Reboot Loop - Afraid to start XP recovery disk

[jackmccarron]

I'm in a reboot loop. Right after the windows start screen a BSOD appears with "autochk program not found....". That dsiplays for a couple seconds and then reboot starts again.
Same behavior in safe mode. Fatal sys error is 0xc0000022.

When i put my recovery disk in and try to boot from that I get a RED SCREEN WARNING that proceeding will reformat my entire hard drive.

What I'm looking for is the Recovery Console so I can continue to debug. The red warning makes me wonder if I don't have the right recovery disk. (It is for my machine, and says Recovery DVD #1, System Disk.) But I don't want to reformat YET - that would be my final option.

If I proceed with my recovery disk will I be presented with the option for Recovery Console instead of just jumping right into a reformat???? I just want to be sure before I tell it to go ahead.

Any hints on how to fix the "autochk pgm not found" issue?

Toshiba Satellite laptop, winXP, SP3 updated.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[G0AOZ]

What you need is a proper INSTALLATION CD for your system, either HOME or PRO. Your COA sticker will tell you which it is. The Recovery CD will probably only give you a restoration back to manufacturer's defaults, i.e. like when the machine was new. Running this will lose all programmes, data, MS patches and security updates installed BY YOU.

The error you're getting might relate to a harddrive disk problem.

Do you have all your important data backed up? If not, that should be your first priority. To back up now with a non-working system, you'll need to take the drive out of the machine and attach it as a secondary drive to a working PC.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[jackmccarron]

Thanks, G0AOZ. Since all I have is two laptop pcs, it may not be easy to attach the suspect hard drive to my other one. Suggestions?

Meanwhile, I thot I'd try to download (from my other laptop) a DOS boot disk (know of any good free ones?) so I can run my bad machine in DOS. Then I should be able to run chkdsk on it. Won't that tell me if the HD is ok? Also i can look for the "missing" autochk program which I think is in windows/system32. Is that correct? I suspect it may not be a missing file, but some other issue that prevents the system from finding it.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to do while in DOS. Suggestions?

Thanks,
Jack

 

[linney]

The hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.

You might be able to make use of BartPE (a mini XP self contained on a bootable CD and run from CD) which includes virus scanners via plugins. It will give you the ability to run ChkDsk and also to save data to USB or other Network drives.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

See if you can borrow an XP CD and load the Recovery Console. Get this loaded and Run ChkDsk /r to fix any errors on your drive. If you can't access a CD see the later articles.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

These will get you an option to load the Recovery Console, but you may have the problem of converting Floppies into a bootable CD.

310994 - Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310994&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

You will have some access if you can load the XP Recovery Console onto the machine.




There are several pages in this link.

autochk.exe not found

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic7746.html

 

[jackmccarron]

Hi linney - Thanks for the info. I found a site that generates the Recovery Console direct to CD rather than all the floppies and then converting them to CD.

I ran this but after loading many files, it just comes up with a blue screen saying "a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage" blah, blah. Rebooting and rerunning just loops. tech info: STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x0000000). Does this give you any hints?

Trying now to make a BartPE, but only have a VISTA machine to do it on - so I don't know if it will work. I'll try putting the XP recovery discs in the vista drive to see if the bartpe builder can find and use the files from the disks. Hope so.

Still haven't found a useable DOS boot disc! Found a couple I downloaded but they didn't work or couldn't get them burned on a cd. Most want to write to floppies (no have).

Thanks again.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
See if anything here is relevant and helpful:

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156593

Or

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103

Or

http://www.jvfconsulting.com/blog/1...Blue_Screen_During_Install_Of_Windows_XP.html

They mostly all relate to the SATA setup of yur HDD





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[linney]

BartPE doesn't care what operating system you have, it brings its' own with him. It can be created on any Windows operating system that can burn CD's.

Can you supply the link for the Setup boot files and the Recovery Console created on CD instead of Floppy (for use if no XP CD)? When you downloaded such files did you ensure that they matched your Service Pack level, or were at least at SP 2 level?

Is your hard drive being recognized in the Bios? Not to state the obvious but you have some awful problem with your hard drive to get those type of errors. Hard drives don't last for ever, have you tried the manufacturer's diagnostics too? Their check will be more thorough than any ChkDsk.

Try setting the Bios to its' Safe Defaults too.

 

[jackmccarron]

The latest process for generating the BartPE disks does not work with Vista (the only other machine I have), so I can't go that way right now.

I'll try to get back to the link for making the Recovery CD. I've closed those links already. Will let you know if I find them. In any case I tried making the Recovery CD with the Vista machine and it didn't work.

Yes, my hard drive is being recognized in the BIOS. Also now have a DOS boot CD that shows C drive directory structure is ok. So I think the HD itself is fine - just some kind of permissions problem preventing reading of the system files.

See new related post dated 10/22, XP Permissions Fiasco - Please help!

 

[linney]

Does BartPE work (in Vista) if you right-click on the program and select the "Run As Administrator" option? It does require an XP CD to grab files from in order to create the final bootable CD. This might be a problem for you?

There are several alternatives mentioned here.

FREE: BartPE – A Windows PE-based rescue platform

http://4sysops.com/archives/free-bartpe-a-windows-pe-based-rescue-platform/

As you mention DOS and seeing that it shows some life in the C: Directory, does that mean your file format is FAT32 instead of the more usual NTFS? If that was the case any Permissions problems might be out of the window if you are FAT32?

Can you convert these to CD with some burning software?

HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP(Q305595)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q314/0/79.asp

 

[goombawaho]

You can build a BartPE CD on any kind of machine as long as you access to the files on an XP CD-ROM. It doesn't take the files from the host computer's OS.

 

[jackmccarron]

Thanks guys - I tried making a BartPE disk on my vista machine. I put my XP "recovery disks" in the vista drive, but when the pebuilder did it's scan for system files it didn't see those disks.

Even starting it in run admin, couldn't get it recognize the files on my cd/dvd drive.

Regarding seeing my xp c drive from DOS, the dos cd i'm using recognizes NTFS as well as FAT drives.

Thanks for the suggestions,
Jack

 

[goombawaho]

You have to have an actual XP install CD and not a recovery disk that is provided by a manufacturer. For example, a windows cd has only the operating system on it.

The manufacturer's rescue/recovery CD (DVD) may have everything on it that shipped with the PC - extra free programs and junk that they pre-install. This type of CD may not have the format to be able to produce a BARTPE cd.