I have a hard drive that stopped working with a BSOD Error.

I am running Windows XP Pro

The problem is I don't get the error displayed long enough to find out what the error code is.

From boot the computer starts normally, then the BSOD occurs, then the computer restarts....the cycle then continues enlessly ...booot ...error...restart..etc.

Question
I have posted this on computer forums but haven't had any successful suggestions as how to approach troubleshooting it....so if anyone has any solutions here I would very much appreciate it...as I am interested to know if it is possible?

 

Do you have the installation disk? They usually let you boot on them and reinstall the OS.

Also, are you sure that nothing has happened to your BIOS settings? Something wrong there can cause a failure to boot.

If you have a second computer, you can put the HD from the failing computer in as a slave and see if it passes scandisk.

 

I would suggest a boot CD. Google the term, and you could find different CD image that you could burn. They usually have utilities/tools in them that allow you to diagnose or at least poke around the system.

One easy thing that you can try is to boot with Windows disk, check the partition is correct, restore the MBR and then repair the installation. Assuming the BSOD is caused by corrupt disk and not by any physical problem, then most of the time this would fix the problem.

If you manage to boot and access the disk, there is a log file or dump that you could access instead of the BSOD.

 

Windows XP provides a recovery console if you put in the installation disk (like you're going to install it again) but hit "R" at the screen instead of "C"(something like that).

Run the following programs and see if it helps:
mbrfix
chkdsk

When you get the BSOD, it's probably because the Hard drive is locking up (most likely due to errors on the drive) and since windows relies so heavily on the swap file (stored on the hard drive) it fails. Specifically, chkdsk will be helpful -- make sure you let it make repairs.

If this problem continues, you should do anything you can to back up your drive as it is probably failing and might die soon.

 

Press F8 during boot up. There should be an option to turn off restart upon error. This will allow you to view the BSOD and see what the problem is maybe. I'd go with Windows recovery console or reinstall OS if that fails. However, if your HDD is bad, reinstalling OS will not help as you will just get the BSOD again. You might want to back up the HDD before anything else to ensure you have the data in case your HDD completely dies.

 

when u see the adnavced start up screen highlight

" DISABLE AUTOMATIC RESTART ON SYSTEM FAILURE"

ONCE U DO THIS UR sys will not go for a reboot loop ..


in this case u wud be able to see the exact error message ....if is 7 E BSOD IS A ram issue

IF IT IS 7b- its A CORRUPTED HDD

most bsod 's can be cured by reinstalling drivers or OS

 

if your HDD is seagate or maxtor, and you suspect you have bad HDD or have some bad sectors in systems files, download SEATOOLS from seagate website, burn the image to CD... Seatools is powerful seagate/maxtor HDD tool, its a bootable, and can detect and repair damaged HDDs, works with Western Digital too...

You might also want to boot your PC to safe mode, if it goes in then you can try initiating system restore, if it does not go into safe mode and BSOD still prevails, suspect hardware problems.