I now know what a live CD is. Where do I get one?

[bubbajan21]

Nevermind, I figured it out.

So, will it work if I copy the file that is missing from another XP computer and paste it where it says it is missing? Will that fix it, or will it just make things worse?

[equate975]

Download this:

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

It's a live cd for data recovery and hard drive management, it doesn't really matter what you use because it's pretty much a copy paste.

Boot that up, then on the desktop double click "mounted devices" you should get 2 windows that come up, one with folders that show all the drives, and another one listing the partitions out with a "mount" button next to all of them.

Click the mount button for each one listed, then when you open the folders you will be able to see all your files for each drive.

At that point you can just copy/paste like you were in windows. You will need something to save the files to, external hard drive, or a big flash drive. I would just copy the "Document's and Settings" folder since it should have pretty much all your info in it somewhere. It's going to be big though, so you will need an external hard drive with some space on it.

Once the copy is done, click the unmount button for each drive, and shutdown.

[equate975]

Nevermind, I figured it out.

So, will it work if I copy the file that is missing from another XP computer and paste it where it says it is missing? Will that fix it, or will it just make things worse?

Even though it says the file is missing, it may still be there. What I was saying to do is backup your data then test the hard drive with the first link I gave you. I suspect the hard drive may be going out, testing it or using it could degrade the state of the drive and lose data.

[bubbajan21]

OK, I'm downloading the Live CD right now, it estimates it will take 2 hours, but I think it will adjust that time down as it goes along (hopefully). I have a 150GB external Hard Drive, so I will back up my data onto that. After I have my data backed up, I will run the test and report back what it says.

[equate975]

Ok sounds good. Basically we want to do this.

1. Backup data
2. Test Disk
3. Repair the problem
4.????
5. Profit

Both parted magic and DFT are iso files, if you are unfamiliar with burning them I would suggest using Image Burn to do so, guide below on how to do it:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

Also after you backup the data and boot the DFT disc there are a bunch of things it will ask you. Just let all the timers count down and let it do it's thing until you get to a license agreement screen or a screen asking if the drive list is correct. I can't remember which one comes up first.

Say yes to the drive list (you should see 1 drive listed) then press 'A' for advanced test and 'S' for start. It will run through for probably 45min or so and at the end either tell you it passed or failed.

[bubbajan21]

I have backed up my data to an external hard drive. When I tried to go through the dft, everything went exactly like you said until I got to the drive list. it shows no devices. Any idea what that means? Also, while I was backing up, I checked the system32 files and the stoskrnl.exe file that it says is missing is actually missing. Maybe I can try copying it from another windows machine and pasting it there??? Will that have any negative effects, even if i doesn't fix it?

[scabzzzz]

Look man, equate is dead on the money with his diagnosis. But I can tell you from experience, your best bet is to just reformat the drive. Back up your data first with the Live CD of course like he said.
Make sure you pull the NK2 file and your mailbox PST from Outlook
(c:\documents and settings\$user$\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\$filename$.NK2)
(c:\documents and settings\$user$\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.pst)

Just reformat and start over. If you still get weird shit, replace the drive. 19 of 20 times the corruption isnt from MBR corruption like the 7B message says. Dell also uses shit drives sometimes. I use that series of Lattitude laptops often.

[Ryan Stewart]

Just reformat and start over. If you still get weird shit, replace the drive. 19 of 20 times the corruption isnt from MBR corruption like the 7B message says. Dell also uses shit drives sometimes. I use that series of Lattitude laptops often.

And drives to die. I lost one in my Latitude after 2 years. Thank god the new one is an SSD.