BSOD on xp bootup seems to hang on driver load

[Tsakali_]

how can I fix the error without reinstalling xp? I ant to keep the install intact.
it could be a bad hardrive, or just a bad sector that seems to hold needed information for the bootup process.


question 1 : is there a non intrusive way to retain my xp install and simp;ly repair what's missing?

question 2: if it is indeed a bad hdd maybe it's not all bad so can you point me to a hdd repair, diagnostic tool?

question 3: if indeed bad hdd, can i mirror the installed xp to another hardrive and hope for it to be able to boot up again? do you have a good mirroring program?


question 4 : system32/drivers/mup.sys seems to hang, can I just rename it and try to reboot? I have access to the files on the hardrive because I have it temporarily slaved on another system

my it skillz are rusty

[creep]

mup.sys probably isn't the problem. that's where they all hang during safe mode boot, once they go sideways.

What is the error on the BSOD? The top part of the screen usually has useful info.

[Tsakali_]

it varies from not showing the bsod at all and just rebooting , to showing it for a split of a second, so I can't read what it says on there and my phone camera sucks lol

[Tsakali_]

just to add this has something to do with the xp install or the hdd itself, I just tried to run this hdd on a completely different system and it does the same thing, so I guess I can rule out the rest of the hardware atleast.

[Foo]

So I'm assuming you can't boot into safe mode either, and that you established mup.sys as the problem by watching the safe mode output?

First try clearing your BIOS settings. If that doesn't do it, then if your mobo is any of these:
Abit IS7-V
Albatron PX865 PE Pro
Aopen AX4SG Max
Aopen EA65
Asus P4P800 Deluxe
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
Asus Terminator T2-P
Foxconn 865A01-G-6EKRS
Gigabyte GA-8PENXP
Jetway i875P
Shuttle SB61G2
Soyo P4I865P

Flash the bios up to the latest version.

Has this problem only started since a recent XP update? Are you running a P4-based system?

Failing all this, you can try a windows repair using the xp installation CD. I suspect it won't work though.

[Tsakali_]

this is a friend's computer as is always the case ,heh
yes I tried safe mode,
if by cleaning bios you mean set to default I haven't tried that yet,
it's a Gigabyte GA- 945GCMX-S2,
it's on a athlon 64 cpu,
don't have the original cd that he installed with , not sure if my own copy would suffice.

and judging from the case this thing was build and not brand named

ps

this system was imported the power supply only does 220v with some kind of asian scripture on it...lol I had to use my own

[Tsakali_]

I just tried coying the boot partition to another partition but I am getting errors, which prolly means what? bad harddrive/partition?

[Foo]

"you need to try steps x, y and z"
"OKAY I JUST DID B, C AND D WHAT NOW. BTW ALSO NOW, MY HAIR IS ON FIRE WTF"

Bios reset should be simple to do and definitely worth a go...

If you really can't get it back then install the hard drive as a slave in another machine, get all his data off that you can salvage, then put the HD back into the original PC and run a second XP installation onto the same hard drive (into another folder not c:\windows\.

[Tsakali_]

lol, but yeah I ended up backing up and reinstalling... the bios trick didn't work.

ps
plus I'm a moron, it was an intel system not amd.