Win2K3 died and keeps rebooting. Can't reinstall.

[POSAPAY]

I've got a Windows 2003 Server with Exchange 2003.
It ran for 1 month before developping this problem.

One day just started rebooting, without ever reaching the login screen, or even desktop background to be displayed.

I tried the Win2003 server dvd: booted from it, tried recovery.. received error.
Tried repartitioning, and reinstalling, and received an error after it copied all necessary files to the hard drive.

the error is:
STOP 0x0000007e (0xc0000005, 0xf72ddc76, 0xf791e920, 0xf791e570)

According to Microsoft Knowledgebase, it is a hardware RAID controller issue.

BUT.. I don't have a RAID controller. Just one IDE hard drive 120GB from Magnetic Data Technologies.

I tried to reinstall, but same error.

Is it my hard drive being bad? motherboard? memory?

I replaced the memory with a different brand memory (KingstonPC2700), but still received same error.


The mother board supports SATA, thou I don't have any SATA drives, just a few EIDE drives here handy.

What can the problem be? What can I do to narrow down the possible failures?

Is it hardware? is it software?

I'm stuck again.
-Peter

 

[fs483]

So you tried the RAM, next try the HD, then the power supply. Sounds like hardware issue but you never know !

 

[jtb]

Can you say Virus? You've described a symptom of the Blaster Worm...

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

I knew you could...

JTB
Have Certs, Will Travel
"A knight without armour in a [cyber] land."

 

[POSAPAY]

jtb, I read all notes on that blaster virus, and perhaps it could have been it.

But, how come I get the same error now, that I have formatted the harddrive, and attempted to reinstall win2003.
I haven't even connected it to the ethernet cable yet. Just got power and the installation dvd.

hardware(expensive) to me seems like a more likely issue, even thou I wish it was just software(cheaper to fix).

thanks for your input, I will scan my backed up data for the virus thou.
-Peter

 

[POSAPAY]

Just a quick update on this issue in case it helps anyone in the future:

I bought a new harddrive, and since this motherboard supports SATA, and I only had EIDE drive on this before, I got Barracuda 120GB SATA drive.

Got same results as before when installing.

I became suspect of the installation DVD, and got my hands on a different Windows 2003 installer dvd.
This one worked fine.

So to my resolution to be: be ware of possible errors on a Win2K3 installer DVD!!

Regards,
-Peter