Boot Failure- Checks HD then restarts.

[epidemik]

Well, as you can see, my computer isnt top of the line. Okay lets be honest, its a piece of junk but i still expect it to work. Heres whats happening:

When I turn on the computer the BIOS loads fine but then it goes into that screen where you select how you want to start up (Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/Network, Normal etc.) I choose normal. It loads the "Windows XP Loading" Screen (black screen with the logo and loading bar, then normal one) but then I get a blue screen it has the XP logo in the top right corner (looks a lot like the GUI install screens but different text n such). It then precedes to use CHDSK to test the consistency my F drive. My F Drive holds about 8 games (around a gig each) and about a gig of music. First it Checks the Files, sucess, then it checks the Index, sucess, then it checks the "Security", sucess. It comes up and says a whole bunch of info about the space and one of those lines says "0 Bad Sectors". Next it flashes an all blue screen with a paragraph of white writing (too fast to read) then it restarts. The whole process takes about 10 minutes and just loops right back to the begining even though there is "0 bad sectors".

When i choose to start up in safe mode (all variations do this) it shows a whole bunch of file directories and a dos like format then stops and doesnt do anything.

Something i noticed is it didnt check the c drive with the os on it.

Whats going on and how do i fix this?

Thanks

 

[Praetor]

So what did you do before all this started?

 

[elitehacker]

Have you tried skipping the error test? it gives you 10 seconds to exit it.

 

[epidemik]

So what did you do before all this started?

Probably a hard boot. I wasnt doing any thing out of the norm with it. It was overclocked the slightest bit but it worked fine. Every now and then it would freez up and needa hard boot which is what i believe happened just before this problem.

Have you tried skipping the error test? it gives you 10 seconds to exit it.

Yes, skipping the test cause the computer to restart and fall back into the loop of doom

Thanks for the help (sorry it was in the wrong section Praetor, i didnt quite know where to put it. Thanks for doing such a a great job with this forums.)


EDIT: I made an error in the first post, safe mode has the same results as booting normally.

 

[epidemik]

Do I need to reinstall windows?

I would prefer not to but only because i would hope this problem has a quicker fix. Please notify me soon. I do not care if i need to reinstall, i would just like my computer working again.

However if i reinstall, i would like to avoid this problem in the future. Is it just that my HD is so old?

 

[Frobozz]

Do you know if you have multiple memory sticks for RAM? If so, you can try booting with only one in place, then do it again with another and keep doing it until you tried it with all of them. Maybe you have one of them that's going bad.

Other than that, you really need to get chkdsk to work on that C drive. Is it possible to stick it in another computer as the slave drive and have that computer do a chkdsk on it?

 

[epidemik]

Do you know if you have multiple memory sticks for RAM? If so, you can try booting with only one in place, then do it again with another and keep doing it until you tried it with all of them. Maybe you have one of them that's going bad.

I'll try that. Thanks

Other than that, you really need to get chkdsk to work on that C drive. Is it possible to stick it in another computer as the slave drive and have that computer do a chkdsk on it?

No sorry. Its the only PC in the house.

Thanks for the response

 

[tlarkin]

boot off you windows xp cd and hit R for recovery console. Get to the command prompt and type this

chkdsk /r

let it run its course it will take a minute then reboot and see what happens. Make sure you use the /r otherwise it won't fix anything.

 

[epidemik]

Okay thanks, Im tryint that now.

 

[epidemik]

Okay, it took probably 1/2 to 1 hour but it said it successfully fixed one or more errors.

However it didnt fix the problem. It still checks F drive (doesnt make it to C).

Im starting to think the problem is more related to the blue screen that flashes right before it shuts down. I video taped it (cause I couldnt read it fast enough) it says:

STOP:c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\Systemroot\System32\Config\SECURITY
or its log or alternate. 
It is corrupt, absent, or not write able.

Please contact tech support...(blah blah blah)

What does all this mean?
Should I post this in another section, it doesnt seem to be related to HDs (and its not getting many views in this category).

 

[Cromewell]

Try specifying the drive to scan. chkdsk c: /r

 

[tlarkin]

Okay, it took probably 1/2 to 1 hour but it said it successfully fixed one or more errors.

However it didnt fix the problem. It still checks F drive (doesnt make it to C).

Im starting to think the problem is more related to the blue screen that flashes right before it shuts down. I video taped it (cause I couldnt read it fast enough) it says:

STOP:c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\Systemroot\System32\Config\SECURITY
or its log or alternate. 
It is corrupt, absent, or not write able.

Please contact tech support...(blah blah blah)

What does all this mean?
Should I post this in another section, it doesnt seem to be related to HDs (and its not getting many views in this category).

Not certain but it looks like you may have been rooted, and then something malitious happened to your system.

from the command console you can also try this command

bootcfg /rebuild

when this utility runs you will have to choose your installation (1) and then add a few options. You should add the /fastdetect and /noexecute=optin. This utility rebuilds system files, rebuilds the boot.ini, and other essential files for the OS to load properly. Now, sometimes there are permission issues with running this command so I usually just delete the boot.ini file all together and let this utility recompile a new one. It isn't necessary but it is a cleaner way of doing this IMO. To do so, from the recovery console use these set of commands:

attrib -s c:\boot.ini
attrib -h c:\boot.ini
attrib -r c:\boot.ini
del c:\boot.ini

Once all of this is done, you can then from the C:\ prompt run a chkdsk /r

reboot your system and see what happens.