Windows XP fatal boot error :(

[Owmen]

Hi ppl! Again, i come for help..

This has been a really busy and tormented last 2 weeks, besides some personal problems, i also have my pcs acting crazy.
A few days ago i had a Windows Millennium problem, wich i didnt manage to solve and had to re-install it again (nihil check ur PM later), and now i have a more serious problem in hands.

Here goes: 2 days ago, i woke up at 7am and turn off the PC because the free download time i have from my ISP finishs at 7am (1am to 7am) - then when i got home around 2pm i turn it on again, and surprise surprise.. - "The following files are missing or corrupt C:\windows\system32\config\system - try to repair them using windows CD chosing R blábláblá" u know the rest. OK, that was weird and anoying, but cause i had time and also i had in mind doing a clean format for a while, i didnt pay much attention to it and re-installed XP.
I finnished the Installation yesterday, and today, when i turned of the PC and turn it back on again this afternoon, the same message appeared (((((

The machine is a PIII 800Hz, RivaTNT 2 32Mb and the hardrive is a Seagate ST340810A 40GB. It has 2 partitions, one that i use for Backup wich is full now, and the other with 24Gb +/- that i use for the windows Partition.

The OS is Win XP Pro (English version) with SP2.

I only had the following programs installed, Visual C++ 6, DevPascal, Macromedia DreamweaverMX, Flash MX, Winrar, WinISO, PHP 4, Mysql, IIS, Messenger (the latest version from MSN.com) Mirc (latest from Mirc.com) and later on this night i installed the latest Nvidia Drivers. Thats all i can remember.

Can anyone help me out?

I dont mind re-installing windows (again in only 1 day) but i whant to know the problem, what have caused it or what, cause i dont whant it to happen again

Is it the SP2? Virus/worm? The hardrive??

At this moment im with my fathers machine and its much older and has XP Pro has well with SP2 and has no problems at all.

And for last, i made several scandisks to the drive, from this machine using Norton Utilities, windows CHKSDK etc..and it says evrything is okay.. i dont understand.

Thanx ppl, cheers 2 u all!

[SirDice]

Did you do a surfacescan with scandisk or chkdsk with the "check for bad blocks/sectors" option? If one of them finds any bad sectors, replace the harddrive.

[Owmen]

i dont remember if the scandisk was with that option, im gonna check it out now.

[Owmen]

Well, i did all i can (in my point of view).

Here are the results of the CHKDSK scan and the results of the Seagate Online Tests:

By order:

S.M.A.R.T

Short Scan

Long Scan

CHKDSK

I really dont know what i can do anymore, because all these tests "tell-me" that my hardrive is okay, right?

I have to fix this or re-install windows very soon cause when my father gets home he´s gonna need the network operational.

Cheers

[Owmen]

This post replay is for evryone who checked this thread and didnt replay it because

a) didnt knew any solution

b) didnt knew anything new to say that it was already said..

c) both a and b lol - kidding

Okay, here is the step by step solution that worked for me..

I started by make a backup of the things i whanted of course, to the H backup partition i have on this hardrive, the easyest way is if you have a spare machine, to connect the hardrive to it and backup the data that way, and at the same time make a more profound avaliation of its state of health.

Next move after the backup was to re-part the partition and re-formart that partition, this time making sure there were no errors during and after the format, making after that a checkup with the scandisk and the tools of (in this case) seagate, that can be found at www.seagate.com

Installing windows XP shouldnt be a problem for evryone these days, so i´ll skip this step.

After the instalation is complete and after previously downloaded the latest security upgrades from microsoft (LASS fix, SP1 etc..), i aplyed the patchs BEFORE any internet or intranet connection.
After that a complete system scan with (in my case of course) Mcfee Antivirus "cause i just think its faster and less intrusive than Norton, specialy in more old machines, like my case".
And now, here is the thing, i installed only SP1 with all security updates avaiable without SP2.
I dont know, and in this matter im not gonna talk much cause its not a thing i know 2 much about but, i only had these problems with XP SP2 security patch, soo..i didnt aplied this time.

After this, and a few minutes surfing the web, installing several programs i use, M$ Visual C++ 6, Office 2003, Winrar, Macromedia Studio MX, Photoshop CS, WinISO, Nero Ultra 6 and Alcohol 120% 1.4.9 and a few games, Starcraft, Warcraft I and II..i had the machine, exactly like the day before, only cuting off the SP2.

Shut down the machine..
Power on..passed all the tests, and no errors messages..
Reboot, and no error messages..
Shut down for a long period of time (2 hours) and no error messages..
Power on, and making a normal use of the machine, documents, web, gameplay, movies..and after shutting down again and reboot..no error messages..

After all this i made the same hardrive tests, exaustive Scandisk test, Seagate tests, and nothing, no errors were reported.
Checked the partitions with Partition Magic 8 and evrything is normal, also checked the system with Norton Utilities 2004 and found 0 errors..

Wich means, that the machine seams to be UP and running very well.
No drivers problems, no conflict problems, IRQs etc etc..evrything is normal.

Final conclusion, was just a glitch from windows registry? hum, a weird error? or..SP2?
I really dont know, but with this configuration evrything seams to be running smooth.

And for a final touch, here are 2 important links from the M$ wich are important to understand how to fix and understand a bit more about these (aparently) common ? errors..

http://search.microsoft.com/search/r...onfig%5csystem

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

Cheers to evryone !!!

P.s im no expert, but i tried and in my case, what i did worked for me..so the M$ sites may be alot more important than my ""tutorial""..

[SirDice]

It's good to hear it finally works

As for trying to find the cause....I've had a lot of weird problems.....took me days trying to figure it out...I usually end up reinstalling everything from scratch...otherwise it would take forever.....I can probably get it working after a lot of fiddeling but sometimes I need to get some work done

[Owmen]

Yeah, normaly when these type of errors occour we tend most likley to re-format and make a clean install, the only thing that this time was annoying me was that, the latest windows instalation had last only 1 day lol..if it had occured a few months forward, probably i wouldnt had much trouble finding the cause.. format c: and voilá..

But when u already have a good windows instalation, alot of programs instaled and a few other tweaks..it kinda suc** have to re-install evrything.

But well, windows XP at least last longer than the others M$ OS´s so...1 year +/- normal time of use of XP before serious errors occour its not bad..

Cheers!!!