Windows issue on startup. Need some help.

P

PSM

New Member
My problem can be summarized as follows: I built the computer January 2008 and have had no real issues since then. The other day, I decided to run NVIDIA nTune (software that came with the motherboard which tests and optimizes performance to a SAFE level) and the first time I ran it, it closed automatically by itself (got one of those "nTune needs to close" messages). No big deal, so I ran it again and it worked fine, but I forgot to save the settings as a profile for later use when I closed it, so I decided to run it a third time.

Now, when running this softare, it clearly states that your system will "crash and restart", possibly multiple times, because it's testing some hardware limits, but this is totally normal and it will resume testing on startup. So in this third time, it crashed and restarted itself like usual (it had done so previous times, as well), but upon startup, it gets to the multi-shades of blue "Windows XP" screen that appear right before you log on to your Windows profile and it never gets any farther. The mouse moves around like normal but that's it.

I tried restarting a few more times, no luck. Then I tried F8 and "Last known good configuration" with no luck. I tried booting in Safe Mode and it brought up the totally black screen with "Safe Mode" around the edges, but then went back to the blue Windows XP logo screen like before with no luck. Lastly, I tried booting from the Windows XP cd and repairing, as it says to do in the third section of this forum's sticky, but after the whole "new" install/repair process, which runs normally, it still just goes to that screen and stays there.

Any thoughts? I only have about half the stuff on the hard drive backed up (stupid, I'm well aware) because I didn't order a second hard drive yet that's big enough since I got my new HD video camera. Obviously I haven't reformatted the drive yet but if there wasn't a ton of stuff on it I want to get off, I already would have just to save myself the hassle of trying to figure this out. I'm just kind of pissed because this NVIDIA software came with the computer and is supposed to make it run optimally SAFELY. It's not like it's some random, suspicious software I downloaded.

Also, it doesn't seem to make sense that this program would affect Windows files since it just messes with hardware settings and stuff, not Windows registry files or anything. Another note would be that my network connection was disabled when I ran this software and I had previously run Spybot and MalwareBytes with no issues found, so I can't see it being a virus.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Anyone see an issue like this before? Feel free to ask questions if you have them.
 
You can always hook the HDD up to another computer and get any files you need off that way, and then pop it back into the computer to re-install a fresh copy of windows.
 
dgrevillius said:
You can always hook the HDD up to another computer and get any files you need off that way, and then pop it back into the computer to re-install a fresh copy of windows.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's my plan if no one else has any other ideas. I would have done it already but I don't currently have a hard drive other than this one that has enough space for all of my stuff. Plenty of computers to do it, but no hard drives. I had planned on buying one in a week or two. Looks like I might have to sooner than planned.
 
Hmm, so the hard drive won't show up after I plug it into a new computer in the My Computer window. It will still get to that Windows XP screen and stay there if I install it as the boot hard drive, but it won't go any farther. Can anyone think of a way for me to backup the files on this hard drive before reformatting it?



What will happen to the files on the hard drive if I actually install a new version of windows instead of just running the Repair option on the Windows XP cd?
 
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kimsland said:
Try running System Restore from the Recovery Console
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\rstrui.exe
More info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/en-us
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response but I tried it and it still ended up bringing me to that blue Windows XP logo screen because it's still trying to start Windows, even though it's in Safe Mode.
JlCollins005 said:
Well a fresh install would mean those files are gone
Click to expand...

Isn't there a way to run a parallel install instead of rewriting over the old install? If I'm not reformatting the hard drive, why would those files be gone? I could see inaccessible through the new Windows install, but shouldn't they still be there on the drive?
 
If you can get windows to run , try uninstalling the nvdia driver and disable the video card by going to remove programs and device mananger. Restart the pc and see if the problems persist. Then, install the nvdia driver once more. Hope this is of any help. Just thought of this between math lectures...:P
 
eckx said:
If you can get windows to run , try uninstalling the nvdia driver and disable the video card by going to remove programs and device mananger. Restart the pc and see if the problems persist. Then, install the nvdia driver once more. Hope this is of any help. Just thought of this between math lectures...:P
Click to expand...

Windows won't run. I can't get that far. That's the issue. If Windows would run, I could backup my files.

I'm going to try booting from the Ultimate Boot CD program and see if I can pull my files from there.
 
PSM said:
Hmm, so the hard drive won't show up after I plug it into a new computer in the My Computer window. It will still get to that Windows XP screen and stay there if I install it as the boot hard drive, but it won't go any farther.
Click to expand...
Wait there's a few things you're missing here
Post #2 by dgrevillius, stated to put the Hard Drive in another computer (to back up your files), But he didn't mean as the main drive (by doing so it will not load to the Desktop, it will just keep restarting)
He meant as a secondary drive

And my post about System Restore was meant for the Recovery Console. ie From using your Windows CD only

I think at this stage it is best to do a Repair:

Microsoft's Windows XP Professional Repair Install step by step
http://www.windowsxpprofessional.windowsreinstall.com/sp2sp3installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm

Microsoft's Windows XP Home Repair Install step by step:
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsreinstall.com/sp2sp3installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm


You may also try running CheckDisk:

Just use your Windows CD and boot from it
Select the first R prompt, to log into the recovery console
Press 1 then Enter
Then type: chkdsk C: /r then press enter
(Or type: chkdsk C: /f if it cannot find "r")
 
UPDATE: I was able to make it show up as a second hard drive on my other computer but the files were inaccessible (Admin account), so I burned an ISO CD of the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows using my Windows XP Pro CD and booted from that. I was able to get it to show up there and am now currently transferring my files to my brother's external hard drive. Thanks for all of the advice, guys.

Tomorrow I will be purchasing two 2TB internal hard drives and keeping everything mirrored on both so I never have to worry about an issue like this again. Any advice on the best way to keep two hard drives copying each other? Is there software? I don't know much about RAID setups.
 
Thanks for the update.
I like UBCD4Win too, but generally its best to create this bootCd before Windows corrupts; although you can just use your XP CD - as you did ;)

The inaccessible files/folders permission issue; could have been overcome by Running XP (Admin account) in Safe Mode
Then locating the inaccessible folders
Then right click on them, and then select Security Tab
Then change the permissions to everyone
 
kimsland said:
Thanks for the update.
I like UBCD4Win too, but generally its best to create this bootCd before Windows corrupts; although you can just use your XP CD - as you did ;)

The inaccessible files/folders permission issue; could have been overcome by Running XP (Admin account) in Safe Mode
Then locating the inaccessible folders
Then right click on them, and then select Security Tab
Then change the permissions to everyone
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I was going to ask how to get around that inaccessible folders issue just for future reference. :good:

And yeah, I did originally try to install my hard drive as a second hard drive on the other computer but I later discovered the SATA port was disabled in BIOS, which is why it wasn't showing up. I had only tried installing it as the main hard drive afterwards to see if it was recognized and if it would still give me the same problem (which it did).

As of right now, all of my pictures and videos are backed up onto the external (although I still need to take them to a different computer to test that they open) and I'm just backing up some program files and a few other things just in case I need them in the future. I can't think of anything else I'll need from this drive. My plan is to get two 2TB internal drives for the future and use them to back each other up. Then I can keep this current 500GB drive installed as a random third drive just in case I ever come across anything that I forgot to pull from it. I don't see a reason to delete anything from it or reformat it if I've got two other drives for normal use. And I definitely don't trust it at this point to store anything critical, so I'll just keep it in there as an extra drive; maybe use it as a third-level backup for my really important files (you can never be TOO careful with backups).
 
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I left out saying right click then "properties" then the security tab
Anyway, it is strange that you need to do this to a slave Windows drive (obviously whilst running a working Windows from the main drive; but that's Windows security for you.

Regarding the 500 Gig
Firstly make sure the backup files can be opened and viewed (I do stress that you need to "open" a few of them, to be sure that you do have permission on the backups - how strange is that?)

And then I wouldn't mount the drive internally (effectively making 3 drives)
Too much power; too much heat; too many drives for a standard personal computer; and therefore more chance of error ;)
Just keep it aside, and if you do want to use it, you could purchase a Sata to USB adapter or something

Well I feel you have learned a few things through this episode, so that can't be bad :)
 
kimsland said:
I left out saying right click then "properties" then the security tab
Anyway, it is strange that you need to do this to a slave Windows drive (obviously whilst running a working Windows from the main drive; but that's Windows security for you.

Regarding the 500 Gig
Firstly make sure the backup files can be opened and viewed (I do stress that you need to "open" a few of them, to be sure that you do have permission on the backups - how strange is that?)

And then I wouldn't mount the drive internally (effectively making 3 drives)
Too much power; too much heat; too many drives for a standard personal computer; and therefore more chance of error ;)
Just keep it aside, and if you do want to use it, you could purchase a Sata to USB adapter or something

Well I feel you have learned a few things through this episode, so that can't be bad :)
Click to expand...

That's good advice which I will probably heed (regarding the three hard drives). I wanted to backup everything important that I have before anything else, but as soon as I get home tonight, I'm going to open a ton of files from various locations/folders to make sure everything is working. I didn't get a chance last night but it's priority number one tonight.

Thanks again for the help.
 
Just an update: the files are accessible and every one I tested opened up on my other computer, so I think I'm good to go. I bought two new 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black hard drives yesterday and the first one is formatted with Windows XP Pro installed. I've the all of the files transferring to that hard drive at the moment and when I get home I'll install my software. Then overnight I'll format the other hard drive (took a couple hours to do the first one).
 
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