Simviation Forum - Disk Boot Failure

Jul 28^th, 2009 at 6:28pm

aussiewannabe Offline
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Okay, this is the first time I've been in this forum, so bear with me.

Got on the computer this morning and got a disk boot failure - Insert system disk and press Enter.

Unforuntately I don't have a system disk as one did not come with my 3 year old system. I tried my Recovery disk, but it couldn't be read. Went to the library and did some research. When I got back I checked the boot order in the BIOS setup. I ended up moving the CD-ROM to 1st, floppy to 2nd, and Hard Disk to 3rd.

As soon as my brother got up, I borrowed his Windows XP disc. Went through the process of into the recovery console. Tried chkdsk, chkdsk /p and chkdsk /r and got the following:
The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.

Tried fixboot and got "Fixboot cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid.

C:\dir - Directory of C:\ There is no floppy disk or CD in the Drive.

bootcfg /rebuild - Errors failed to successfully scan disks for windows installation. This error may be caused by a corrpupt file system, which would prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any errors.

boot /default - There are currently no boot entries, therefore the default boot entry cannot be set.

On another route, I tried the Windows option #1 (Recovery console is #3). Ended up gettng a setupdd.sys error (Page_Fault__In_Nonpaged_Area)

Here's the technical information.
*** STOP: 0x000000050, (0XE1118748, 0X00000000, 0xF77EF9A8. 0X00000001)

*** setupdd.sys - Address F7EF9A8 base at F77C8000, Data Stamp 41107C8F

Did some research on 0x000000050 and it points towards a ram module failure. I have 4 512MB. Started by taking out ram in the 2nd and fourth slot which I knew were the addons I got several years ago. After booting up again, I got the disk boot failure again.

Took out the ram in slot three, leaving the ram in slot one and booted up again. Again, disk boot failure.

Removed ram from slot 1 and replaced it with the ram originally in slot 3. Again, disk boot failure.

For the moment I have the ram in slots 2 & 4 though I'm thinking they should be in slots 1 & 3. I haven't tried that as I'm writing this.

For what it was worth, retried the Windows option #1 and still got the setupdd.sys error (Page_Fault_In_Nonpage_Area).

Still with me?

Not sure if I can add anymore than I have already, but I hope it's more than enough for someone to help me.

One last thing, the only software I've loaded (which was yesterday) was Ground Environment Pro.

Thanks,

Chris

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Reply #1 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 12:47am

NickN Offline
Colonel
FSX runs fine... the problem
is you or your system

Posts: 6317

EVA?

EeeeeeVaaaa

hard disk may be bad

Please download maintenance disk for hard drive from hard drive manufacture web site

Assuming SATA hard drive...

If Western Digital, use address-

Floppy Disk: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=604&sid=2&lang=en

if no floppy in system,

CD Burn - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=604&sid=30&lang=en

If Seagate hard drive, use address -

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

follow instructions there

Run disk scan diagnostics.. most likely bad hard drive but also could be bad motherboard SATA chip

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Reply #2 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 2:54pm

aussiewannabe Offline
Colonel
Directive!

Posts: 2541

Hi Nick,

Love the WallE pics. It made my morning Grin

Downloaded diagnostics from Seagate and ran it.

Short test - Okay
Long test - 15 errors. Long test passed after repair
Acoustics - Okay

I have the Windows CD in now, trying Windows Setup and it's showing this:

286166 MB Disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0 on atapi (MBR)
Unpartioned space 286166 MB

286166 MB is 279.458984375 GB. This number is familiar to me as I've seen under properties in the C drive. It may have also been 271 as I know the D drive takes 8MB.

My first thought was that the repairs reformatted the HD, but I'm not knowledgable in that area.

As far as the Windows CD setup is concerned, there are two other options: http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=3930

For the time being I'm going to get out of the setup and wait for your reply on how to proceed.

Thanks for your assistance.

Chris

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Reply #3 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 4:04pm

NickN Offline
Colonel
FSX runs fine... the problem
is you or your system

Posts: 6317

Damaged hard drive Chris

More than likely this drive is on its last leg.. Windows repair does not format the disk (assuming you DID run repair and not Install) and right now what you are showing is a partition that has no boot sector information for any OS

Usually the drive diagnositc will tell you if the drive should be replaced.. WD does that

I would be very gun-shy about this drive.. the type of errors it would take to kill a partition are pretty serious.

The only other thing I can think of is you somehow got a nasty bug that did this.. I have seen them although rare.

So the deal is, it would appear this drive is ready for a NTFS FULL format and install of Windows and there is nothing on the partition at this point.

But you may be doing all this for nothing.. if it comes up again that drive is defective and needs to be replaced..

It is possible your data is still on the drive or at least some of it.. there is simply no partition table information.. The safest way to find that out is special software which accesses in HEX to the low level disk. Other methods would include DOS commands, such as FIX BOOT/FIXMBR

You can try running the repair console from the Windows install Disk

Press "R" to repair the installation, then at the command prompt run

FIXBOOT then FIXMBR. Then EXIT to reboot.

FIXBOOT

enter

FIXMBR

enter

EXIT

enter

Make sure the drive is set to be the boot drive in the BIOS

It probably already is

After a reboot, if it still does not see the partition then the only other alternative is to wipe and install or use special hex software to get to the data that may be there

I think this HDD is probably on its way out

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Reply #4 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 4:04pm

Ivan Offline
Colonel
No, I'm NOT Russian, I
only like Russian aircraft
The netherlands

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The repairs did kill your FAT/NTFS headers... data might still be there but you cant see it (as theres no partition to access)

Youi can try Fdisk /mbr or FixMBR... but better ask Nick for more info

Russian planes: IL-76 (all standard length ones), Tu-154 and Il-62, Tu-134 and An-24RV&&&&AI flightplans and repaints can be found here

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Reply #5 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 4:58pm

aussiewannabe Offline
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Directive!

Posts: 2541

Thank you, Nick!

I'll give your suggestions a try. Other than that, I'll accept the fact that the HD is toast.

Chris

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Reply #6 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 6:20pm

aussiewannabe Offline
Colonel
Directive!

Posts: 2541

Here are the results:

fixboot
Fixboot cannot find the systrm drive, or the drive specified is not valid.

fixmbr
**Caution**
This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.
FIXMBR may damage you partition tables if you proceed.
This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible.
If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue.
Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?

Not me. I'd rather buy a new HD. The most important data I have is either burned on CD, zip disk, or on a flash drive. I can always rebuild my FS file library.

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Reply #7 - Jul 29^th, 2009 at 6:52pm

NickN Offline
Colonel
FSX runs fine... the problem
is you or your system

Posts: 6317

You could have run the command.

none the less, even if it did fix it to the point of seeing the data.. I wouldnt trust the hard drive anyway and just replace it

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Reply #8 - Jul 30^th, 2009 at 7:58pm

757200ba Offline
Colonel
757200-THOR of the skys
Florida

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Posts: 516

Hmmm!!!
By anychance have ever installed linux things on that HD. Its just a though but........ Wink

Usually ( been there, done that) is the kind of message you have.
Once again just a though

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