bizzybody
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Or if it will even be able to do anything at all.
Making things worse is the CD-ROM drive is apparently dead in it. Spins but never detects a disc, so I'd have to scrounge up a drive just to try booting with an XP CD to run chkdsk. I don't have any spares laying about. Perhaps I'll see if the customer wants to buy a somewhat newer Dell I have with a DVD-ROM, CD-RW, larger hard drive and better video.
Save me the time of a full install and I can copy over her files I salvaged.0 -
boot to XP recovery console (using an xp cd) then do chkdsk /p /r and it should fix the problem
Will that work with both MFT copies corrupted? When I connected the drive to a working system it tried to run chkdsk on it during boot but couldn't.
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I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 40 I've been holding onto for some years. It's problem is it apparently lost its firmware, BIOS either sees it as a 9 gig MILLENNIUM or not at all and it clanks the heads back and forth. PCB is marked TNT V-3. I've searched several times for firmware, utilities etc for Maxtor drives, found stuff for just about every series *except* the Millennium.
The data on it is old, likely nothing on it I need anymore, but for a long time every so often I'd go looking for something... "It was on the Maxtor, dammit." Nothing on it was ever worth the $$$$$$$$ to send it in for recovery, but it'd be interesting for my own personal history to be able to at least see what's on it after several years, might even be something useful on it I've forgotten. I'm fairly certain it's FAT32, I don't recall if I had this drive in a Windows 2000 system.
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I have a hp compaq slimline box in the shop with XP Pro SP3. Had a malware infestation which I cleaned up then updated Windows, Norton etc. Did my usual three reboots and other tests to ensure it was all working 100%.
Customer takes it home and shortly calls back saying it's not working so I go out there and sure 'nuff it's a BSOD no mountable volume. Back at the shop it won't even do that much. (Oh joy, worse than the time a fresh 2000 setup decided to blow up its User Hive on the first boot for a customer after behaving perfectly in the shop, and never another problem again after reinstalling everything. Ran perfectly for years.)
TestDisk says both boot sectors are OK but both MFTs are corrupt. Fortunately it's only a partly full 40 gig so I can use a utility to find all the files and folders to copy to another drive. It looks like 100% of everything is still there, folders and files. There appears to be one spot with some error I have to tell it to ignore so it'll go ahead with copying. It's not able to make an image of the drive because of that.
Is there a way to just rebuild the MFT *in place* so the box can be booted with some other utility disc to run scans, repair etc? Or alternatively, do a full format then copy everything back and get it to boot? Of course being an hp compaq d530s there ain't a recovery disc, which if there was would wipe all the user files and software.
If the bad spot doesn't contain critical files, then the *easiest* thing to do would be to reconstruct the MFT then set the dirty bit so XP will do a chkdsk at boot, zorch the corrupt file(s) and get on with things, assuming there's a recovery utility which can do that. THEN I could connect an external drive and do a full backup which can be restored to a fresh XP install, possibly on a new drive if the original is failing.
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This is in reference to the Windows Update Automatic Update client. I would think it might help (in not reinstalling) to download the Windows Update Agent appropriate to what you are working with and run it with /WUFORCE - this would replace the files.
Yeah, I tried that but as soon as I went online the malware replaced wuauclt.exe and the error message popped up again.
Is there some sort of watchdog app that can be set to guard a file and report what process tries to run/replace/alter the file?
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I couldn't come up with any utility that could find where the malware replacing the wuauclt.exe file was hiding, so I wiped it and did a clean install. The box was only used for some older games so not a big deal but it is irritating that whichever a-hole created whatever the malware on it was is so bleeping good at causing trouble.
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XP Pro SP3. Can't access Windows Update or Microsoft Update, apparently due to wuauclt.exe being replaced by some trojan or other malware.
It has Avast 5 on it, it's been fully scanned with that, latest Malware Bytes and Spybot S&D and Avira and AVG offline CDs. Comes up 100% clean on everything I've tried. Same story with yanking the power cord then booting with an offline scan CD, still 100% "clean". That usually works to kill critical parts of stealth malware, stopping it from launching and hiding so the rest can be cleaned after a normal boot.
I also tried booting with a CD and replacing the wuauclt.exe with a known good copy from another PC. Soon as I tried going to the Microsoft Update site it started the wuauclt.exe error popup again. Apparently the malware replaced the executable again but Windows' security functions aren't allowing the trojan to access the net.
System File Checker finds nothing wrong. The latest Windows Update Agent refuses to install because it's already installed. Is there a way to force it to reinstall?
Stopping the automatic updates service from a command prompt stops the error popup. Restarting the service gets the popup going again. Looks like this malware successfully masquerades as a valid service, until it tries to access the net.
I do not want to have to wipe and reinstall just to kill one stinking malware process.
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First I thought you were talking about a different tablet device, you know, the hyped ones
.So, it's a drawing tablet, I see. I used them 18 years ago for CAD applications, for just a year or so. Great that they still use the same chip for later model and different brand ones, I wonder if Genius uses the same chip also. Any way, happy for you that you have your new "toy" running after years.
I used to have a bigger Calcomp RS232 tablet, sold under the name CIC Handwriter. It was originally sold with windows 3.1x handwriting recognition software, which didn't require pressure sensitivity, so the pen's tip was just on/off. With newer Calcomp drivers it worked great 98SE. I tried to find a pen for it with pressure sensing but any pens by themselves were priced higher than what a new Calcomp or Wacom tablet that size cost new. I guess everyone with excess old Calcomp pens liked them too much to part with them.
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I bought a Cool-iCam CI-285 tablet for $15 on closeout a few years ago, never used it much because the last available drivers didn't work too well with XP. I dug it out yesterday to give it another try and of course ran into the same old problems.
I took the back off and found the main chip, made by Hynix but got zilch on searches for anything printed on it.
So I decided to try an experiment to see if the action of it could be improved. The grid in it is a flexible circuit much like in cheap keyboards and it didn't lay flat. The top case has a bunch of raised ribs and there's 16 pins that go through holes in the grid, which is held in place by little chunks of clear tubing.
The problem is the pin and hole spacing don't exactly match. Turns out that craft foam is exactly the thickness of those ribs, and I just happened to have a sheet. I cut pieces to fill all the spaces where the active area is. I finished it off with a sheet of bubble wrap with 16 holes punched to fit over the tube pieces. The overall action of it is much smoother with the grid mashed somewhat closer to flat VS being all lumpy.
But still the drivers were lousy. Cutting to the chase (after a long time of fruitless searching) I ran Unknown Device Identifier from Halfdone Development and it identified the tablet as a UC-Logic Technology Tablet WP3525 and a WP8060. One device, two ID's???
I expected a search for UC-Logic to lead to another dead company but <Gomer Pyle>Sur-prise! Sur-prise! Sur-prise!</Gomer Pyle> UC-Logic is alive and well and even better they still make tablets and they have drivers for XP, XP64, Vista, Windows 7 and OS X.
And best of all for me, the driver supports the Cool-iCam CI-285. *sitting down happy dance*But wait, there's more. I'm pretty certain the old driver only supported 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. This driver does 512. Oooooyeah. Who needs a friking Wacom? Just did some doodling in PhotoShop and it works great.
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HP DV4308WM laptop. Factory install of XP Home SP2, updated to SP3 and all current updates.
The keyboard has decided it's suddenly not going to work, but a USB desktop keyboard does. One possible fix I found was to show hidden devices in device manager then delete KBoard and reboot.
KBoard is missing in device manager. I've already tried deleting the normal keyboard entry and rebooting. It found the keyboard and installed the driver, but still doesn't work.
Next step, run SFC /scannow It says it needs to replace some system files and wants the XP Professional SP3 CD-ROM. Hewlett Packard only provided a restore disc that puts back on XP Home SP2 plus a ton of shovelware. SFC rejects it. Next I try a XP Pro CD I've slipstreamed to SP3. SFC rejects that and demands a disc with the WXPFPP_EN volume lable. So I whip up an XP HOME SP3 disc with the XP PRO volume label. Nope! SFC rejects that one too.
So two questions.
1. Why is System File Checker for XP HOME asking for an XP PROFESSIONAL CD?
2. How do I force it to accept the XP Home SP3 CD?
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I have a program I want to package into an installer so that it can be easily uninstalled.
It has two folders with files that have to go into specific paths under Program Files or in 64bit Windows into the 32bit Program Files plus one file that has to go into windows\system32
The program will run on any Windows from 98 through 7, possibly even 95, so I want to be able to install/uninstall to them all.
I also have a .reg file that puts everything else required into the Registry.
I've looked at Nullsoft and isetup. Neither can simply take an existing .reg file and work with it. Phooey. Translating from the Microsoft .reg standard to proprietary scripting commands is too much work.
What can do Put *this* folder and contents *there*, put *this other* folder and contents *there too*, put *this file* in %systemroot%\system32 then merge a 15 kilobyte program.reg and add whatever is required to cleanly uninstall using the default uninstall management of whichever version of Windows it's been installed on.
No customization options are required. I could do this install with a batch file but removing the entries from the Registry would be a problem.
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I did the files and settings transfer wizard in Vista Ultimate when upgrading from an 80 gig to a 500 gig in my laptop. That brought most things over but not get everything.
Now there's large amounts of the C: partition on the old drive which Windows won't let me access. How do I reset permissions on everything on the old drive to give Everyone full control? I don't care if that would make it unusable to boot from, I'm just going to erase it all after I get the files I need.
Nothing is compressed or password protected or encrypted, so using such brute force methods won't cause problems.
I've tried the Take Ownership registry hack. That'll work on one folder at a time, but some things I need to go digging around in have many subfolders several levels deep. Take Ownership also doesn't work on all folders. There's some it just won't do a thing to.
Gaining access to everything but the recycle bin folders and System Volume Information is what I need to do.
IIRC, I could set up a PC and install ye olde XP original release and wouldn't have this problem. But that's a bit of overkill just to go spelunking around in my old hard drive contents.
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The current WSUS Offline 3.3.6.1 no longer has the option to get the updates for Office 2000. So I dug around and found 3.3.0.0 which does Office 2000, but doesn't get updates for as many things as the current version.
I've downloaded just Office 2000 stuff with the older version, the current version is churning away at grabbing *everything* for English versions of everything it downloads updates for.
What I want to do is somehow integrate the O2K updates with the current WSUS Offline so when I have it make DVD images the installer will update Office 2000 same as it will everything else. Even better would be to fix the current version to download the O2K updates, or in this case copy the files to the right places so the current version will find them and add them to the disc images.
Just because Microsoft is no longer updating Office 2000 is no reason for WSUS Offline to ignore it. People still use it, just like people still use Windows 2000.
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Finally figured it out. CRC error in the software hive. The file could not be overwritten or copied, but it could be deleted.
Fortunately the system has a ton of Restore points so I was able to delete the corrupt file and manually replace it with the one from the latest restore point.
Very fortunately this wasn't one of those times when Windows decides to protect a corrupted file like a mother grizzly bear guarding her cubs. Won't allow it to be deleted, renamed, moved or changed no matter what. Not even Unlocker could touch such bad files. Done there, been that, nuked and paved just to kill one corrupted file.
Why oh why isn't Windows set up to delete and copy from backup as a fallback when an error prevents *over write*? Delete and copy is effectively the same thing.
At least it's fixed and I can get on to checking for malware etc.
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I've 28 years experience working with PCs and other computers. Never have seen anything like this* where XP is having an identity crisis, claiming to be NT Workstation and not able to complete bootup.
I bet you haven't either, and don't know a way to fix it short of wiping it and doing a clean install. The most likely "fix" for it will be recovering files then doing a clean install. That's my last resort. I much prefer to get Windows working then do cleanup and repair, update drivers, BIOS, Windows Updates etc. everything to the latest.
*I have seen something worse, where some nut installed some beta Netware 4.1x updates on a production Netware 4.0 server. The company fired that person and hired me to try to fix it. Not even Novell Certified Netware Engineers sent directly from Netware HQ had a clue. The company refused to take our (mine and the Novell guys') strong suggestion that the quickest and least expensive solution would be to backup the critical data, do a clean install of Netware 4.11 and a second license to upgrade the old server to 4.11. When Netware is so screwed up that it's not allowing the Administrator account to create or modify user accounts, it's FUBAR.
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I have a PC in the shop that will not boot using any option on the menu.
If it could boot up, I wouldn't be posting the question here, eh? I'd like to be able to get into it to somehow set whatever is required to make it run SFC at boot, if it's making it far enough to do that before it resets itself.
If that can't be done, then some way to see what System Restore points, if any, are available. It'd have to be a utility that ignores Windows' identifying its version incorrectly.
Otherwise it's hooking the drive to another PC then nuke and pave time.
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I have a PC in the shop that will not boot using any option on the menu. It displays the XP booting screen for a while, then the monitor goes black and it resets itself.
I've tried Hiren's and DaRT 5.0. Hiren's says it's not XP and DaRT claims the installed OS is Windows NT Workstation. None of the utilities on either for using system restore will work.
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I've a client with Windows 7 Home Premium. The default IE8 search provider is stuck on Google. Others can be added and deleted but the default cannot be changed from Google.
Every time IE8 is launched it says a program has corrupted the search providers and it's changing the default to Google.
I've spent hours searching for a fix but some people keep posting fixes for XP or higher versions of 7 that do not work with 7 Home Premium or lower due to the lack of Group Policy Editor and other things. One commonly posted XP registry fix for this invloves adding a key that already exists in 7.
So, what've you for WINDOWS SEVEN HOME PREMIUM to fix this problem with IE8?
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No, they're not DOS games.
It would be nice is Win 7 would pop up something that says why it won't allow those games to run, rather than doing nothing at all. With all the other changes made to make Win 7 newbie friendly (and all the things removed to make it annoying to people with 27+ years computer experience) this total nothing quietness doesn't fit that theme.
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A client wants several older games from GameHouse on her new Win7 64 bit Home Premium box. The games install with no complaints but they will not launch. Nothing at all happens. I've tried every option under compatibility, including running with administrator rights.
What has to happen the first time is a dialog box opens to enter the registered user name and code. Apparently that wants to do something Win 7 won't allow to happen, and it's not giving out any clues about what the problem is.
A couple of the games are Super Collapse II and Super MahJong Solitaire.
Fortunately, I've had no problem with equally old games from PopCap on Win7. Put about a dozen of those on, no difference from installing on anything back to Win98. Hooray for forward compatibility.
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I booted the old system with Microsoft DaRT 5.0 and attached to the Win XP Home install (which DaRT claims is XP Pro, DaRT 5 was ERD Commander) and was able to access everything. I copied the files to be saved to a USB external drive then reset their permissions and removed any read only attribute.
That worked, but it's not something a person should have to do just to convince Win 7 that files exist. How do we grab MS by the lapels and get them to fix this issue?
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Got everything critical moved from XP to 7 except for the owner's Thunderbird profile and data.
I can boot the XP system with DaRT 5 or Hiren's, or if I must I can dig out an old iMac and connect the old drive by USB to it.
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The drive is directly connected to the Windows 7 PC, not by a network. I tried putting the old drive back in its original PC but it's having problems booting.
I booted the old system with Microsoft DaRT 5.0 and attached to the Win XP Home install (which DaRT claims is XP Pro, DaRT 5 was ERD Commander) and was able to access everything. I copied the files to be saved to a USB external drive then reset their permissions and removed any read only attribute.
Next step is to see if Win 7 will still insist some of the files are/aren't there or if it claims I need Administrator rights to copy them.
I'm hoping Microsoft doesn't wait until Service Pack 1 to fix this.
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I'm trying to copy a bunch of files from a hard drive from an XP system to a new box with Windows 7 Home Premium. Well for unknown reasons Win 7 is claiming some of the files on the old drive don't exist at all even though it shows them and displays their size and properties etc.
But it will not open them or copy them, claims they don't exist. They were NOT compressed or password protected on XP, they're just various downloads, documents and pictures and they're just in folders directly under C:\
Looks like Microsoft has stirred Schroedinger's Cat into Windows 7. The files are there but simultaneously not there, according to Win 7.
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Save me the time of a full install and I can copy over her files I salvaged.
And best of all for me, the driver supports the Cool-iCam CI-285. *sitting down happy dance*
Any way of rebuilding a corrupt MFT?
in Windows XP
Posted
Here's an analogy. Getting both copies of the MFT trashed is like taking a library card catalog and knocking it over.
The way all the recovery apps work would be like having to burn the existing card catalog, take all the books out of the library (copy off the files), re-arrange all the shelves (reformat the drive) then re-catalog the books as they're put back on the new shelves (copy the files back).
Would be so much simpler to have the option to *try* and put the cards back in the drawers by locating all the books where they are on the existing shelves. If some of the files are *really* trashed or cannot be found at all, or if there's a hard error on the drive, well, nothing lost but the time and convenience saved by being able to do an in-place restoration (picking up the cards and re-filing) - just go the route of copying off the files that can be saved.