Help! Boot up problems

[mikey_dude]

Hi, I am working on an XP machine which originally lost a system file. I restored this and all worked fine.

The owner of the PC somehow put two other options on the boot menu when booting up: Windows XP Pro (the one we want), previous OS (XP Pro before it went wrong) and XP Setup. I edited the boot.ini file to read just the first OS. Thats no problem, but I had to edit boot.ini in dos as its not present in the root drive.

The PC otherwise works OK except it shows scandisk everytime it boots up.

What would you suggest?

Cheers

[andyms18a]

hi mikey_dude
have you let scandisk finish ? as until you do it keeps coming back on every startup

[stylin19]

This MS article might apply.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp


good luck

[mikey_dude]

Yes, I let it finish every time but it takes ages..... and nothing is ever found. Also I get the occasional blue screen with error 0x0000008E (tested with several sticks of memory - same thing).

I am also unable to get into safe mode and now a Radeon graphics driver failed to install and is hanging.

[mikey_dude]

I done a scan from a win ME boot disk and it has found that several files are cross-linked and a lot of files contain invalid data.

How come? A virus maybe? I done a virus scan with the latest defs but it found nothing. I done a scan with Adaware and it didn't find much either......

Looks like the only option is to reformat and reinstall XP?!

[stylin19]

generally, cross-linked files are a result of a bad shutdown.

It sounds like your original problem ( lost system file) might have been a bad registry.

MS also has an article re: the chkdsk on restart as being caused by a bad registry hive and/or HP equipment.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

you might be able to use a WinXp Installation CD to do a repair.
Here's info on that, that might apply:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

your reformat and reinstall sure sounds like the the last best option( though one always hate to lose personal data..especially a client's)

good luck

[mikey_dude]

Hi there,

Thanks for your replies.

I have formatted the drive but did manage to back up 5cds worth of data. Wow!

Now, I ran the Maxtor diagnostic test on the drive and it came up with an error with an error code. I do a thorough test and it tells me it fixed the error and all is well.

I restart and run diags and the error is back. It says it fixes it and all is well. Until I try it again.

Strange or what. Should I get the drive replaced as I've got the error code or is there a way I can fix this before reinstalling the OS?

Cheers

[mikey_dude]

The error code is not accepted by Maxtor. I guess I'll go ahead and install XP.

Thanks for all your help.

[mikey_dude]

Just to update, I swapped out the drive and it seems to be ok so far. So I guess the Maxtor drive was at fault but its not giving any error codes.....

Cheers for all your help, useful as always.