crashing during bootup

[Gene E. Bloch]

Why "restart on system failure" is the default option I have never
understood. At the least it should be be to restart after pausing
long enough to let a human read the screen, grope for a pen, and copy
down the stop code..

Back in the day (XP? 95? I forget) I have been known to set a video
camera (on a tripod) facing the screen, turn it on to record, and then
start the computer

Then I did some research (once I had fixed things and could boot) on
how to make the registry change.

As stated elsewhere in the thread, Win 7 makes it a bit easier to boot
once without the quick restart option...

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Yeah, this tells me that making the BIOS changes I mentioned elsewhere in the
thread would have done the trick as well. Basically your "old" installation
was with the BIOS set to IDE\Compatible (not enhanced\AHCI) and therefore
those drivers aren't there. Changing the BIOS back with your old installation
would have made it boot again.

Doing a fresh install with the current BIOS settings caused Windows to use
those drivers and hence it works. You are better off this way though as by
being in this mode it is a better performing mode.

No one has mentioned the possibility that the CMOS battery is dead or
dying. This could explain settings getting changed behind the OP's
back...

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It's just as easy in XP.

Very informative, thanks

Tell ya what - just assume it was 95, then.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Happy New Year Alias. Kind missed you

--
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[John Price]

Yeah, this tells me that making the BIOS changes I mentioned
elsewhere in the thread would have done the trick as well. Basically
your "old" installation was with the BIOS set to IDE\Compatible (not
enhanced\AHCI) and therefore those drivers aren't there. Changing the
BIOS back with your old installation would have made it boot again.

Doing a fresh install with the current BIOS settings caused Windows
to use those drivers and hence it works. You are better off this way
though as by being in this mode it is a better performing mode.

Hi Seth - sorry to have not responded for a while - had to drop the
whole issue and deal with other (non-computer) things. I have
successfully reinstalled everything on one of the hard disks and all is
working fine. But I'm going to test out your theory by resetting the
BIOS to the "compatible" setting and try booting off the other drive
that remains as was.

Cheers

--

 

[John Price]

It still sounds like a disk interface operating mode issue.

If you could "re-arm" the drivers on the C: drive, it would
probably boot.

Basically, the methodology would be similar to this, only you'd
edit the registry on C:, with the copy of regedit on D: .

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/inaccessible_boot_device-windows-7-v
ista/

This article, gives the registry keys that control the drivers.
Setting the Start value to zero, "re-arms" the driver, so that
a change in BIOS disk operating mode can be resolved during boot.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-57789.html

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\pciide\Start
<== 0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci\Start
<== 0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV\Start
<== 0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor\Start
<== 0

The first one there is for IDE mode. The second one for AHCI mode.
The third one re-arms the Intel Vista RAID driver. The fourth one
would be if you separately installed an Intel RAID driver. It uses
a different key.

Now, all you need, is instructions on editing the registry, while
running from another OS.

There is a Fixit here, but that only works if you're booted from C:,
and then it edits the registry on C: for you. Hardly a "big fix".

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

This article shows how to edit a registry file on another partition.
Apparently, you use the "Load Hive" thing. But it would be a lot
easier to just change the BIOS setting, than take a chance with this.
At the very least, you'd back up copies of the registry files
on C:, so that if any of the edits go wrong, you can put the
original files back from D:.

http://4sysops.com/archives/regedit-as-offline-registry-editor/

Paul

Hi Paul - sorry not to have responded before now - had to deal with
other stuff. I am back up and running now, booting OK from the drive
that I reinstalled on. I'm going to study your suggestions above and
may try using them to see if that will reactivate one of the other
drives that are still not booting.

Cheers

--

 

[JIP]

Yeah, this tells me that making the BIOS changes I mentioned
elsewhere in the thread would have done the trick as well. Basically
your "old" installation was with the BIOS set to IDE\Compatible (not
enhanced\AHCI) and therefore those drivers aren't there. Changing the
BIOS back with your old installation would have made it boot again.

Doing a fresh install with the current BIOS settings caused Windows
to use those drivers and hence it works. You are better off this way
though as by being in this mode it is a better performing mode.

Seth you were spot on - I changed the BIOS setting to IDE/Compatible,
and the disk that wasn't booting, now does so without a problem. All
the work of reinstalling everything was a waste of time. So many many
thanks. I didn't think it made sense that four separate hard disks
could all have developed the same fault at the same time, including one
that hadn't been in the computer for months!

Oh well, at least I learned a lot in the process!!

Again, many thanks

JIP

 

[Seth]

Seth you were spot on - I changed the BIOS setting to IDE/Compatible,
and the disk that wasn't booting, now does so without a problem. All
the work of reinstalling everything was a waste of time. So many many
thanks. I didn't think it made sense that four separate hard disks
could all have developed the same fault at the same time, including one
that hadn't been in the computer for months!

Oh well, at least I learned a lot in the process!!

Again, many thanks

No worries. Once all the symptoms were presented the issue was evident. Like
an episode of "House MD".