My computer died! Please Help!

[ncswimmer]

My computer gets a stop error when I'm trying to boot up now. I downloaded and installed a DAT file for Norton AV 2001, and then I rebooted my comp, and now it won't boot up. Don't know if the two are related or not, as I've gotten the error before. I think I first started getting the error after I installed Norton AV 2001, or Tiny Personal Firewall. I don't remember which order I installed them in, and when exactly I first got it. I've only seen it a couple times before, and when I rebooted, it always worked. It looks like a BSOD, though I've only seen this type a couple times, since I installed those two programs. Here's the error verbatim, including formatting:

***STOP: 0X0000001E (0XC0000005, 0XEB4708D3,0X00000000,0X0000000C)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow
these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is
identified in the Stop message, disable the driver or check
with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video
adapters.

Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable
BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need
to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your
computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then
select Safe Mode.

Refer to your Getting Started manual for more information on
troubleshooting Stop errors.

I've tried rebooting, and it doesn't help at all. I've tried going into safe mode, safe mode with networking, and last known good state, none of which have worked. I have no idea what the problem is, though as I said before, it seems to have started after one or both of the programs I installed. Could be coincidence. I'm running win2k pro on a P3 Dell with 2x256 RAM, and I have two physical hard drives, a 37.5GB IBM drive that came with the machine, with two partitions, C: is 1.6GB, and D: is the rest, roughly 36.4GB. E: is WD 60GB drive, one partition. All drives are NTFS. I don't know if the problem is that my C: drive is full, and if it is, I don't have any other computers running 2k that I could put the drive in to check.

Please help me fix this, and prevent it from happening again. If you need additional info, ask, and tell me how to get it. My full computer specs are in my profile.

[ncswimmer]

Anyone? I'm stuck using the other computer, which is slower, and doesn't have any of my stuff on it.

[EvilAjax]

It's 6AM... Im sure someone will stop by a little later..

Have you tried giving it mouth to mouth recipitation?
LMAO. Sorry... I'm sure someone will stop by and help you.. If not... just format

[minir]

Hi ncswimmer

Probably a Dumb Ass Suggestion,but have you tried going into MSCONFIG & unticking those items you've updated or Installed and see if ythat helps


Possibly do an SFC for corrupted Files & maybe a Repair on your Browser as well


Just some thoughts till someone arrives with a better solution


Good Luck


regards

minir

[minir]

Me Again ncswimmer

Also have you tried doing a Scanreg/restore to a date you had things working ???


regards

minir

[YeOldeStonecat]

If you need to get to stuff on your C-Drive....and you have room on your D partition...do a mirror install of 2K on your D partition so you can get to desktop and browse the C drive with its NTFS...you can manually mop up, see if it's getting full, delete the temp directory, temp internet files, and save stuff you need.

A disadvantage of running NTFS on your C partition....can't use a good old Win98 boot disk to snoop around and fiddle.

When/if you rebuild...give yourself a bigger C part...like at least 4 gigs. 2K is big...wants some room.

[legalmind]

"I installed Norton AV 2001"
Not the first computer Norton has been known to screw up!

[ExarKun]

Put the Win2k Disc in the drive and let it go to setup at the setup screen it will ask you to repair or setup win2k choose repair, then make sure you select a console repair, after that it will ask you for the current administrator password

after entering the password it will take you to a DOS prompt where you will be able to do a few thinks , one of them being able to delete directories, change directory's until you find the norton one and delete the entire directory, type quit or exit to reboot your computer and it should boot fine after that, you'll just get some event viewer errors for norton

If it doesn't boot again do another console repair and then the common files directory and and find the symantec shared directory there and delete it as well if neccessary go into documents and settings>administrator>application data>and delete symantec


NOTE by deleteing the symantec directories, all of your norton products on your machine will not function.. so please remember that you will have to reinstall them


Hope it works out and BTW get partition magic 7 and give your c drive some more space once you get up and running

[mouse]

Moved to the Software forum

Mouse

[ncswimmer]

Ok, my computer is more screwed up than previously thought. I tried putting the Win2k disk in and booting from that, but that didn't work either. I still get that error. I really have no idea how to fix this.

[richardc]

I am not familiar with NTFS, but if it is like FAT32,I think ExarKun is on the right track. If I have understood him, he said to "reinstall" or start the "reinstall" process. You want to get to the file X:\i386\winnt.exe where X is your CD ROM. After choosing REINSTALL on the first screen, W2K will detect a previous install and as if you wish to continue with a NEW install or attempt to repair the precious install. Clicking on "R" will start the repair process. I cannot remember whether you will be prompted to run Smardrv.exe or not - sorry.

[ExarKun]

Were you able to get into the repair console?

[ncswimmer]

I was, but I had no idea what to do from there. I can't uninstall Norton AV or Tiny because they're both on a different drive. My C: drive only has win2k on it, nothing else. And it wouldn't let me change to a different drive. So then I tried the built in repair thing, rather than the console. That didn't work either, I still got the BSOD. So now I'm stuck.

[onetrueday]

I'm curious why you havent tried reinstalling win2k? Since all your info is on other drivers, that would have been my first choice. 1.6 gigs is not enough for an os, considering you have a swap file to contend with as well.

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space.

That would be my guess, perhaps you ran something that chewed up a bunch of swap.

[ncswimmer]

Ok, I've given up and have decided to reinstall win2k. I figure I'm going to make the C: partition bigger anyway, so I might as well reformat and repartition. What size should I make the C: partition? I'd like to make it big enough that I can confortably have win2k on it, with a couple users, and swap files, but at the same time be able to have a second partition for storing files on.

Next, I'm having a problem. I'm using a boot disk, and going to fdisk, and trying to clear out the drive so I can repartition it, but it's not working. I select the physical drive that I want to work with, no problem. It won't let me delete the extended DOS partition because it says there is still a logical drive. But when I go to delete the logical drive, it says there aren't any. So I'm pretty much stuck. I don't know if there's something I'm overlooking, but it's kind of aggravating. If someone could please walk me through, step by step, I would very much appreciate it.

For background, I have two physical drives. The master drive has two partitions, C: has win2k on it, and D: is for storage, though it is currently empty. Once I'm in fdisk, how would I go about deleting the logical drives, partitions, etc? Like, obviously I want to have the master drive as the "current fixed disk drive," and not the slave drive, since it doesn't have the OS on it, just my MP3s, and other files. But does it matter which partition I have as the active one? I've tried deleting the logical drive while having both partitions as the active one, and it doesn't matter, it says there aren't any, regardless of which one is active. So then I try to delete the extended DOS partition, and that doesn't work, because it says that I still have logical drives. It says that no matter which partition I have set as the active one. Am I just doing something wrong? Or does that mean that my drive is severely screwed up? Once again, please walk me through, leave nothing for granted. I can get to fdisk, so start from the main screen in there.

[onetrueday]

I've always made mine a little less then 8 gigs.

[ncswimmer]

Well, I'm all fine now. I talked to a friend, and he told me I'd have to do a low level reformat I believe, or something like that. I guess that means that it doesn't give a crap about how you have it formatted/partitioned, and how they're screwed up, it will just do what you want it to. I downloaded the Data Lifeguard Tools from Western Digital, and it worked. Then I just repartitioned, reformatted, and reinstalled win2k pro, and I'm good to go. If any of you ever have any problems with your hard drive like I did, I definitely recommend the program from WD. It was very easy to use, and worked like a charm. The only problem was that when I made the boot disc with it, in order to use it on my computer, it writes to the floppy sector by sector, so it took a long time. But I guess it did it like that to make sure there weren't any other programs on the disk, but aside from that, it was great. I couldn't format to NTFS though, so I just did FAT32 and switched to NTFS once I got win2k running again.