Wow - BSOD while starting XP Setup

phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
in Science & Tech
So, after a series of poor decisions I now have a computer that is BSODing while loading the XP installation screen. I'm currently booted into recovery console and running chkdsk /r. Neither recovery console nor Winternals are recognizing any Windows installation at all. Winternals (the only Live CD lying around) is reporting the hard drive's file system as RAW (0MB).

This is what I did to get to this point:

Computer owner said that the computer was getting a "Missing or corrupt Ntfs.sys" at boot up.

I was given little info regarding the version of Windows. I knew it was either Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro... not sure which service pack (sticker on the side of the computer was Vista Home Premium). Based on a couple things and the Vista version, I took a stab at it that it was XP Home SP2 32bit.

Recovery console - copied d:\i386\ntfs.sys to c:\windows\system32\drivers. This had no effect.

Recovery console - chkdsk /r. Errors detected and corrected but this had no effect.

Windows Setup, Repair Install - Got through to the point where it asks for a product key (which I didn't have) and I cancelled the install. For some reason I didn't think i'd be asked since it was a repair install.

Winternals - Tried to see if Winternals would report the CD Key. While in there i realized that this was actually a Windows PRO SP2 install. OOPS!

Reboot, automatically goes into the GUI XP Install screen. Try to pull the switcheroo and put a Windows Pro SP2 disc in. Setup says "Please insert Windows XP Home SP2 Disc".

Reboot off of XP Pro disc. Repair windows installation is no longer an option.

Reboot to just finish the XP Home install that I aborted so that I can reinstall once again with XP Pro. Now I am getting a BSOD right after the splash screen.

This is where I left off. As stated previously I am currently running a chkdsk /r from recovery console. Oh and since all of this mess I was able to talk to the owner who actual does have the correct CD key... if I can ever recover then I'll be able to finish a reinstallation legitimately.

Anybody have any advice besides wipe and reinstall? I think it's a decent possibility that it's forked but I'd love to resuscitate. Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    UM, can you make a UBCD bootable CD with another computer, take to that one, and get into the HD Partitioner tool GUI and see if you can repair the NTFS Partition which appears to windows to be missing?

    I THINK the system appears to be FUBAR unless you do some extreme work with the boot sector and Partition tables on HD (possible HD failure given what you are getting, best way to confirm or disprove is UBCD run on Partition structure). Also possible given it had Vista on it that it is 64 bit hardware and perhaps a quite modern BIOIS and wants a 64 bit OS to work well.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Thought of something else, having a HD that is not set right with jumpers and/or cable position if IDE to be master or slave as installed to can cause a no-boot, no-repair-install problem also.
  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    Thanks for the tips.

    So I finished running chkdsk. That got me to a point where I could complete the Xp home install. I used a pirated XP key just to get me through the installation. Once finished I booted right back up with an XP Pro disk... No repair install option. I fought and fought then finally decided to boot into XP home (the installation which i just completed and which was working). Windows prompted to activate. My key wouldn't activate (as expected). I used the "windows key + U" workaround to launch explorer.exe. Then I popped the XP pro disc in, selected upgrade and let it do its thing. It's installing now and so far so good.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    phuschnickens said:

    Thanks for the tips.

    Quite welcome, best of luck, but I would make a attempt to run chkdsk /r again after upgrade, this will validate disk partition reasonably well.
    phuschnickens said:

    So I finished running chkdsk. That got me to a point where I could complete the Xp home install. I used a pirated XP key just to get me through the installation. Once finished I booted right back up with an XP Pro disk... No repair install option. I fought and fought then finally decided to boot into XP home (the installation which i just completed and which was working). Windows prompted to activate. My key wouldn't activate (as expected). I used the "windows key + U" workaround to launch explorer.exe. Then I popped the XP pro disc in, selected upgrade and let it do its thing. It's installing now and so far so good.

    Best of luck.

  • phuschnickensphuschnickens Beverly Hills, Michigan Member
    Well, end result not great... Registry totally botched. I get constant messages asking me to insert a source disc... I believe for a couple different programs that are trying to run... Also, the customer's cd key is not being seen as valid and therefore will not update. I've advised the customer that a backup, reinstall and restore is the way to go... Also that a new hard drive is probably needed if we're doing a reinstall anyway.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Yes, that is kinda what I was afraid of, and think that the wisest course, but without trying you probably could not have been able to tell the customer enough details to be convincing.
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