PC keeps rebooting before XP loads ... please help

TorqueTorque
edited November 2004 in Hardware
Hello,

I was installing a netgear wireless 4 port router on my PC. I boot down, made the simple ethernet connections and tried to boot back up. While i was doing this, the power in my building went out for a minute, and then came back on. Great timing...

So, I go to boot up, and the computer loads up to the screen that says windows failed to load properly, (WINDOWS XP). It gives me the choices of safe mode, safe mode with networking, last good config and normal bootup. Any one i choose, the Windows logo screen comes up, the blue bar makes two trips and then my computer reboots. (If i choose safe mode, a whole list of files runs down the screen, and then it suddenly reboots again). I have a hard time believing the netgear thing could have caused all this.

I changed my hardware back to the old setup, which worked great for a long long time before, but still i cant load windows, or even safe mode or nothing.

I went into BIOS and my tempuratures are fine, and all my fans are spinning properly. I thought it might be a PSU problem, so I tried to ease some juice by unplugging my dvd rom and cd rom drives, but still it has the same problem.

When the computer posts, it see's the hard drive, it shows its name and its size, but when I try to do a Windows XP repair, by booting off of the CD, it said that no hard disk is found. This could be due to the fact that I'm not using traditional IDE, but a SATA connection, and I'm not sure if I have to reinstall the drivers for windows cd to see it and repair it.

Does anyone have any clue about what could be causing this? It would be utterly disasterous if it was my harddrive, and I lost all my data.

I just cant seem to figure out what it is, and all of these freaking problems when installing a simple netgear wireless switch. I am about to throw this pc out the window. Seriously.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I could use all the help I could get.

Thank you

Comments

  • TorqueTorque
    edited June 2004
    I seem to have narrowed down the problem a little more. When I install my Sata drivers after booting off of the xp cd, and try to do a windows repair, it crashes and says
    Stop 0x00000024
    Also, ntfs.sys error

    So it seems something is wrong with the ntfs on my drive. Now, the microsoft solutions to this problem all involve successfully booting up, and running chkdsk /f ...
    However, I cannot boot up successfully.

    So, my question to you is, how do I boot into recovery console so I can do a chkdsk /f ?
    A windows 98 bootdisk wont work becuase my drive is ntfs, and that is all I know how to do...

    That is to say, how do I get a command prompt on windows XP when I cannot load windows or boot up successfully?

    Thanks
  • verselloversello New
    edited June 2004
    Use the XP CD to boot to the console. You can run chkdsk from there.

    Which version of XP do you have btw?
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited June 2004
    It's the power failure that caused the problems mid boot. Probably trashed a system file or worse case your partition table.

    Ontop of the chkdsk I'd also do a system repair. Boot up with your XP CD in the drive. Then it'll come to the Setup or go to Repair Console. Choose setup and then it'll notice that you already have XP on that system and ask if you want to do a Repair. Choose repair and it should hopefully fix any driver errors.
  • TorqueTorque
    edited June 2004
    kryyst wrote:
    It's the power failure that caused the problems mid boot. Probably trashed a system file or worse case your partition table.

    Ontop of the chkdsk I'd also do a system repair. Boot up with your XP CD in the drive. Then it'll come to the Setup or go to Repair Console. Choose setup and then it'll notice that you already have XP on that system and ask if you want to do a Repair. Choose repair and it should hopefully fix any driver errors.

    Thanks for the help, but the problem is that when I boot up with the xp cd, load my sata drivers, and hit repair, the blue screen comes up with the STOP 0x24 error, ntfs.sys.

    The problem seems to be that I cannot get to a recovery console or a command prompt where i can do a chkdsk /p or whatever.

    So, is there a bootdisk method that can give me a command prompt or something like that?

    Also, I did not try to hit setup. Whenever the boot cd came to the 3 choices, I always hit "r" for recovery console, and never tried to proceed with the installation to let it detect and maybe repair... Is that what you mean Kryyst when you say to choose setup?

    Thanks for the help, and I hope I didnt lose any data...

    btw.. I have Win XP Pro... with SP1
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited June 2004
    Yeah that's what I mean don't hit R for repair at that first screen that will take you to the recovery console which you don't want. Go into Setup and then from there go into the repair mode.

    ntfs.sys is basically the core sys file for loading NT. It's like trying to run windows 98 withou msdos.sys or command.com it just won't happen. So if that file is damaged then using the recovery method - after you go into setup should solve that problem for you.

    *IF* it doesn't then it looks like you may need to do a propper drive wipe and a clean install.
  • LiLbRoLiLbRo Troy, Michigan
    edited June 2004
    i think if you do fixboot in the console,if you get in, it will help... i dunno
  • TorqueTorque
    edited June 2004
    Thanks for all the help guys, I wasn't able to get to a working computer sooner, but here is the update.

    I tried to repair after going to setup, and then letting it detext xp and repair it, but the same stop error came up. Luckily, after a while of almost going insane, I fixed it.

    What I had to do is make the 4 boot disks for win 2k pro (even though it was an XP problem). And on the first boot disk i had to comment out a line that loads the ntfs.sys drivers. This prevents it from loading and therefore there would be no stop error. Then I boot off of these four disks, go into their recovery console and do a chkdsk /p ...
    All my data was saved and it boot up fine.

    Then I backed up all my shit and formatted / clean installed the crap.
    Thank God that saga is over, I seriously almost through it out the window... twice.

    Thanks again
  • josephtmjosephtm
    edited June 2004
    Hey,

    I am having the same exact problem right now. Is it possible for you to email or post detailed instructions on the fix.

    Also, out of curiosity, what exactly are you running. I have been reading a lot about people having trouble with and AMD XP chip, XP professional, GForce4 video card, and maybe different brand memory sticks. Any of that sound familiar to you??

    Thanks for your help.
    Torque wrote:
    Thanks for all the help guys, I wasn't able to get to a working computer sooner, but here is the update.

    I tried to repair after going to setup, and then letting it detext xp and repair it, but the same stop error came up. Luckily, after a while of almost going insane, I fixed it.

    What I had to do is make the 4 boot disks for win 2k pro (even though it was an XP problem). And on the first boot disk i had to comment out a line that loads the ntfs.sys drivers. This prevents it from loading and therefore there would be no stop error. Then I boot off of these four disks, go into their recovery console and do a chkdsk /p ...
    All my data was saved and it boot up fine.

    Then I backed up all my shit and formatted / clean installed the crap.
    Thank God that saga is over, I seriously almost through it out the window... twice.

    Thanks again
  • PeterPeter
    edited August 2004
    Torque wrote:
    Thanks for all the help guys, I wasn't able to get to a working computer sooner, but here is the update.

    I tried to repair after going to setup, and then letting it detext xp and repair it, but the same stop error came up. Luckily, after a while of almost going insane, I fixed it.

    What I had to do is make the 4 boot disks for win 2k pro (even though it was an XP problem). And on the first boot disk i had to comment out a line that loads the ntfs.sys drivers. This prevents it from loading and therefore there would be no stop error. Then I boot off of these four disks, go into their recovery console and do a chkdsk /p ...
    All my data was saved and it boot up fine.

    Then I backed up all my shit and formatted / clean installed the crap.
    Thank God that saga is over, I seriously almost through it out the window... twice.

    Thanks again
  • SupertexSupertex New
    edited October 2004
    I have the same problem...cant boot normal, safe, repair console, or even reinstall. Every time it's the same ...stop error NTFS.sys 0x00000024.

    I even tried the drive in an external enclosure and tried to get access to it from another running machine. As soon as it tries to run scan the drive for info...it gives the same error that it did on the machine it belongs in.

    I have already gone and found the Win2K boot disks...but what now???
  • izzugotomizzugotom Member
    edited November 2004
    Must know stuff:

    http://www.ntfs.com/
Sign In or Register to comment.