Computer not booting

[200820]

One of our computers is not booting to windows, it gets to the splash screen & then reboots. I have entered the setup utility and can't see an option to disable auto-reboot.

When I loaded into the recovery console and ran chkdsk it returned the error 'the volume appears to have one or more unrecoverable errors'

At the minute I'm running the hard drive DPS but any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Nelviticus]

DPS? Not sure what that means. But if the drive has unrecoverable errors you need to salvage as much data as you can by putting it in another machine as a second drive (or in an external caddy), then get a new drive for your broken machine and re-build it.

The only way I know of to disable auto-reboots is via System Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery, but you can only get to that when Windows has loaded.

Nelviticus

 

[200820]

It's the drive protection system which is a drive self test built into the hard drive.

I think it will need a new hard drive but want to exhaust all other possibilties before doing this, there are no post errors & the computer will also not boot into any of the safe modes.

 

[Nelviticus]

If it can be read fine without errors in another PC then it's probably a disk controller error, but if another PC sees errors too it's a file system problem, either soft (just corrupted data) or hard (faults with the drive). If the DPS doesn't fix it then maybe you can run checkdisk on it when it's a second drive in another machine.

Nelviticus

 

[200820]

The DPS passed so I then put the drive into a 2nd computer & the drive can be read from the 2nd computer. I have ran chkdsk/f on it from the other computer with it returning no problems.

I am now running sfc/scannow as I think it may be corrupt system files.

Surely if it's an IDE drive then the controller is built into the hard drive?

 

[Nelviticus]

OK then, revise my terminology from 'disk controller error' to 'fault in the part of the motherboard that interfaces with the drive'.

It's just the fact that you're getting 'the volume appears to have one or more unrecoverable errors' messages that worries me, as your test in a second PC seems to show that's not the case.

Are you running sfc/scannow on the original machine? I believe it runs against the system boot drive, so if you run it on your second PC it will be scanning/fixing that PC's boot drive rather than the dodgy drive. I could be wrong.

Nelviticus

 

[200820]

ok forget about the disk controller, I still have the hard drive in the second computer and have managed to make it boot & can log on although it refuses to load the desktop & is running the add new hardware wizard for the usb keyboard and mouse.

Even when i try to run explorer.exe from task manager the desktop will not load, the start button appears for a split second then disappears.

When I first log on the error 'cannot find installer for volume' appears.

Really just want to get the desktop to load at the minute.

 

[Nelviticus]

Unless PC#2 has identical hardware to PC#1 you'd have problems booting it from PC#1's hard drive even if it didn't have any errors - Windows isn't designed to be moved from machine to machine like that. Many low-level drivers are installed when the OS is installed, so when a system drive is used in a different machine it'll look for some hardware that's not there and encounter other hardware that it doesn't have drivers for.

If it's getting as far as you say I'd put it back in the original PC and continue repairs from there. It sounds as though it's now at least readable.

If you don't get anywhere you'll probably save yourself a lot of time by putting it in PC#2 as a second drive, copying off any important data, then putting it back in PC#1 and re-installing Windows after a full format.

Nelviticus

 

[200820]

Both Pc's are the same model so I think they have the same hardware.

I will move it back to PC#1 again but for some reason it will not even get to the logon screen on this PC.

If I copy off the data & reinstall the operating system will I lose all of the programs that are installed as there is an accounts package which is on it & if we lose it we have to get a seperate company out to reinstall, hence why I'm trying every other option before doing this

 

[Nelviticus]

Aha - yes, reinstalling Windows will mean you'll need to reinstall your applications.

Do your PCs get backed up, as in, full system backup? I'm guessing not but if they do you could just restore a backup.

If the two PCs are identical you should be able to repair it in either of them, at worst if you do get it fixed on a different PC Windows might think it needs to be re-activated.

I'm out of further ideas I'm afraid.

Nelviticus

 

[200820]

No not full system backups just my documents.

When I put it back into PC#1 I got a Bsod saying Page_fault_in_nonpaged_area so I replaced the RAM & it let me logon but still no desktop

 

[azpctech01]

I have seen this happen before..several times in the environment that I work. Typically it is the hard drive that goes bad. Find a good diagnostic software that will test it for you. If tests come back passing then boot into the recovery console and run chkdsk/p Hope it helps

It's been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies."

 

[200820]

I gave up on getting the desktop to load & went with a full re-install, everything seems to be working fine...so far!

Thanks for everyone's help