I just updated firefox and rebooted and it gave me a stop c00021a error. I cant boot at all, even into safe mode. I need the things on this hard drive desperately. Some are contained on the desktop itself, and some in My Documents. Is it possible to get these files if I hook the hard drive up in my portable hard drive enclosure and up to another computer? How? I've run into trouble in the past doing this and I'm very scared I won't be able to get them.
There's no way (IMO) that a Firefox update did this - something else was happening and it just coincided with your FF Update. First, at the 'safe-mode' choices screen, try 'LAST KNOWN GOOD' Failing that, slip in your XP CD and boot to it, choosing to INSTALL from the first screen, then on the next screen, choose REPAIR and then select the appropriate drive, choosing to install to the default location (it's important to *NOT* choose REPAIR from the first screen unless you know how to utilize the MS Recovery Console...if you choose to REPAIR from the *SECOND* screen, it will effectively do a 'repair install' over the top of the original XP files, leaving all your stuff intact and operational again.) You may want to open up your case and double check everything's place in there...making sure that everything is seated properly (RAM, GPU, all your power connections, any PCI components/peripherals) - could be that something has come loose and is causing this problem. After all is said and done, check into an imaging program such as Acronis True Image - and be religious about backing everything up with it...sometimes it's easier to wipe a drive clean and install your last working full image than to mess with petty MS errors. Like me, right now, I have almost 2TB full of my 2.5TB in harddrive space - I have everything backed up with Acronis True Image every few days, so if something like what you've got happens to me, I have everything back up to just a few days ago and I never worry about it at all. Good luck, and post back with what you come up with! Psychlone
Well, there is no repair option beyond going into the recovery console. I tried Last known good and that did not work either. I'm pretty concerned. I don't care if I have to reinstall, or do what ever it takes to be able to access those files. They are located on the Desktop and My Documents folder, in the same partition as Windows. Is there ANY way to access those files? If I hook the drive up as spare HDD (buy an enclosure), how will I be able to access those files? It is NTFS and I have a password for the logon. Help
You didn't follow through far enough - if you seen the 'Recovery Console' option, that's only the first selection - you need to follow through to the next part *after* clicking INSTALL - where it will give you the option to do a REPAIR INSTALL over the original location... Technically, you can also use the 'Repair Console' to copy those files to another HDD (like a spare backup HDD) - but only if you know MSDOS commands...the REPAIR INSTALL is your best bet by *far*. For your idea of hooking up another drive, you don't have to remove the original from the case at all - simply install another HDD with XP or Vista on it in SATA slot 1 and boot to it instead of the damaged one, drag and drop everything you need over to the new HDD and you're done. As for your password for the logon, that's not even going to be an issue if you'll just use the *SECOND* 'REPAIR' option - I think you just didn't follow through all the way to the second part of the installation where you get to tell it to REPAIR instead of CLEAN INSTALL. Good luck! Psychlone
Hi Again. Actually I did follow through all the way. The option fori t never came up. At the screen where it would've, it found the partition but didn't ask to repair it. Also, during this process it said it couldn't find a previous version of windows, so I had to stick in an old 98 CD. Using the repair console, I used the dir comman to see what was on the drive - it found the main directories but since I don't know DOS, I have no idea how to go any further. I tried a few of the commands sugested by microsoft to repair the .dll thought to be corruped with ths error, but it won't work - I think windows is massively corupted. I tried to hook this drive up as a slave, and hooked up a HDD that had windows on it, but it wouldn't see the drive even though the BIOS does. I thin it might have something to do with the SATA drivers. Ugh. Wish I knew what I was doing and where to go from here.
Success! I installed the motherboard drivers again on the spare hard drive with xp on it, and this time it worked. I can see all the files on the hard drive! thanks for the help, it really did push me along. Happiness! Note to self in the future: Always save your stuff on another hard drive, and back up religiously.
^ Word. I'm glad you got it working, and I'm seriously glad you've decided to pray to the backup Gods!!! Psychlone
