Startup BSOD has me dead in the water!

[35mm]

Hi all,

I am here with my very first post in need of help (ASAP)! I've been using Rollback Rx for a few years with nothing but praise for the number of times it has saved my butt. I might add that I'm also in the habit of backing up every few days with IFW.

When I attempted to start my PC (Win XP) today I received a BSOD before the Rollback sub-console had a chance to run!!! The reported technical information is... Stop: 0x0000007B, (0xF78A2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) {I also get the same BSOD when I try booting into Safe Mode, or Last Known Good Configuration}.

So then I restored my last IFW image and got a succesful restore. Even though my system was working perfectly when I made the backup (yesterday), I'm still experiencing the very same startup BSOD with the restored image!

Any advice would sure be appreciated...

[HDS-Jacob]

Hello 35mm,

Thank you for the detailed post. If you haven't already, please submit a ticket to support at the Horizon DataSys Facebook page Horizon DataSys | Facebook. Click on "Support" on left-hand side and then click on the "Support Request" Tab. Support can also be reached at http://support.horizondatasys.com

Some members in here have experience with IFW so let's see if we can get some suggestions.

Best,
Jacob

[Owl]

If you are not wanting to spend much time on the problem, I would be inclined to swap in a new hard drive and then restore to it.

[Froggie]

Hi 35mm! Sounds like you've got a mess on your hands.

The fact that you're getting a BSOD at all tells me you've reached Windows just fine... it's the only application that can produce such a thing. The fact that you don't get to the Rollback CONSOLE before Windows and its BSOD tells me that something seriously is wrong with your Master Boot Record (MBR). The fact that you're able to restore your IFW backup image successfully tells me that the machine itself is basically OK.

Before taking Owl's suggestion of a disk swap (a very reasonable step), let's do one other thing. Restore your most recent IFW image one more time, but this time do what they call a NORMAL restore. This will eventually bring up an IFW option window that lets you do some additional things. The most important option to select is "Restore First Track" and set the accompanying "Sector(s)" data field to "AUTO." This will restore your MBR (as it was when you did the image) and the important aspects of your BOOT stream without affecting your disk's partition information. Normally this info is not restored using the AUTOMATIC (rather than NORMAL) restore. This should get your BOOT stream back in tact. Of course if this BOOT stream was damaged just prior to your last backup, the result will be the same as yours. If so, try the backup before that one.

If these ops fail, Owl's suggestion would be the most prudent to follow, since that's where the Master Boot Record resides. Yes, you may be having a hard disk problem (reading) but that would be the last thing I would suspect at this juncture.

Good luck!

[Owl]

Aha! I had not realised the MBR might not have been restored. Yes, try that first.

[Froggie]

Originally Posted by Owl

Aha! I had not realised the MBR might not have been restored. Yes, try that first.

Hi Owl! Yup, "most" imagers DO NOT restore the MBR unless asked... reason, the user may have reconfigured his BOOT loader or his disk's partitions since the last backup. If the imager restores the saved MBR by DEFAULT, it would wreck all those changes (including any NEW partition directives that may have been created). The decision has to be the User's when doing this, not the application's.

[35mm]

Originally Posted by Owl

If you are not wanting to spend much time on the problem, I would be inclined to swap in a new hard drive and then restore to it.

Owl,

I don't have a spare hard drive and I don't want to buy a new one unless it's pretty evident that my c-drive is a gonner.

Thanks anyway,
35mm

[35mm]

Originally Posted by Froggie

"most" imagers DO NOT restore the MBR unless asked... reason, the user may have reconfigured his BOOT loader or his disk's partitions since the last backup. If the imager restores the saved MBR by DEFAULT, it would wreck all those changes (including any NEW partition directives that may have been created). The decision has to be the User's when doing this, not the application's.

Froggie,

I didn't know that IFD doesn't automatically restore the MBR portion of an IFW image. I'm going to follow your advice (in your detailed post) and report back as soon as I know whether or not that's the solution. {Do you think malware caused this problem?

35mm

[35mm]

Originally Posted by Froggie

<snip>Of course if this BOOT stream was damaged just prior to your last backup, the result will be the same as yours. If so, try the backup before that one.</snip>

Froggie, restoring the first track of my most recent image did not resolve the problem, so perhaps it is corrupted/damaged. To make sure I understand the portion snipped above from your advice, can I restore just the first track from an older image, overwriting the first track of my most current restored image? And if doing that precludes the BSOD problem, will my most recent Rollback snapshots be available, corrupted, or what?

[Owl]

...or perhaps the first track of your hard drive is damaged