Need help with corrupt Windows XP install

[Mulciber]

To preface, i just installed Windows XP sp1 a few weeks ago and upgraded to sp2. Its been running stable so far. Its on a raid0 setup on 2 80gb maxtor diamondmax 10s, brand new.

As it is, when Windows XP loads, i get to the login screen, but there are no available logins. I mean to say, there is nothing at all on the screen but my mouse cursor and "welcome to windows". Where normally one would see "select user", there is nothing.

I tried logging in via remote desktop. I get a login prompt there, it accepts my password, logs me in, but then before explorer can load, logs me back right out.

I have installed Windows on another drive and am currently looking through the corrupt installation for a sign of the problem. Unfortunately, my System Log from event logs is corrupt, so thats no help at all.

What I'm wondering is if anyone knows of a Windows XP diagnostic that will check NONRUNNING Windows installations.

edit: clarifying a mistake. it says "microsoft windows", rather than welcome to windows.

 

[wireframe]

As it is, when Windows XP loads, i get to the login screen, but there are no available logins. I mean to say, there is nothing at all on the screen but my mouse cursor and "welcome to windows". Where normally one would see "select user", there is nothing.

Have you tried pressing ctrl-alt-del twice here?

I tried logging in via remote desktop. I get a login prompt there, it accepts my password, logs me in, but then before explorer can load, logs me back right out.

I have installed Windows on another drive and am currently looking through the corrupt installation for a sign of the problem. Unfortunately, my System Log from event logs is corrupt, so thats no help at all.

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode (hit F8 before Windows loads...which really means hit F8 like crazy until you get the boot options screen)? Safe Mode may allow you in and you can also try booting the recovery console from the XP CD.

What I'm wondering is if anyone knows of a Windows XP diagnostic that will check NONRUNNING Windows installations.

That would probably be your XP CD recovery console, but I suppose you can also boot a "live" GNU/Linux distribution like Knoppix and have a look around. The problem with this is that there is not much you can do in terms of repair.

I recommend you perform a "Repair Install". Boot the XP CD as normal when installing Windows. At some point the installer will detect your Windows installation and ask if you want to repair it (as opposed to formatting and installing everything again). This will only install Windows files and leave everything else intact (well, it should). I would also recommend "slipstreaming" SP2 into your XP base install CD (will require a CD burner). This way you get SP2 from the installation/repair and don't have to worry about applying it separately.

 

[Mulciber]

Have you tried pressing ctrl-alt-del twice here?

yes, nothing

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode (hit F8 before Windows loads...which really means hit F8 like crazy until you get the boot options screen)? Safe Mode may allow you in and you can also try booting the recovery console from the XP CD.

yes, trying to log into safe mode or safe mode or with command prompt gives the exact same symptom, a screen with nothing but "welcome to windows"

That would probably be your XP CD recovery console, but I suppose you can also boot a "live" GNU/Linux distribution like Knoppix and have a look around. The problem with this is that there is not much you can do in terms of repair.

Well, I'm already looking around from another Windows installation. Thats how I found out my Event Log was corrupt. And yes, there's not too much I can do, thats why I'm looking for a program that will diagnose problems on a Windows install that is not currently running. There are tons of diagnostic programs for Windows, but I cant seem to find any that will diagnose problems on a install that is not currently running/active.

 

[wireframe]

Is there some reason why you cannot just perform a repair installation and hope that it won't break again? I would venture a guess that it is your RAID 0 setup that has caused the corruption, but perhaps it was a temporary glitch that snowballed out of control. A repair installation should not break anything. If anything, it might give you some time to salvage any personal data you have on the drive.

I realize this won't automatically help isolate the actual problem, but it's quite possible you could run some tests with the new installation up and running and perhaps you can observe it break.

If I were you I'd give up on diagnosing the problems from a Windows perspective. Instead I would focus on salvaging any data that I could and then testing the drives (cannot be done using tools such as PowerMAX in RAID mode) and cables. Perhaps there is some other problem, like RAM (this you can test using Memtest86+ as your system is configured now without causing further damage).

 

[Guden Oden]

Why not just run a data recovery program and back up any important files, then format the drive array (disabling raid-0 in the process since it gives very few real-life benefits and doubles the probability of failure) and start anew?