Chkdsk runs, completes, computer restarts.

iusehappymod

I started having this problem about a week ago, and for the life of me I can't figure it out.

I turned my computer on. Chkdsk ran, completed, and after finishing, the computer restarted. It chkdsk'd again, and restarted again, without getting into windows. The next time, I just skipped the chkdsk, but it still restarted.

I assumed my harddrive was dying (there have been signs of it anyway) so I bought a new 500 gig, cloned the old one, started the computer up, and the same thing happened.

I put in my xp disk, and did a repair install of windows. It keeps happening.

I'm fresh out of ideas. Windows wont boot, and I can't figure out why.

Things that may matter:

xp pro, service pack 2
hard drive is partitioned 3 ways, C:/ is windows, / is swap, and E:/ is all my data.
Computer is about 4 years old. 1 gig of ram, still in pretty good shape.

I'm usually pretty savvy about fixing these things, but I'm stumped. Thanks in advance.

iusehappymod

oh, I feel as if I should add that safemode doesn't work either.

iusehappymod

Alright, so now I've put the xp disk in, opened DoS, and run chkdisk /r on both my C and my E drive.

Both complete just fine, but they both take a stupidly long time. Its a two hundred gigabyte harddrive (thats almost full) but it shouldn't take two and a half hours, should it?

Any thoughts at all?

Dedian

Well you've safely ruled out the hard drive (save a failed new hard drive, but doubt it). Chkdsk is probably running after every reboot just because windows didn't start correctly (or moreso because windows didn't restart/shut down correctly).

What new software/hardware has been installed before this started happening? Particularly software that would use device drivers or other system drivers that might cause windows to restart, and that wouldn't be replaced by using safemode?

iusehappymod

I honestly can't think of anything. Is it possible that my partitioning is the issue? For the week or so before this I was consistantly getting "Low memory on your C drive" while attmepting to buffer youtube vids and the like (probably because I partitioned the thing four or five years ago and windows and other files is just slowly taking up more and more space. )

If I can't figure out the problem, is there a way to do just a general time consuming fix? Is there a way to reinstall windows without losing data?

Jubal77

Installl anything new lately? Drivers? New external device? To me this sounds like it could be a external device recently added, a power problem, Sofware Problem,or a RAM problem. A good way to check this would be to run a Live CD from a Linux distribution, like Ubuntu. This is what I usually use to test whether the problem exists on the hard drive or if the problem exists somehwere else. This also usually allows you to access the drive and remove anything off of it you might need.

At this point it could be a large number of issues. Does it blue screen at all or just reboot? Hit F8 during boot and select the "Disable automatic restart on failure" option and write down any Blue Screen info it might show.

During Safe Mode boot how far does it get into booting?

It could be a power problem have you tried unplugging everything from the computer but the HD, CD, key and mouse and see if it ran?

ronya

A theory:

(1) Your main disk has been marked as dirty somehow, and for some reason chkdsk is failing to unmark it once it completes

(2) Your computer is actually BSODing and automatically restarting. Combine with (2).

Since you have a second hard drive, could you possibly install a fresh Windows XP system on a partition in it? (possibly at the end of the drive, then you can wipe it later). Then boot into it, and run

fsutil dirty query x:

to see whether the X: drive (or whatever) has been marked as dirty. If so, run chkdsk on it, then run the query again.

Also, when you see the chkdsk, is it the 3step "fast" chkdsk or the 5step repair chkdsk? Consider running the 5-step one from the new install.

Also #2, when you say you can't boot into safe mode, can you at least see the list of options? Try Disable Automatic Restart On System Failure.

iusehappymod

Thanks for all the input guys, definitely taking steps in the right direction. I have to post at a campus lab, so I'll try to keep you cats up-to-date.

It is a BSOD, and apparently the problem is irql_not_less_or equal. I did a few brief google searches, and I'm still not too sure what to think. CPU overheating? Unlikely. Bad driver or RAM? More likely.

Safemode is also stopping at giveio.sys, which is apparently a third party file (which explains the windows reinstall not working) associated most commonly with speefan, I think? You smarter people might wanna factcheck me on that.

I'll keep using google to try to get a straight answer, but any input you guys have would be greatly appreciated.

Jubal77

Yeah that error most of the time I have seen it is either a cause of an infection, bad ram (Ubuntu live disks have a ram checker on it), or something was installed that xp doesnt like (driver).

Usually its an infection that corrupts a system file but is still holding he system hostage.

I would do as ronya suggested and do a fresh install on the second hard drive and then get what you need off of it after scanning it with that new system. It takes awhile but is the only way to make sure it is gone if it is a infection.

If the second drive does the same thing then you have a hardware problem.

iusehappymod

any significance to giveio.sys? If I figure out whatever is running that, will that help pinpoint my problem?

Phyphor

If your old disk was failing it's possible that the image was sufficiently corrupted that it can't be booted normally, I've seen the safemode boots stop before like that when it simply couldn't find the file it was looking for.

I also agree with ronya, you should boot a linux cd or install windows on another disk and then pull everything you can out of that image.

Tofystedeth

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL can also be corrupted drivers. It could be in the process of dying your old HDD took some drivers with it. If you can can say, boot from an Ubuntu live disc, then mount your system partition and find the windows\minidump folder there should be dump files for all your blue screens. If you want, you can send a couple of those to me, (i'll give you my email addy in a PM) and i'll dig through and see fi I can find the driver that's causing the problems.

Also, there's no real need to have a separate partition for your paging file. Windows isn't linux.

finalflight89

Try renaming giveio.sys to giveio.sys.old. If you can't get to a command prompt, then boot into Ubuntu and do it. Instead of BSODing when encountering the file, Windows should skip it upon bootup.

Jubal77

There is no gaurantee that it is giveio.sys causing the Blue Screen. If you can do what Tofyst said and send him your minidump, if they are generated, that would help track down the exact driver causing the problem.

iusehappymod

Booted to Ubuntu, its nice to be able to use my own computer to post stuff.

My minidump folder is empty.

Phyphor

In my experience windows won't write minidumps if it bluescreens during the boot process itself

iusehappymod

Its not giveio, I can tell you that much.

Can someone post a link to a tutorial (or walk me through) what the next step is? I'm a bit confused about this whole install check and pull thing. I have Ubuntu installed on the new hard drive, and access to windows xp home, pro, and I just got an install of 7.

Thanks again guys, ya'll rock.

Jubal77

Ok here is a decent link on what to do...

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

You can skip the first couple of steps. There are other tutorials on how to burn items to a CD or DVD if that is how you are going to back up your info. Be very careful if you have to use fdisk. If it asks you to write anything to the drive say NO.

Burning things with Ubuntu:

http://ubuntuclips.org/videos_4.html

After you backup your info you could just keep the info on the linux partition and transfer it to a windows partition on the malfunctioning hard drive THEN transfer back to the new drive once you install whatever main OS you want to run. The only issue with that is that you have to download a tool to read linux formated partition with Windows.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/tools-to-access-linux-partitions-from-windows.html

What I would do is back the files up to DVDs or CDs or USB keys and install whatever primary OS you want to run on the new drive and use the other drive as a secondary storage where you dont store anything you particularly need.

Make sure to do a full format on the old malfunctioning drive before you use it though. You would want to make sure the new hard disk is pulled into Master or Sata0 and put the second hard drive as Slave or Sata1. Then run the format on the secondary drive.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Create-and-format-a-hard-disk-partition