Can you run SFC from the Recovery Console on the XP Setup CD?

wrote:
John John wrote:
wrote:

John,
A bit more good news....
Just before I ran the Recovery Console to replace the olecnv32.dll,
I tried running the Repair program on the XP Setup CD again
(previously it did not recognize any Windows installs on the master
hard disc). Amazingly, after recovering the hive files, now it's
finding Windows!!! However, since Repair wasn't able to completely
fix the slave disc, I wanted to get your opinion on whether I
should run it or just keep replacing files that blue screen (after
all this, the last thing I want to do is cause more damage or data
loss on the master disc).
David

All these files showing up one after the other as damaged, missing or
with Bad Image Checksum leaves me with little other conclusion that
your hard disk and file system are in a corrupt state. Before you
continue and before you attempt to reinstall Windows you will have
to rectify this corruption problem.

Boot to the Recovery Console and run this command:

chkdsk /r

There is no sense continuing with anything else without first
addressing this potential problem. I may as well warn you that
running the command may lead to data loss, that is something that
you just have to accept, you cannot continue without doing a chkdsk
on the drive.

After you run the chkdsk reboot and see what happens. If you want to
keep on going without a reinstall then you may have to redo some of
your earlier steps again, depending on what kind of corruption might
have been present or repaired on the drive. Some of your files may
end up in nnnn .chk files on your hard disk, which then may or may
not be recoverable. That is just the way the cookie crumbles...

If after running chkdsk you still want to try to manually repair the
installation that is up to you, but at this stage I think that you
should at the least do an in-place upgrade (repair installation).

John,
I ran chkdsk /r before I ran the XP Setup CD Repair program and chkdsk
found 0 errors (previous runs of chkdsk /r always found and corrected
some number of errors).
After the successful chkdsk /r, I ran the Repair from the XP Setup CD
and it successfully completed the copy files portion of the program
(the part that runs in MSDOS mode). But when it restarted the system
in Windows gui mode to complete the Repair installation, it stopped
with this error message (though it didn't "blue screen"):

LSASS.EXE - System Error
An invalid parameter was passed to a service or function.
OK

When I clicked the OK button, the system rebooted and restarted the
Repair from the Windows gui. But it returned the same error shortly
after the Windows gui started.
Just minutes ago, I just restarted the machine from Bart's PE and was
going to try restoring the next oldest set (26 Nov) of Snapshot hive
files. Yesterday, I used the most recent (27 Nov) Snapshot set, but
that may've been the day the problems began.
What do you think?

lsass is one of the files damaged by viruses. It can be downloaded from
many places on the 'net, or, it probably resides in your i386 folder.
Replace the one in system/wherever with the one from the i386 folder and see
if that helps.

Pop`

Pop` wrote:
lsass is one of the files damaged by viruses. It can be downloaded from
many places on the 'net, or, it probably resides in your i386 folder.
Replace the one in system/wherever with the one from the i386 folder and see
if that helps.
Pop`

Pop,
Thank you for the reply.
Because the LSASS.EXE error only appeared -after- I performed a Repair
of the system (for another issue) from my XP Pro Setup CD, I doubt it's
a virus issue. Just to be sure, I just checked the datestamp on the
file and it matches all the other files in \system32 that were just
installed by the XP Repair program.
If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.

wrote:

John John wrote:

wrote:


John,
A bit more good news....
Just before I ran the Recovery Console to replace the olecnv32.dll, I
tried running the Repair program on the XP Setup CD again (previously
it did not recognize any Windows installs on the master hard disc).
Amazingly, after recovering the hive files, now it's finding Windows!!!
However, since Repair wasn't able to completely fix the slave disc, I
wanted to get your opinion on whether I should run it or just keep
replacing files that blue screen (after all this, the last thing I want
to do is cause more damage or data loss on the master disc).
David

All these files showing up one after the other as damaged, missing or
with Bad Image Checksum leaves me with little other conclusion that your
hard disk and file system are in a corrupt state. Before you continue
and before you attempt to reinstall Windows you will have to rectify
this corruption problem.

Boot to the Recovery Console and run this command:

chkdsk /r

There is no sense continuing with anything else without first addressing
this potential problem. I may as well warn you that running the command
may lead to data loss, that is something that you just have to accept,
you cannot continue without doing a chkdsk on the drive.

After you run the chkdsk reboot and see what happens. If you want to
keep on going without a reinstall then you may have to redo some of your
earlier steps again, depending on what kind of corruption might have
been present or repaired on the drive. Some of your files may end up in
nnnn .chk files on your hard disk, which then may or may not be
recoverable. That is just the way the cookie crumbles...

If after running chkdsk you still want to try to manually repair the
installation that is up to you, but at this stage I think that you
should at the least do an in-place upgrade (repair installation).


John,
I ran chkdsk /r before I ran the XP Setup CD Repair program and chkdsk
found 0 errors (previous runs of chkdsk /r always found and corrected
some number of errors).
After the successful chkdsk /r, I ran the Repair from the XP Setup CD
and it successfully completed the copy files portion of the program
(the part that runs in MSDOS mode). But when it restarted the system in
Windows gui mode to complete the Repair installation, it stopped with
this error message (though it didn't "blue screen"):

LSASS.EXE - System Error
An invalid parameter was passed to a service or function.
OK

When I clicked the OK button, the system rebooted and restarted the
Repair from the Windows gui. But it returned the same error shortly
after the Windows gui started.
Just minutes ago, I just restarted the machine from Bart's PE and was
going to try restoring the next oldest set (26 Nov) of Snapshot hive
files. Yesterday, I used the most recent (27 Nov) Snapshot set, but
that may've been the day the problems began.
What do you think?

You can give that a try.

But I think that even if this is not what you want to hear or read it is
now getting close to F-O-R-M-A-T time, as in time to clean install
Windows, bite the bullet and wipe the slate clean then do a brand new
Windows installation.

John

John John wrote:

When I clicked the OK button, the system rebooted and restarted the
Repair from the Windows gui. But it returned the same error shortly
after the Windows gui started.
Just minutes ago, I just restarted the machine from Bart's PE and was
going to try restoring the next oldest set (26 Nov) of Snapshot hive
files. Yesterday, I used the most recent (27 Nov) Snapshot set, but
that may've been the day the problems began.
What do you think?

You can give that a try.

But I think that even if this is not what you want to hear or read it is
now getting close to F-O-R-M-A-T time, as in time to clean install
Windows, bite the bullet and wipe the slate clean then do a brand new
Windows installation.


John,
I've made a bit of headway and almost there....
After doing a bit more poking around in the Snapshot folders of some of
the days prior to 27 Nov, I started to notice that some of the hive
files were 0 size. So I went back to the Snapshot folder that had
normal-sized hive files and copied those to \system32\config. Then,
after a reboot...believe it or not....Windows booted to a login screen!

I said "almost" because there are a couple of new issues: 1) the gui
looks like its running in 16 colour mode (not 16-bit, but with a total
of 16 colours); and 2) when I try to log into my usual user
account/profile, I get an error saying my user profile is corrupt and
Windows is logging me into a default profile. Ok. No biggie. So I login
as Admin, but then it says Windows needs to be Activated (again) before
I can log in completely. No problem ( pretty much expected something
like that). But after I click the YES button (to Activate Windows), it
takes me right back to the login screen again and the process keeps
repeating. So I tried clicking NO, but same thing. Grrrr...

Undeterred, I then restarting the system and tried logging in using
both the "Last known good" and Safe Mode boot options, but the result
is the same.

Oddly, though, when I got to the initial Safe Mode screen (just before
the login screen appeared), it said Windows XP Service Pack 2! Since
I'd just Repaired the system with the original (pre-Service Pack 1)
Setup CD, I expected to see it back to the default XP Pro version. I
don't know if that tells you anything, but at this point, it's clear
that I'm close to getting the system back to normal if I can get past
the Activate screen.

wrote:
John John wrote:


When I clicked the OK button, the system rebooted and restarted the
Repair from the Windows gui. But it returned the same error shortly
after the Windows gui started.
Just minutes ago, I just restarted the machine from Bart's PE and was
going to try restoring the next oldest set (26 Nov) of Snapshot hive
files. Yesterday, I used the most recent (27 Nov) Snapshot set, but
that may've been the day the problems began.
What do you think?


You can give that a try.

But I think that even if this is not what you want to hear or read it is
now getting close to F-O-R-M-A-T time, as in time to clean install
Windows, bite the bullet and wipe the slate clean then do a brand new
Windows installation.



John,
I've made a bit of headway and almost there....
After doing a bit more poking around in the Snapshot folders of some of
the days prior to 27 Nov, I started to notice that some of the hive
files were 0 size. So I went back to the Snapshot folder that had
normal-sized hive files and copied those to \system32\config. Then,
after a reboot...believe it or not....Windows booted to a login screen!

I said "almost" because there are a couple of new issues: 1) the gui
looks like its running in 16 colour mode (not 16-bit, but with a total
of 16 colours); and 2) when I try to log into my usual user
account/profile, I get an error saying my user profile is corrupt and
Windows is logging me into a default profile. Ok. No biggie. So I login
as Admin, but then it says Windows needs to be Activated (again) before
I can log in completely. No problem ( pretty much expected something
like that). But after I click the YES button (to Activate Windows), it
takes me right back to the login screen again and the process keeps
repeating. So I tried clicking NO, but same thing. Grrrr...

Undeterred, I then restarting the system and tried logging in using
both the "Last known good" and Safe Mode boot options, but the result
is the same.

Oddly, though, when I got to the initial Safe Mode screen (just before
the login screen appeared), it said Windows XP Service Pack 2! Since
I'd just Repaired the system with the original (pre-Service Pack 1)
Setup CD, I expected to see it back to the default XP Pro version. I
don't know if that tells you anything, but at this point, it's clear
that I'm close to getting the system back to normal if I can get past
the Activate screen.

You certainly are persistent! I certainly have to give you credit for
your dogged determination, its quite interesting to see the different
twist and turns that you report with every post that you make!

If you can boot the computer to Safe-Mode with Command Prompt you might
just be lucky enough to be able to start System Restore from there and
try to restore the installation to a previous stable state.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/

However, avoid rolling back to when you had the RAID controller and
RAID-1 setup in place, doing so may send Windows in an 0x7b blue screen
boot error as you are no longer using the RAID controller.

John

John John wrote:
You certainly are persistent! I certainly have to give you credit for
your dogged determination, its quite interesting to see the different
twist and turns that you report with every post that you make!

John,
Thanks. There're two things I've learned in the years of doing battle
with Windows: persistance and doggedness usually pays off, and getting
Windows to run (when it doesn't want to) is like playing chutes and
ladders.



If you can boot the computer to Safe-Mode with Command Prompt you might
just be lucky enough to be able to start System Restore from there and
try to restore the installation to a previous stable state.

Actually, I'm logged into Safe Mode (as Admin) right now!
The system's running but acting a bit weird around the edges. The
System applet in Control Panel reports the OS as XP Pro 2002 (not
Service Pack 2). Also, I got an error about gdiplus.dll being "not a
valid windows image....check this against your installation diskette".
Seconds later, I got an error saying there was a problem with Explorer
and it had to close, which it did. Then, 30 seconds later, the "You are
running in Safe Mode" box popped up again...I clicked OK and Explorer
opened and was fine for about 10-15 minutes, when the Explorer error
popped up again and then the cycle repeated 30 secs later....
So I decided to reinstall Service Pack 2, which is currently
"Inspecting my current configuration". It says it's "Inspecting", but
the details box is empty and I see very little hard drive activity.
Any suggestions?

wrote:
John John wrote:

You certainly are persistent! I certainly have to give you credit for
your dogged determination, its quite interesting to see the different
twist and turns that you report with every post that you make!


John,
Thanks. There're two things I've learned in the years of doing battle
with Windows: persistance and doggedness usually pays off, and getting
Windows to run (when it doesn't want to) is like playing chutes and
ladders.




If you can boot the computer to Safe-Mode with Command Prompt you might
just be lucky enough to be able to start System Restore from there and
try to restore the installation to a previous stable state.


Actually, I'm logged into Safe Mode (as Admin) right now!
The system's running but acting a bit weird around the edges. The
System applet in Control Panel reports the OS as XP Pro 2002 (not
Service Pack 2). Also, I got an error about gdiplus.dll being "not a
valid windows image....check this against your installation diskette".
Seconds later, I got an error saying there was a problem with Explorer
and it had to close, which it did. Then, 30 seconds later, the "You are
running in Safe Mode" box popped up again...I clicked OK and Explorer
opened and was fine for about 10-15 minutes, when the Explorer error
popped up again and then the cycle repeated 30 secs later....
So I decided to reinstall Service Pack 2, which is currently
"Inspecting my current configuration". It says it's "Inspecting", but
the details box is empty and I see very little hard drive activity.
Any suggestions?

When you did the repair installation you should have used your SP2
slipstreamed cd. It's a bit of an unexpected turn of event that you
ended up being able to install SP1 over top of SP2, usually when you try
that you get a message telling you that the version of Windows that you
are attempting to install is older than the target installation and the
setup doesn't allow you to continue. That in itself tells us a great
deal on how badly damaged the installation was. What you have now is a
mix of mismatched files that are unlikely to work very well with one
another. I think that using System Restore to try to bring the
installation back to a previous cohesive working state is probably the
best option to try.

John