Windows XP Start up Failure

[Geno333]

I made a Recovery DVD (2 discs) for this machine.  The PC is now failing to start up.  When I use the recovery disc the screen shows three options: R for standard PC Recovery Options; F to format the hard drive and reinstall with all data lost; and Q to quit menu.

When I choose R, I am taken to a screen “Compaq PC Recovery” that says it will “recover PC should you experience PC failure or instability”.  It also says it works “from a dedicated recovery portion of my hard drive”.  Seeing that, I’m wondering what my recovery disc is doing if anything.  When I enter “OK”, a box comes up saying “The section IDA_CREATE_USER_U does not contain a valid dialog template.  When I hit “OK” on this I’m taken to a blue screen empty except for “Restore” in the bottom left corner.  It does nothing for a few minutes, then goes back to the black screen with the three choices; R, F or Q that I started with.

If I remove the Recovery disc and restart the PC It goes to a black screen with the choices: Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt; Last Known Good Configuration and Start Windows Normally.  I have tried all of these choices with no good results. If I do nothing the cursor sits on “Start Windows Normally” counts down 30 seconds, attempts to startup but then cycles back to the same screen and continues to recycle.

When I change the initial start-up option from “Microsoft Windows XP” tor “Microsoft Windows Recovery Console” I get a blue screen saying “A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME”  with some suggestions including pressing F8 on a restart.  Also at the end of the blue screen: ***STOP:  OxOOOOOOED  (Ox82ABAD80, OxCOOOO14F, OxOOOOOOOO, OxOOOOOOOO). The computer is frozen here and I have to press the on button to shut it down.        

When I push F8 on restart I get a Windows Advanced Options Menu with 12 choices.  I have tried them all with no good results, including “Last known good configuration” and “disable automatic restart”

 I thought I would be able to use my Recovery Disc to boot my computer and repair whatever is wrong with it but I’m not sure that the Recovery Disc is even working.

Can you advise me in any way based on the error messages I’ve received and the steps I’ve taken as listed?

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

Possibilities include a Failed Hard Disk, a Failed CMOS/RTC battery.

If you went with F8 command prompt and ran a diskchecker it may help.

chkdsk /?

scandisk /?

[Geno333]

Thanks for your reply and suggestions.  I have been unable to obtain a command prompt throughout this process. If I press F8 and request safe mode with command prompt I have to choose either "Windows XP Home Edition" or "Windows Recovery Console".  The first takes me back to "Start Windows Normally"and the

restart loop.  The second takes me to the blue screen with the "Unmountable Boot Volume" message and the other information mentioned previously.

My intention has always been to check and hopefully repair the start up sequence. I understand it could also be a hardware problem like the hard drive failing.  Because I can't seem to access the command prompt I'm at the limit of my capabilities addressing this problem. 

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

Well you are posting, so if it is another PC you are using, then there are a lot of repair disks out there....

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

https://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/krd18

http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

[Geno333]

Thanks again LilBoyBlue.  I went with the Hirens as it seemed generally pretty well thought of.  I spent many hours and burned four different iso DVD's using different methods but no success!  Still keep getting an error message (my comments in brackets): Recovery/Your PCDevice needs to be repaired/There isn't enough memory available to create a ramdisk device (don't know what this is about, I dont need any memory from the messed up computer)/Error code 0xc0000017/You'll need to use recovery tools.(what I thought I was doing!)/If you don't have any installation media like a disc or USB contact your PC administrator or PC device manufacturer(good luck with a 14 year old XP machine)/Press enter to try again(nothing happens)/Press F8 for startup Settings(nothing happens).  Frustrating as I thought I was using the best available fix.  On Tuesday I'm going to price what it would cost for a commercial data recovery place. Again frustrating after spending a lot of time on this.  In any event thank-you for your suggestions!         

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

The CD/DVD runs in RAM and does need some spare, so...

I would use this, as it needs 258 MB of ram, I have the larger version installed on this PC.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/18.04/release/lubuntu-18.04-alternate-i386.iso

The expanded image goes onto a CD/DVD and you boot from it and it takes several minutes for a desktop to appear.

Then you look for file manager and your XP drive to copy off your data.

[Geno333]

Hello again Lil Boy Blue,

I get it now about my RAM being too small to run some of the discs.  In addition to the Hirens, I also tried the Kapersky which was also too large.  My machine should have 512MB of RAM and apparently only 382MB is free.

The Ubuntu looked like it was going somewhere but when I tried to Rescue a Broken System in Rescue Mode, I chose /dev/sda1 for my first (only) hard drive for executing a shell on the root file system.  In return I got the message "No usable shell found in target file system" which sounds ominous (also I previously asked Ubuntu to boot hard disc and it answered back "boot failed"). I also had no luck with executing a shell in the installer environment.

I think I got closest with loading a dvd of UltimateBootCD.  In the menus I went to HDD and requested Data Recovery and PhotoRec 7.0 which is supposed to launch Parted Magic which should allow me to recover lost files (video, documents, archives, etc) by going to System Tools / Photo Rec.  I couldn't run it from my RAM (again too small) but I could run it from the Live option.  I got to the Parted Magic menu but saw nothing about System Tools / Photo Rec.  HOWEVER if I choose  Partition Image / Backup and Restore Disk Partitions, I'm taken to a menu that asks me to pick a partition to save/restore!  One of the choices is my hard drive "sda 1 fat32 5.41GB". I'm also asked to input the Image file to create/use in letters/numbers.  I'm past the limit of my knowledge here and I don't know how to choose my hard drive, how to designate it as the file to create/use and how to save it , say to a USB.  I think I might need to know some DOS?  Whatever I had is there no longer!       

I think I might be close to recovering my hard drive data but for my shortcomings.  I would very much appreciate any suggestions you might have.  Cheers - Geno333 

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

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@Geno333 wrote:

Hello again Lil Boy Blue,

I get it now about my RAM being too small to run some of the discs.  In addition to the Hirens, I also tried the Kapersky which was also too large.  My machine should have 512MB of RAM and apparently only 382MB is free.

The Ubuntu looked like it was going somewhere but when I tried to Rescue a Broken System in Rescue Mode, I chose /dev/sda1 for my first (only) hard drive for executing a shell on the root file system.  In return I got the message "No usable shell found in target file system" which sounds ominous (also I previously asked Ubuntu to boot hard disc and it answered back "boot failed"). I also had no luck with executing a shell in the installer environment.

I think I got closest with loading a dvd of UltimateBootCD.  In the menus I went to HDD and requested Data Recovery and PhotoRec 7.0 which is supposed to launch Parted Magic which should allow me to recover lost files (video, documents, archives, etc) by going to System Tools / Photo Rec.  I couldn't run it from my RAM (again too small) but I could run it from the Live option.  I got to the Parted Magic menu but saw nothing about System Tools / Photo Rec.  HOWEVER if I choose  Partition Image / Backup and Restore Disk Partitions, I'm taken to a menu that asks me to pick a partition to save/restore!  One of the choices is my hard drive "sda 1 fat32 5.41GB". I'm also asked to input the Image file to create/use in letters/numbers.  I'm past the limit of my knowledge here and I don't know how to choose my hard drive, how to designate it as the file to create/use and how to save it , say to a USB.  I think I might need to know some DOS?  Whatever I had is there no longer!       

I think I might be close to recovering my hard drive data but for my shortcomings.  I would very much appreciate any suggestions you might have.  Cheers - Geno333 

---

Away from home currently, hope to help soon.

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

So I think a RAM upgrade is unlikely, but a replacement HDD and install XP onto that.

Then add in the old HDD and see if it is readable.

If so XCOPY would be my choice.

Maybe something here...

https://techlog360.com/best-lightweight-linux-distributions/

Knoppix  --probably the best thing since sliced bread.

The tool to try is Gparted

With GParted you can resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss, enabling you to:

• Grow or shrink your C: drive
• Create space for new operating systems
• Attempt data rescue from lost partitions

Slax Linux —  doesn’t require installation, it runs directly from your USB flash drive.

Minimum system requirements for Slax Linux:  48 MB of RAM

If in doubt please ask.