A challenging resurrection of a non-starting XP Pro SP2

[LucLinh]

Not sure whether this is the right forum, but as Ghost experts you guys may know how to solve the problem.

This will be a long writing (and reading), but it's the only way to give you the right picture of the problem.

I have a XP who has decided to pass away last week. I must resurrect it EXACTLY AS IT WAS at the time it died, and the "REPAIR" from the installation CD isn't an option (I've already tried it, and the results aren't quite good).

My PC actually has 2 machines living inside the case. Each one starts from its own HD and both are running XP Pro SP2 OS.

XP installation 1 - I'll call it "XP-Daily" - is the most used. Its purpose is daily usage such Internet, VoIP (Skype), office usage (I work from home), downloads and all sort of needs one would have from a PC.

XP installation 2 - say "XP-Video" - is only used for video and photo editing, DVD editing and authoring.

I don't know if I should provide the hardware specs. If so, please let me know.

One month ago I cloned the whole HD1 where "XP-Daily" is (primary and all logical partitions) into a spare HD. Recovering from this clone isn't a good path as well, due I'd be loosing all changes made over last weeeks on the system.

Last week I was downloading a plug in from Shutterfly ( ShutterflyPluginInstall.exe at www.shutterfly.com/downloads/install_pl.jsp?pl=win_nn&d=1) and had it installed into "XP-Daily" in order to be able to upload photos in bulk. Once installation was completed I switched the PC off and moved to "XP-Video" to edit some photos. After a while I stopped for dinner and left the PC idling for almost 1 hour. Returning to desk it was

just in time to notice the PC was re-starting itself while, watching the screen and wondering the reason for that, I saw CHKDSK running at start up and making lots of changes on the disks. Some files being changed were boot.ini and autoexec.bat, and messages were sort of some kind of invalid cross reference (not sure very well as I had no time to write down any of it). But I do remember there were a lot of invalid files found by CHKDSK and its final message was that CHKDSK had made changes to the system's files.

After that, the "XP-Daily" stopped booting, at a black screen with message :

File BOOT.INI is invalid

Starting from C:\Windows\

Here is worth to mention the "other" "XP-Video" was fully functional and by booting from it I have access to the whole HD where the damaged "XP-Daily" is installed, including the primary partition.

Then, from "XP-Video", I created a BOOT.INI file at C:\Windows\ in "XP-Daily". This got thru the black screen just to stop at a BLUE screen with the message :

STOP : c0000135

Unable to locate components. This application could not be started due KERNEL32.dll is missing.

Re-installing the application may fix the problem.

I went back to XP-Video and copied KERNEL32.dll at C:\Windows\ in "XP-Daily". This just changed the message on the blue screen to say this time it was WINSRV the missing one. At this point, once again back to "XP-Video", I renamed SYTEM32 folder and copied it all from the cloned disk. This worked and got thru the BSOD, but now it is stopping at XP blue screen that is similar to the Welcome screen (where the user accounts should be, with darker blue stripes at the top and bottom of the screen, and a light blue in the middle, with XP logo in the middle of the screen), but there is no user account to start from and the XP won't go further. Neither mouse or keyboard works, nothing happens, and the only option is switching it off on the Power button.

The problem is that a lot of things has happened during September, lots of changes has been made to the system settings, files has been edited, added, etc, so just restoring the 1 month old cloned HD won't get me to where I need.

I reckon there is a good chance to fix "XP-Daily", by using the proper files that only care about the start-up process, without loosing all the personal settings already done over the OS during last months. I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS - actually, I'M NOT SURE if this is possible.

What I would like to know is if there is someone out there who knows how to retrieve from the clone copy only the system's files to make the dead "XP-Daily" to start again. My hope is that it would be possible repairing the damaged XP by using the right system's files from the clone instead using it totally ( what would then make me loose all settings change and application updates I've made over the last month).

Thank you for reading up to here, and lots of thanks for those who can point me the right path to follow.

Edited October 11, 2006 by LucLinh

[allen2]

You said you have a ghost of your daily hd. Try to restore from the ghost the boot.ini files. Then you might need to restore other system files from this ghost image.

[TheFlash428]

Well, it sounds like Windows it totally hosed on your "daily" HD. I don't know if anyone here has any advice on repairing the files, but it sounds like it may be too late for that (I'm not sure...).

One question I have is, why so reluctant to restore from an earlier time or rebuild altogether? The fact that you have access to the files on the HD after booting into the "video" HD, means that you should be able to back up any files that may have been changed. Apps may have to be re-installed, so I'm not sure if that is an issue, but if it's just a matter of saving some type of system settings, I or someone else here might be able to tell you how to restore that as well once the hard-drive has been reimaged.

I am sometimes surprised by how often people are so reluctant to restore or rebuild their OS, especially if they are able to back up thier files ahead of time. Like I said, unless you have apps installed and no longer have the media to restore them (which, technically, even they can be backed up and restored).

I keep my XP CD up to date using NLite and update packs, integrate the drivers for my system, and if I have a problem with my system I can just pop it in and go--so much easier in my opinion then fighting with a corrupt OS and giving myself countless headaches.

[LucLinh]

You said you have a ghost of your daily hd. Try to restore from the ghost the boot.ini files. Then you might need to restore other system files from this ghost image.

Have already done this and still no good. It continues stopping at the same spot.

The "other system files" are the real problem as I have no idea which ones I should restore. Can you help?

Thanks.

[LucLinh]

Thanks for replying TheFlash428.

I had already started to consider your approach, it's just that I'm trying to avoid all the hassle in re-installing all the Apps. When you think this WAS a very stable system, that has been up and running for three years, without any restoration/rebuilding/re-installation/repairing of the XP (apart the obvious automatic updates), and then you'll understand why I just would like to "resurrect" it.

Also, this is the main computer in my home network, the only one that is not wirelessly connected (due security reasons, for Internet Banking). If I re-install/ re-build this XP I'll have to go over a long extension of work to configure all again. The worst part for me is the networking as I'm not very comfortable in this arena, and I remember all the pain I went thru before I got the network working just bearably.

Anyway, if there isn't any other path I can take, your advice may be the one to follow. I'll wait a few more days to see if I (helped by someone else) find a way to fix XP-Daily, before I do what you suggested.

Thank you.

Edited October 10, 2006 by LucLinh

[Takeshi]

When one system file after another goes corrupt I have a bad feeling about this - could be hardware problem, meaning the HD is failing.

[LucLinh]

THAT have the potential of making my days even worse, but hopefully this doesn't seem to be the case.

I've used Seagate tools to check the drive and all diagnostic reports came just fine. Also, when accessing the disk from "XP-Video" (as I'm doing just now to access this forum) everything works fine and access do that disk is not a problem at all.

[TheFlash428]

My advice, regardless of what you do--back up your info to the other working HD!

[stickzilla]

Just an idea -

You have a backup of your Daily XP HD already, but you don't want to lose the work you've done since.

Hopefully, the work you've done since is mostly files ? Perhaps .docs, .jpegs, whatever it is that corresponds with your business.

Do you have the ability to take a new backup of the XP Daily, then mount it and check to see if your recent files are available (if the HD is screwed, you may not be able to mount the image properly) ? Then just restore the Old XP Daily clone, and then restore those files ? In the end you hopefully get everything back to how you wanted it ?

[LucLinh]

My advice, regardless of what you do--back up your info to the other working HD!

It's already done. This was the first thing I did after "XP-Daily" failed.

Actually, I have now TWO copies (or clones) from the whole HD containing "XP-Daily". The first one I mentioned earlier (made around 1 month ago) and the second one that was made immediately after the disaster. This second clone is the one I've been playing with over the last days in the quest to "resurrect" it. The actual HD where "XP-Daily" lives in is intact and preserved since its OS went down. Most the time this HD is disconnected from the MoBo, and the rare occasions it's connected it's only to READ its partitions with Ghost.

[LucLinh]

stickzilla,

please see my previous post. A new backup from "XP-Daily"had already been done.

It's wasn't quite clear for me the remaining of your idea. I did clone the screwed "XP-Daily" into another HD and tryed to fire it up. But there is no good in doing this, it keeps refusing to finish the XP startup process.

It's confirmed the recent files are there, both at the HD with the bugger "XP-Daily" and also at the other HD with the cloned bugger "XP-Daily".

Have I missed something from your suggestion?