Start up problems

[MrCoffee]

assuming there is something wrong with the boot sector you might try the fixboot command from the recovery console.

Do you run antivirus?

 

[Ech0]

well im running ewido right now. thats the only program i have on this cmoputer for virus protection

 

[MrCoffee]

have you done a full scan since the problem started?

I doubt its a virus but its worth checking. I'm guessing you have a corrupted device driver, try doing a step by step boot and see where it fallsdown.

 

[Ech0]

I havent done a full scan in quite some time mainly because I havent done much of a variety on my computer. i would usually go just aim, play games, and surf the web. Yesterday I installed several games but they were all that my friend had so I doubt it could be the programs. I did however have a surge problem a while back that corrupted some files on my hard drive. My assumption was that if data was being written to those corrupted sectors, that it might be messing it up but I dont know enough about hardware, let alone hard drive errors to know for sure.

 

[MrCoffee]

yes if you have corrupted/bad sectors on your harddrive problems like this can occur. Run error checking (with autofix) for the drive then do a logged boot, if it still doesnt load take a look in ntbotlog.txt in the windows folder.

 

[Ech0]

How do I run the autofix?


Ewido found a bunch of files. Mostly cookies but some spyware. I'm going to try booting normally once more just to see if it made a difference.

 

[MrCoffee]

go into the properties of your drive (right click > context menu > properties) select the tools tab then click checknow and check the boxes for fix filesystem and recove badsector.

 

[Ech0]

i remember doing this i think and i got a BSOD

 

[MrCoffee]

you got a BSOD doing the drive scan? oh dear, did it happen straight away or mid scan?

i'm sure theres a way to make the scan run on reboot before windows kicks in but I don't have an XP machine infront of me at the mo. That might be worth a try.

If you dont have any important data on this drive you might want to format it.

I also sugest you go to your drive manufacturers web site and see if there is a diagnostic utility you can use, running something of the sort is often a requirement before you can RMA a drive (assuming you're in warrenty) and that might be where we're headed. Anyway if there is a hardware problem with the drive such a utility will pick it up.

in the mean time you could check the SMART status of the drive, I can't remember how to do this from windows (like I said i'm not using XP right now) but I think everest can give you a SMART readout.

 

[Ech0]

well using everest i found my hard drive is a Hitachi Deskstar 7k250 SATA

the website says they dont offer seperate drives since they apparently are imbedded into the operating system