SOS I think I am royally screwed. PLEASE HELP!

[LexiKat86]

Hi There. I have a Lenovo thinkpad R61i. Today, out of the blue it gave me a BSOD. It refused to restart up windows, and after I tried restarting it again, it keeps saying there has been a signature failure. This happened while it was storming outside. Did the storm affect my machine? Is there anything I can do short of being financially raped to fix this? Please help! All I can access right now is the BIOS setup utility

[LochLomonder]

First things first: there should be a message which accompanies the BSoD near the top of the screen. What does that say? On the bottom third of the screen there should be a STOP error message. What's this? Lastly, is there any file information shown, e.g. a filename with .sys at the end of it? If so, post that as well.

[LexiKat86]

So, the BSOD was only the first time, nothing after that. There;s no stop message as well. I have been troubleshooting with some tech savy friends, and we've narrowed it to a corruption of the MBR, but standard MBR recovery options off the lenovo site fail to work. I try and repair the MBR or replace it, but the result is the same, which is a blank screen with the blinking underscore after the initial load screen.

[LexiKat86]

Temporary solution, for anyone else who may have this issue. Downloaded the ultimate boot cd on another pc, burned it onto a disc. Installed, went into HDD, boot management, the GAGS option. set up another OS via gags, which seems to have done the trick for now until i can fix it for good.

[Paul Komski]

Which specific operating system was running originally and which is the "another OS via gags" that you have now setup - presumably on the same hard drive?

Are your trying-to or are you now able to access your original data?

Do you know how the current hard drive has been partitioned?

Did you ever try any of the F8 start-up options such as Safe Mode or Last Known Good?

[LexiKat86]

My machine was running an XP OS. I have been able to access all the original data on my computer through this option. I don't know how the original hard drive was partitioned. I couldn't try other options like f8 or last known good, because after the initial BSOD, the only thing that was pretty much available to me was accessing the BIOS set up utility. I had first attempted downloading a mbr fix off the lenovo site on another computer, burning that onto a CD and running that mbr repair, then that mbr replacement. That decidedly did not work.

[Paul Komski]

I'm still unclear whether you are happy with the way things are now or not.

It is almost a certainty that it was nothing MBR related if you got a BSOD since that could only have emanated from within Windows.

If you want further help please post a screenshot of the drive's partitioning arrangement in DiskManagement and the content of the boot.ini file.

[LexiKat86]

I'm not " thrilled" with the current resolution. It's a temporary fix for now, like duct tape over a leak. I'm mostly a noob with computer stuff, my friend who works in tech support helped me out on this fix; how can i access the disk management/where can I find the boot.ini file?

[Sylvander]

Since I believe the problem may not be directly related to the BSOD, but possibly a problem with the non-functioning of the HDD boot arrangements...
That followed the BSOD.
[Possibly a corruption of the partition file system]

1. Try this:
Bypass the HDD boot arrangements using a substitute system disk, as follows...

(a) Normally...
If your hardware included a FDD...
You would make...
This "Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP or Server 2003 boot floppy disk" (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/)...
And boot it.
It would present you with 8 choices of partitions...
Made up of 4 partitions on each of 2 [internal] physical HDD's...
Hoping that 1 of them holds the "Windows" folder...
And the floppy would attempt to load and run the contents of that Windows folder.

Since your hardware doesn't include a FDD, but does include an optical disk reader....
(b) Use instead of the bootable floppy above...
This ISO file [provided by Paul Komski] (http://www.paulski.com/bootcds/bootxp.iso), that can be used to make a bootable CD version of the above bootable floppy.
Both these disks only work if your Windows folder is named Windows.
With the floppy you can easily edit the boot.ini file to change the name of the folder holding the Windows files so it matches the actual name, but it isn't so easy to do that with boot.ini file inside the ISO file.

(c) If the bootable CD succeeds in taking you into Windows...
Then you will know that the problem lies with the HDD boot arrangements [or the partition file system on the partition holding the boot files], and NOT with the Windows files.
Since you are then into Windows, you would be able to access the boot.ini file and the other 2 boot files to produce a possible fix.

(d) If the disk FAILS to take you into windows...
And if the partition file system is OK [or checked/repaired, and therefore OK]...
It would tend to suggest there is indeed something amiss with your Windows files.

[Paul Komski]

To open Disk Management:
Start >> Click on Run and then enter diskmgmt.msc into the run box.

To view the content of boot.ini:
Start >> Right Click on My Computer and choose Properties. Then >> Advanced >> Startup and Recovery [Settings] button and then click on the [Edit] button.

Assuming GAG is taking you into your Windows XP then there should be no need to use a floppy or cd to boot the system as suggested by Sylvander since if that method would work the same end might be achieved by simply editing the boot.ini file correctly once we know the exact partition layout.

Also if the relevant partition can be accessed directly from windows (which is already implied because you can access your old data) then its underlying file system may also be correctable using chkdsk :X /f entered into a command box and where X is the relevant drive letter in question. The command box itself can be opened by entering cmd into the run box.

You could/should also try the following three commands from the Recovery Console (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058) by booting to a Windows XP installation CD and choosing the first repair option presented to you:

fixboot
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild

SBM Smart Boot Manager (http://www.paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1612) might be a quicker way of booting the system than GAG from the Ultimate Boot CD or from GAG as its own download. GAG actually uses the bootstrap code of SBM for its underlying boot management.

P.S.
I originally thought you had installed a new second installation of Windows but now see that you may well have a corrupt MBR and if that is not fixable using the fixmbr command above you may need to continue to use a 3rd Party Boot-Loader (including a floppy/CD as outlined by Sylvander) until you obtain and clone a brand new hard drive.

[LexiKat86]

So, I don't have access to a windows XP installation CD, since both me and my mum chucked what we got when we first bought our machines. Genius, I know. Here is what I think you asked for, tell me if it's not and I'll retry?

[Paul Komski]

If you currently get to see the two-second dual boot menu for Windows and the Recovery Console then try adding a line to the end of boot.ini that reads ...

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="TEST THIS OPTION FOR WINDOWS" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

... then try rebooting and choose this new option to boot from partition(2). You might also change the value of 2 seconds to 20 seconds to ensure you have enough time to read the multiple boot menu at start-up.

After that try fixmbr from the recovery console if you haven't tried it already.

When at the Recovery Console also try, in succession, all three commands ...

fixboot
fixboot C:
fixboot D:

... then try rebooting and try both of the options to boot-up windows.

In addition to fixmbr above you might also like to issue the command fdisk /mbr from a DOS boot floppy or CD (http://www.paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1817#w98) since in addition to rewriting the MBR's bootstrap code this command also attempts to write a new disk signature. If you have any valuable data on the hard drive back it all up before proceeding with any of the above.

If none of this results in success and, in particular, if none of this results in the ability to even see the dual or triple boot menu from boot.ini then it looks likely that your MBR is shot. There is practically no way of repairing a damaged MBR (one so damaged that fixmbr cannot effectively rewrite its code) which means persisting with a third party boot manager on a floppy or CD or of cloning this drive onto a brand new one.

The only other thing that might be worth tryihg would be to back-up all your data first onto removable media and then to zero the drive with its maker's diagnostic utillity (and which you might like to test the drive with in any case) and then attempt a clean reinstallation of Windows. This option would of course wipe away all information currently on the hard drive and would render the ability to clone its partitions null and void.

P.S. You shouldn't need an installation CD if the Recovery Console was installed to the hard drive, as would appear to be case, from the boot.ini menu. However if you do not get to see this menu or if you want to do a clean re-installation or to access the Recovery Console from an installation CD you will need to go out and source an installation CD. Borrowing any copy of Windows XP Professional would do the trick as long as you know the product key for your current installation. Using the recovery console from a Windows XP Home CD would be fine but would be no good to use for a re-installation etc.

[66miranda]

If you currently get to see the two-second dual boot menu for Windows and the Recovery Console then try adding a line to the end of boot.ini that reads ...

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="TEST THIS OPTION FOR WINDOWS" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

... then try rebooting and choose this new option to boot from partition(2). You might also change the value of 2 seconds to 20 seconds to ensure you have enough time to read the multiple boot menu at start-up.

After that try fixmbr from the recovery console if you haven't tried it already.

When at the Recovery Console also try, in succession, all three commands ...

fixboot
fixboot C:
fixboot D:

... then try rebooting and try both of the options to boot-up windows.

In addition to fixmbr above you might also like to issue the command fdisk /mbr from a DOS boot floppy or CD (http://www.paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1817#w98) since in addition to rewriting the MBR's bootstrap code this command also attempts to write a new disk signature. If you have any valuable data on the hard drive back it all up before proceeding with any of the above.

If none of this results in success and, in particular, if none of this results in the ability to even see the dual or triple boot menu from boot.ini then it looks likely that your MBR is shot. There is practically no way of repairing a damaged MBR (one so damaged that fixmbr cannot effectively rewrite its code) which means persisting with a third party boot manager on a floppy or CD or of cloning this drive onto a brand new one.

The only other thing that might be worth tryihg would be to back-up all your data first onto removable media and then to zero the drive with its maker's diagnostic utillity (and which you might like to test the drive with in any case) and then attempt a clean reinstallation of Windows. This option would of course wipe away all information currently on the hard drive and would render the ability to clone its partitions null and void.

P.S. You shouldn't need an installation CD if the Recovery Console was installed to the hard drive, as would appear to be case, from the boot.ini menu. However if you do not get to see this menu or if you want to do a clean re-installation or to access the Recovery Console from an installation CD you will need to go out and source an installation CD. Borrowing any copy of Windows XP Professional would do the trick as long as you know the product key for your current installation. Using the recovery console from a Windows XP Home CD would be fine but would be no good to use for a re-installation etc.

So great, that is.