Momopi, Urgent! Boot problems, blue screen, paging file

Post by **Winston** » August 28th, 2011, 2:47 am

Momopi,
I've had some serious problems lately with my laptop.

First, when I came back home, I downloaded two Windows Vista updates and after I restarted, it created an infinite reboot loop where it would say that it's configuring the updates, but then shut down and restart. Even when I booted in safe mode, same thing happened! There seemed to be no way out of it! I never knew that downloading windows updates could ruin your windows like that and put it into an infinite reboot loop that could not be broken! Sheesh. I was frustrated in disbelief! I had no system restore points either. So I inserted my Vista installation CD and booted from there, but it could not repair the problem. I was at a dead end.

So I went to an internet cafe and Googled the problem. Apparently, there is an easy fix in DOS that stops this infinite reboot loop.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-Vist ... 8933.shtml

It worked, fortunately, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

But right after that, all sorts of problems began to emerge. I kept getting a blue screen with a message that said "page fault in nonpaged area error" and a memory dump. I had no idea what to do about that. So I did some system maintenance. But every time I used the diskcheck, it would show a ton of orphan file records and also some messages about "file record segment xxxxx is unreadable" and then the disk check would stop after that.

What's going on?!

Furthermore, when I booted in safe mode to do more system scans, I found that my Windows had turned off the paging file of its virtual memory. But to my dismay, every time I tried to switch it on or set it to system managed size, it would reset back to "no paging file" again right after I closed the system settings box! WTF is going on?! Why does the paging file keep turning itself off?!

Could the paging file being turned off account for the blue screen? And what is that message during disk check about orphan file records and unreadable file record segments?! Did the failed windows update cause this? I went to add/remove programs but could not find a way to uninstall the last windows update, cause it didn't even show in the selection.

Will reinstalling windows fix this problem? Or is my hard drive wearing out? How do I know if it's a problem with windows or the hard drive itself?

Thanks for any help.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » August 28th, 2011, 8:43 am

At this point, the amount of time it'd take the fix the problems is not worth the effort. I'd recover whatever data files you need, then reformat the drive and reinstall the OS. Now may be a good time to upgrade to Windows 7.

In the future, you should make disk image backups. So if this kind of stuff ever happens again, you can just restore via disk image.

Post by **Winston** » August 28th, 2011, 7:34 pm

I guess that's the logical thing to do, reformat and reinstall windows, and if the hard drive is still busted, then I have to replace the hard drive.

Should I reformat from dos or from the windows vista installation disk?

How do I make an image of the hard drive? What software or hardware would I need to do that? I do have an external hard drive now. Can I use that to do it?

odbo · Post by **odbo** » August 28th, 2011, 7:44 pm

momopi · Post by **momopi** » August 29th, 2011, 8:05 am

Winston wrote:I guess that's the logical thing to do, reformat and reinstall windows, and if the hard drive is still busted, then I have to replace the hard drive.
Should I reformat from dos or from the windows vista installation disk?
How do I make an image of the hard drive? What software or hardware would I need to do that? I do have an external hard drive now. Can I use that to do it?

The chance of your HDD being bad is pretty slim. It does happen but not that often. You can use Vista or XP disc to reformat the HDD. But if I were you, I'd just upgrade to Windows 7 at this point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di ... g_software

The requirements and capabilities for disk imaging software varies. Grab a few and play with them to see if you like one more than another. We use Ghost at work.

Post by **Winston** » August 30th, 2011, 1:28 am

But my disk check keeps saying that some file record segments are unreadable. And today when I was doing the full disk scan to repair bad sectors, after it repaired some bad clusters, it ended with, "Second NTFS boot sector is unreadable". If parts of my hard drive are unreadable, doesn't that indicate that it's damaged?

I heard that disk check can make magnetic repairs, but not physical repairs, to your hard drive. What does that mean?

How do I know if there is physical damage to my hard drive?

Windows 7 is expensive and I don't want to use pirated versions. I have friends that have it that I could get it from if I wanted to. Vista has usually worked fine for me though.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » August 30th, 2011, 12:52 pm

Winston wrote:But my disk check keeps saying that some file record segments are unreadable. And today when I was doing the full disk scan to repair bad sectors, after it repaired some bad clusters, it ended with, "Second NTFS boot sector is unreadable". If parts of my hard drive are unreadable, doesn't that indicate that it's damaged?
I heard that disk check can make magnetic repairs, but not physical repairs, to your hard drive. What does that mean?
How do I know if there is physical damage to my hard drive?
Windows 7 is expensive and I don't want to use pirated versions. I have friends that have it that I could get it from if I wanted to. Vista has usually worked fine for me though.

Check your HDD's make and model, and see if you can find a disk format utility from the manufactuer:

IBM(Hitachi)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDis ... /index.htm

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

Physical problems on a HDD is like if your drive's bearings is going out. No amount of formatting and reformatting will fix that. But in the unlikely event that the drive is bad, replacement 2.5" HDD's can be had for <$100 USD.

Post by **Winston** » August 30th, 2011, 8:23 pm

Hi Momopi,
I'm at an internet cafe now. Last night I used the installation disk to format the hard drive and reinstall windows. After that, everything worked fine. I did all the diagnostic scans and memory tests again, and this time no errors were report, and no "unreadable sectors" either.

So it looks like the problem may have been software related. But why would certain sectors be unreadable?

However, the only problem now is that my internet doesn't work and my sound doesn't work through the portable speakers either. When I asked it to diagnose the problem, it said that my network adapter was not configured properly. But my device manager said that my network adapter driver was working fine. And my sound driver was ok too.

So what can I do to fix the sound and wireless connection?

Thanks.

Post by **Winston** » August 31st, 2011, 6:45 am

Well I solved the problem. I found the drivers CD that came with my laptop. On it was software that made the wireless work. I also got the sound to work by tinkering with the two speakers under sound control until the computer routed the sound to the speakers rather than to its internal speaker.

So far, after reinstalling windows, my computer has been working like brand new again. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.

E_Irizarry · Post by **E_Irizarry** » August 31st, 2011, 7:38 am

Winston wrote:Hi Momopi,
I'm at an internet cafe now. Last night I used the installation disk to format the hard drive and reinstall windows. After that, everything worked fine. I did all the diagnostic scans and memory tests again, and this time no errors were report, and no "unreadable sectors" either.

So it looks like the problem may have been software related. But why would certain sectors be unreadable?

However, the only problem now is that my internet doesn't work and my sound doesn't work through the portable speakers either. When I asked it to diagnose the problem, it said that my network adapter was not configured properly. But my device manager said that my network adapter driver was working fine. And my sound driver was ok too.

So what can I do to fix the sound and wireless connection?

Thanks.

Why don't you run a CHKDSK /B? It specifies in fixing NTFS-formatted partitioned drives for bad sectors.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » August 31st, 2011, 8:08 pm

You probably had some file corruptions. After reinstalling the OS, and drivers make sure you take an image/snapshot of the drive for backup.