0x7B after loading the XP inst. from external optical drive

[Wolygon]

Hello,

I have a netbook which my sister dropped a few weeks ago. It comes up with windows is corrupted and to repair it. So eventually I got a USB to SATA cable as the netbook doesn't have a optical drive.

Windows XP loads up but blue screens before it asks you what to do. I'm not sure on what exact part it does it on but if it is important I can find out. The error is 0x7B (0xF7A8C63C, 0xC0000034, 0, 0). I notice this is an inaccessible boot device error.

Since this is booting from the CD that means that this error can't be caused by the HDD right? I have tried multiple optical drives, so I'm thinking it must be something to do with the USB interface.

Also I'm not sure that all thats wrong is that windows is corrupted. Since I'm pretty sure that it started up once after the drop, so I think the HDD might be dead. I just wanted to recover windows then see if it works, then I would take further action.

Thanks.

 

[aford10]

Did you change the BIOS to boot off a USB device? If not, it's not trying to boot off the external optical drive. That's assuming your BIOS even has the option to boot off a USB device.

 

[Wolygon]

Yes it is booting off the CD drive (I had to change it). As I said it is loading the XP installer but before it asks you to reformat, etc. it blue screens.

 

[aford10]

Is it the same BSOD when booting off the hard drive and the external optical drive?

That BSOD usually refers to a boot sector problem. But you shouldn't be getting the same error when booting off a CD.

Is there a CMOS reset button on the netbook?

 

[Wolygon]

No I don't get a blue screen when starting off the HDD.

I get:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

Also I don't think there is a CMOS reset button and I did a quick search but I didn't find anything. Guess I'd have to take it apart if I needed to.

Thanks.

 

[aford10]

Tap F8 on startup. Can you get into the advanced boot menu? If yes, can you boot into safe mode? If not, try booting into safe mode with command prompt, and type the following command:
%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
This should open the restore points. Try rolling back to before the problem occured.

 

[Wolygon]

Ok I can get into the advanced boot menu.

Trying to boot in safe mode, it loads 6 files and then comes up with the same error. "try booting into safe mode with command prompt" by that do you just mean the option "Safe mode with command prompt" because I did that and it was the same as just Safe mode.

Is this "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM " file unique on my PC or can I just load up the HDD on a different computer and copy it across.

Thanks for your help.

 

[aford10]

Give this a shot.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

 

[Wolygon]

I have already had a look at this but noticed that it requires the XP CD to be working.

"Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer."

Or are you talking about taking the HDD out and putting it in the computer and replacing these files:

"copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default"

Then after that it seems that the PC will boot and you can do the rest from there.

Or maybe I can just get my files of it and install ubuntu from a Flash drive. I was wondering if there would be any problems with the drivers or would it run off generic drivers fine. I was wondering this already because I was thinking about doing the switch before. If you know anything I would love to know.

Thanks for sticking with me.

 

[aford10]

What I'm thinking, is you can create a bootable USB drive. You may need to slipstream SP2 or SP3 into it, if your disc doesn't have it. You may have better luck booting off that.
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=4900
Hopefully that doesn't BSOD, and you can do the repair.

If you have an enclosure to put the drive in, and connect to another PC, go for it.

 

[Wolygon]

Ok I have been away for a while as I was busy doing assignments. I have found a break today and decided to give it a shot.

I simply plugged the HDD into the spot where my DVD drive used to be (I took it out to connect to the netbook through USB0. It had both SATA for data and power so that was convenient.

It recognized fine and I copied my documents across.

The system file was not in the repair folder only system.bak I looked on my other XP machine and it had a system file. So I copied it from my other machine to use on my netbook (I'm not sure if this is allowable but I didn't really care if Windows got corrupted more as where was I going to get a system file from if its unique to my computer.

I decided only to replace SYSTEM as it seems like more mucking around to replace more, I figured that if any others were a problem it would now say when I started up.

Maybe these two dodgy fixes is what is causing my errors now? But I don't think so.

When starting up in safe mode it loads a fair bit then stops at "/DRIVERS/driversagp440" for about 2 seconds then flashes a blue screen and restarts. Note I'm not to sure on the exact location of that driver file.

So from this it seems like there is more damage than just the System file. This means I really need to do a reformat right? Or at least a recovery either of which I cannot do because of the starting problem. Or can I just replace the files that stops it from booting in this first instance "driversagp440" from my other XP PC.

Thanks for your help.

 

[aford10]

You can try copying that over as well. It should be located in the i386 folder.

If you've got your files off, a format and reinstall would be a quicker fix. There may be a lot more damage than these two files.

 

[Wolygon]

Yes ok I might try that soon. Problem is I can't reinstall windows unless I make an XP Flash Drive.

I would rather use ubuntu anyway but I want to know whether the drivers will configure properly and that I'd be able to use wireless network adapter, LAN and audio. I have done a quick search for this but couldn't really find anything. If you know anything it would be appreciated.

Am I stuck to Windows? I have looked on the site and they don't have drivers available for linux.

Thanks.

 

[aford10]

I'm not real experienced with linux. I don't think I can be much help to you there. We do have a linux section, where there are some more experienced linux users. They can give better advice than I can.

 

[Wolygon]

Best answer selected by Wolygon.

 

[Wolygon]

Sorry for taking so long to select BA. I didn't really want to do it until my problem was fixed. I ended up installing ubuntu though my wireless doesn't work but its better then not having anything at all.

Hope fully I'll make a XP falsh drive and try that.

Thanks for your help its much appreciated.