Computer stuck in reboot loop - urgent help needed! karma to helpers

2010-09-23 00:03:20

#1

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

G'day techies of bf2s, I am in urgent need of help.

Ive been having troubles lately, my start-up times are ~5-7 minutes, 'My Computer' not responding when opened, among various other things. Just recently I recieved notification of a very severe virus attack on my computer, which Norton 360 said it managed to fix. I thought nothing of it, until I tried booting up this morning. The computer loads until after the windows loading screen, whereupon after, it crashes and restarts. It does this each time.

I Googled the symptoms, and it appears there may be corrupted windows files. I tried following the steps outlined here (about halfway down), but can only get to step 2. Whenever I type in 'cd system32', it says 'the path or file specified is not valid'. Ive tried using two different installer disks, and also tried each cd slot in the machine.
When I type 'chkdsk', it says 'the volume contains one or more unrecoverable problem'. Does this mean I am now unable to load windows?
Is there something I am doing wrong? Or is there some other way to repair windows?

It would be wasteful to reformat the C drive with so much data on it, as I have files I do not wish to erase. However if I am unable to repair, would I be able to recover the files from C anyway?

Karma to all helpers.
TIA

noice

https://static.bf2s.com/files/user/26774/awsmsanta.png

2010-09-23 00:12:52

#2

13urnzz: Banned; +5,830|6755

there's always a way to recover data, if rescuing windows fails. make the disk a slave in a machine that windows is working in.
in the meantime, system32 isn't gone or windows wouldn't load - the folder practically is windows.

if you're that far along, i'll recommend this;

http://www.informationweek.com/news/win … =189400897

i've saved a couple of windows' installs this way . . .

2010-09-23 00:45:50

#3

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

I followed those steps, but it seems once I got beyond page 1, I had an extra step that said that partition 1 is too full blah blah. I could only reinstall, and not choose to repair, even though I pressed enter and f8 and went through the steps before. It also said that the partition was listed to be ~131000mb, with 131000mb free... kinda implying its all been deleted...

noice

2010-09-23 00:48:50

#4

13urnzz: Banned; +5,830|6755

from a DOS prompt, type in c:\chkdsk /mbr.

then do it again ( i don't know why twice, i just know it works). sounds like the bug got into you Master Boot Record - the OS doesn't know which sectors have been written to.

2010-09-23 00:52:06

#5

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

should I do that in the 'repair' option when the cd first loads?

noice

2010-09-23 00:54:42

#6

13urnzz: Banned; +5,830|6755

get to a dos prompt - i usually use a windows 98 cd - i don't recall if the repair option allows you to get to a prompt . . .

2010-09-23 00:54:45

#7

tazz.: oz.; +1,338|6432|Sydney | ♥

IMO, it sounds like your hard drive has gone to shit.

To check, you can use seatools: http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp … 17EURO.ISO

buy a new hard drive, install whatever on it, hook the old one up as a secondary drive, and pray u can still read from it.

Oh btw, you can always do a live CD to backup data. --> Ubuntu.

Last edited by tazz. (2010-09-23 00:56:37)

^{everything i write is a ramble and should not be taken seriously.... _{seriously. ♥}}

2010-09-23 01:02:55

#8

Ultrafunkula: Hector: Ding, ding, ding, ding...; +1,975|6731|6 6 4 oh, I forget

Mine went into a slightly similar loop but wanted to boot in safe mode. Had a horrible noise too. No recovery or re-installation tools worked. The one month old drive just went to shit. Once I get a few hundred extra I'm gonna buy a 2x1Tb media server and set them to screen eachother nonstop so if either one of them goes bang, I can just replace it without the fear of losing all the data.

2010-09-23 01:05:52

#9

tazz.: oz.; +1,338|6432|Sydney | ♥

Ultrafunkula wrote:
Mine went into a slightly similar loop but wanted to boot in safe mode. Had a horrible noise too. No recovery or re-installation tools worked. The one month old drive just went to shit. Once I get a few hundred extra I'm gonna buy a 2x1Tb media server and set them to screen eachother nonstop so if either one of them goes bang, I can just replace it without the fear of losing all the data.

heh... i have a 4TB LVM ( 2tb, 1tb, 1tb)

If one fails, i'm completely fucked.

^{everything i write is a ramble and should not be taken seriously.... _{seriously. ♥}}

2010-09-23 01:11:39

#10

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

burnzz: I tried typing it into the recovery console on my xp disk (since its XP im trying to get back), and have no such luck.

tazz: fuck. i'll check it out. cheers.
tazz: didnt work...I think its incompatable or something.

Last edited by KuSTaV (2010-09-23 01:36:01)

noice

2010-09-23 02:14:07

#11

Little BaBy JESUS: m8; +394|6406|'straya

So you obviously can't boot into safe mode?

Otherwise, put drive in another computer, copy data onto HDD/external, format drive, install windows again.

Should work

2010-09-23 02:57:58

#12

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

Little BaBy JESUS wrote:
So you obviously can't boot into safe mode?

Otherwise, put drive in another computer, copy data onto HDD/external, format drive, install windows again.

Should work

Correct. It doesnt load safe mode fully.

I think its time for a reinstall.

noice

2010-09-23 04:21:10

#13

killer21: Because f*ck you that's why.; +400|6848|Reisterstown, MD

If you do a repair instead of reinstall, your data saved on the hard drive will be intact. The hard drive, itself, is not damaged. You need to do a repair of windows if chkdsk /fixmbr or chkdsk /r and/or /f doesn't work for you.

Edit: oh shi- Completely jacked that up...fixed.

Last edited by killer21 (2010-09-23 09:07:27)

2010-09-23 04:51:27

#14

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

I tried but couldnt seem to get the CD to allow me to 'repair' it. I could only reformat the C drive once in the setup windows configuration window.

noice

2010-09-23 04:57:47

#15

killer21: Because f*ck you that's why.; +400|6848|Reisterstown, MD

KuSTaV wrote:
I tried but couldnt seem to get the CD to allow me to 'repair' it. I could only reformat the C drive once in the setup windows configuration window.

You get an error message when you try and do a repair in the windows config screen?

Last edited by killer21 (2010-09-23 04:58:11)

2010-09-23 05:12:19

#16

tazz.: oz.; +1,338|6432|Sydney | ♥

killer21 wrote:
If you do a repair instead of reinstall, your data saved on the hard drive will be intact. The hard drive, itself, is not damaged. You need to do a repair of windows if chkdsk /mbr or chkdsk /r and/or /f doesn't work for you.

chkdisk can be an indication that the disk is infact faulty.

... It comes up after windows fails to boot, what.. 3 times?

... this can be due to the user hard restarting after the system fails due to not being able to read from the disk, yes?

honestly kustav. i did this years ago.

1hard drive for your shit, and then you can nuke your OS whenever it starts getting a real bish.

.. only pain is backing up games..

^{everything i write is a ramble and should not be taken seriously.... _{seriously. ♥}}

2010-09-23 05:14:46

#17

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

Oh no. You know how you go through the steps as if you were to reformat the hard drive, but instead select the repair option? I think its after you agree to the terms of service or something. On the screen following, where there should be an option to repair, I only have the option to reformat... I think the bios or something else is detecting that there is 100% free space on the hard drives partition (about 131000mb total), and that windows doesnt exist on it, so my only option on that screen is to reformat.

noice

2010-09-23 08:55:48

#18

steelie34: pub hero!; +603|6639|the land of bourbon

chkdsk /fixmbr

and

chkdsk /fixboot

may be of some use to you.

https://bf3s.com/sigs/36e1d9e36ae924048a933db90fb05bb247fe315e.png

2010-09-23 20:01:11

#19

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

Steelie, I tried those and both times I got:
" The parameter is not valid. Try /? for help."

I dont think I can do those commands because Im using XP, and Ive looked around and everywhere else says that I can only do /p and /r.

noice

2010-09-23 23:42:52

#20

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

Okay, I tried reformatting on one other hard drive. Completed the initial process where the files were copied from the cd, and the computer restarted, as usual. However, upon starting up again, it restarts and continues looping. I thought this might be due to the hard drive being relatively old and may not be in good condition.
So I tried reformatting the C partition on the hard drive that was failing, and the same thing happened. Each time after startup, the computer resets and loops again.

Do you think there may be an issue with some other form of hardware?

noice

2010-09-23 23:50:35

#21

tazz.: oz.; +1,338|6432|Sydney | ♥

Can you boot into a live CD?

^{everything i write is a ramble and should not be taken seriously.... _{seriously. ♥}}

2010-09-24 00:01:38

#22

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

I dont know what that is.

noice

2010-09-24 01:17:07

#23

tazz.: oz.; +1,338|6432|Sydney | ♥

You could try this

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- … -computer/

^{everything i write is a ramble and should not be taken seriously.... _{seriously. ♥}}

2010-09-24 01:20:50

#24

KuSTaV: noice; +947|6769|Gold Coast

Oh cool thanks, I'll check it out.

noice

2010-09-24 01:38:46

#25

Catbox: forgiveness; +505|6974

you can take the drive out of the computer and hook it up to another computer.
Then copy all the files you want to save onto the other computer.
You can also run a chkdsk while you have your messed up hard drive attached to the other computer.
Also do you have a gigabyte board?

Love is the answer

BF2S Forums Computer stuck in reboot loop - urgent help needed! karma to helpers

Ultrafunkula wrote:

Little BaBy JESUS wrote:

KuSTaV wrote:

killer21 wrote:

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