BSoD when starting Windows

TheFid2

I'm getting the Windows STOP screen this morning windows won't start. Rather than fuck with it forever, I'd like to just install Vista on a new partition, pull the files I need from the old partition and wipe it. Is there a way to create a new partition on my HDD that has a bunch of free space AND without doing it from inside Windows?

Alternatively, I have A 3.5" External Drive Enclosure. It's about 6 years old and has a 40GB in there now, but presumably, couldn't I take the 640GB out of my computer, put it in the external, pull the files I need onto a laptop, then replace the HDD and format?

TheFid2

FUCK

the old enclosure must take a different type on HDD. the pins don't match up at all

I think the old one is ATA and the new is SATA

TheFid2

And now we have error codes

1a
BCP1: 00041790
BCP2: C0802054
BCP3: 0000FFFF
BCP4: 00000000

help?

Seeks

Have you considered a live CD of some sort? That'd be the first place I'd turn.

Knoppix is my go-to, though I'm sure most of them work just as well. You may even be able to find a very small, bootable, command-line type dealie somewhere.

Loads from the CD, you can start a disc partitioner without logging into windows and fuck with the HD to your heart's content.

TheFid2

I googled the error code and found out maybe it had to do with memory. I took out one of the 2GB sticks and put the other in slot 1. I booted up and didn't blue screen, but Windows loaded slowly and when I tried to access explorer, it just hung there.

Now I'm trying in Safe mode and it's taking forever, but still no blue screen. It's just taking a stupid amount of time to do anything, and I have yet to do something substantial.

But would it stand to reason the RAM was the problem if i'm not getting any more BSoDs and that's the only think I changed?

TheFid2

I don't know a lot about Live CDs or Linux, but I'll look into that tonight

ugh It's not letting me do anything with explorer. I click it and nothing happens

Azio

Download Ubuntu, burn it onto a disc, and boot it. You can use the built-in file explorer to back up your shit, and the Partition Manager to adjust your partitions if you wish.

TheFid2

alright, I'll give that a shot tonight since I can't do anything with Windows as it exists right now

TheFid2

yeah, I think the RAM stick is fried. Any combination that involves the stick installed, Windows won't load. If I only have the one stick in there, it loads but I haven't been able to so much as open Explorer because it just sits there with the hourglass.

So sho0uld I buy new RAM? If so, any reccommendations?

It's replacing one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231226&Tpk=N82E16820231226

Is it cool to mix RAM or should I buy 2 matching 2GB sticks?

thanks for the help

Seeks

From my experience (limited, admittedly), as long as it's the same type - DDR2 or DDR3, DDR2 is the most common - you're cool doing whatever. If you've got a local computer hardware store, you're just as good going there and dropping $35 on a 2 gig stick of whatever they have.

If you're going over 4 gigs, I guess you'll want a 64-bit OS to take advantage of that.

Seems kind of odd that Windows is having a hard time with 2 gigs, though, unless I'm misinterpreting the situation here.

You could also google memtest (I think that's what it's called) to see if it's actually your ram. Sounds like it is, but you never know. I wouldn't bother personally, because I hate waiting for things (I never defrag my hard drive, for instance), but plenty of people use it.

TheFid2

I thought it was odd too, but if nothing else, it appear the RAM is at least part of the problem

TheFid2

OK, an update on my situation

I got the stick RMA'd and it came back today. I put it in the slot.

My computer boots with both sticks in, however once it hits windows it slows to a crawl. It loads things like Thunderbird or my weather widget, but it takes literally hours to complete start up, it's that slow.

Back when I took the bad stick out, my far more tech-savy friend got into the task manager and concluded that it was because Windows still thought that it was working with 4 gigs of RAM so it was reserving nearly half of it for various processes, leaving it maybe 100MB of RAM to work with.

But now I have both sticks in there and they work fine, but Windows is still craaaawling. The weird part is, I can minimize and close programs instantly, it's any time the computer tries to load something or process a request like "open explorer window" that it sits there for a half an hour.

Any ideas how to fix this?

SyphonBlue

Format and reinstall Windows.

TheFid2

I should add that I can do pretty much anything in Task Manager with no lag. hitting CtrlAltDel brings it up instantly and I can switch tabs and monitor with no problem.

Also, once the networking processes load, I can access all of my files on the hard drive from another computer on the network with no problems.

And thunderbird will alert me the instant I have a message with a sound and a pop-up, I just can't open the program because mousing over the taskbar turns it into the Win7 version of the hourglass and I can't click anything

TheFid2

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Format and reinstall Windows.

Do you think I could repair the installation? I'm burning a copy of the install CD now to attempt this

SyphonBlue

TheFid2 wrote: »

SyphonBlue wrote: »

Format and reinstall Windows.

Do you think I could repair the installation? I'm burning a copy of the install CD now to attempt this

If you haven't already, chkdsk /r should be the first thing you try.

TheFid2

what's that?

Sorry, I've been a Mac user for the last 4 years

SyphonBlue

TheFid2 wrote: »

what's that?

Sorry, I've been a Mac user for the last 4 years

Is your install CD for XP or Vista/7?

TheFid2

the one I'm burning right now is 7

When I installed it originally, it was off of a bootable USB which I re-formatted a while back

wunderbar

yea, a 7 install disk is useless with a vista installation, unless, of course, you're installing 7.

SyphonBlue

TheFid2 wrote: »

the one I'm burning right now is 7

When I installed it originally, it was off of a bootable USB which I re-formatted a while back

When you go into the install boot, click Repair Computer or whatever it says. Then go to Command Prompt and type in "chkdsk /r" and let it go. It could take as long as 5 hours, or as short as half an hour.