Defrag then BSOD

[emmjay]

I was defraging my T23 XP/Pro system after having uninstalled several applications that I no longer use. The defrag took quite some time and I forgot it was running and I rebooted.  I can no longer boot into Windows, either Safe boot or any of the other options, including safe mode with command prompt.  I was hoping to run CHKDSK /f /r to see if that would work.

I am getting constant BSODs.  I tried PF11 (PC DOS says the system is working just fine). I have a Linux CD, but I do not know how to use it to fix Windows.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

[ColonelONeill]

You may want to see if the drive has failed. Not sure how you can pull SMART data, but I'm sure you should be able to.

[1972vet]

Reboot the computer. When the blue "Stop" screen (BSOD) comes up,  write down everything that appears on the screen with specific attention to any driver information it displays. That particular data should appear along the bottom of the screen.

In any case, make note of what appears on the screen and post that information back here on  your next reply. Also, please advise us if you have your Windows XP installation CD handy. Thanks!

[emmjay]

Thanks guys for offering to help.

The BSOD error code is OXO 000007B OXF 7984528 OXC 0000034 OXO OXO  Inaccessible-boot-device.

My T23 is a preload, so unfortuantley no XP installation CD. Obviously the C drive is  corrupted because of my foolish action.  I set the BIOS to run diagnostics on startup and it seems happy with the RAM and the motherboard etc..  I ran PC Doctor under DOS and all the tests passed (HDD, motherboard, ram etc...).   With XP being corrupted, I understand why it can not get to the windows partition to retrieve the boot info that it needs to complete the boot. I tried safe boot, last known config ... they all fail. 

The T23 does not have R+R, so I used Windows Backup and Recovery.  I have an ASR diskette and a full system backup on a non-bootable USB connected HD.  The T23 can not set a USB HDD as bootable (if anyone knows how to do this, I would be elated).  I also have a DOS bootup disk, so I can get into DOS. I have no idea how to use the ASR disk to get to the windows back up on the USB drive. There must be some DOS comands that I need to enter to use the ASR,  but I do not know what they are.  My knowledge of DOS commands is extremely limited.  I think the startup disk is MS-DOS. 

I tried to recover using PF11. That would take m back to the factory install (back 12 years ... no SP2 and SP3  ...not a good place to be , so I would like to see if I can get back using some other method. 

Any and all suggestions would be most appreciated.  

[buddinggeek]

Did you defrag the MBR too??

[emmjay · Accepted solution]

Ha ha .  No I did not.    Can you actually do that?  

I should have gotton back and posted that this problem has now been solved.  Me bad. 

I used Paragon to access the system as R+R is not  available on the T23.  It allowed me to write a vanilla MBR and that gave me access to the XP recovery console. As I have a ligit XP license, this is allowed via Paragon.  I got the real license from running Belarc. My backups were then accessible on the floppy disks.  ASR did its recovery thing and XP is now bootable.

 NB: I have decided to drop the ASR method and have gone to Paragon's backup and recovery using the CD device.  Tried a backup and restore and it worked just fine. 

Guess I should defrag again  as I want Linux on this system.  Do I dare!