BSOD on Startup!

I desperately need some help! When I booted-up my PC today I received a BSOD - the reported technical information is... STOP: 0x0000007B, (0xF78A2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). Btw, I get the same BSOD when attempting to boot into both Safe Mode and Last Known Good Configuration!

Since I just made an image backup yesterday, I restored that image and it reported a succesful restore. Even though everything seemed to be working properly just before I made the backup, to my horror I'm still experiencing the same startup BSOD (and Stop) with the restored image!

What should I do next?

 

Wendi,

A 7B BSOD usually means missing storage controller drivers. Typically seen when restoring an image to different hardware. But I assume you are restoring to the same HD.

Which OS? SATA HDs? AHCI? Which imaging software?

 

Thanks for the reply Brian! My PC is running Windows XP SP3 and according to my dad the system drive is a WD360 Raptor (connected to a Promise 378 controller). My backup software is Drive Snapshot, which Aaron Here (on this forum) recommended to me earlier this year and I did restore my backup image to the same C-drive. I do have another backup image from a week ago, but as I prefer not to lose a week's worth of data/docs I haven't tried restoring that one!

My dad is letting me use his laptop during this crisis and after reading your reply my dad told me to tell you that we do have a copy of the Promise drivers, but since we can't get the PC to even boot in Safe Mode he doesn't know how to reinstall them.

Wendi

 

Wendi,

I don't understand why this happened to you but I'd install the Promise drivers with this method...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/howto-drvins-tbosdt-dos.htm

The Pro version of TBOSDT will install drivers easily but it's not free. The above method is free.

 

Did you restore the complete image including the boot sector ?

Drive Snapshot does not automatically restore the complete boot area of the hard drive unless told to do so but it automatically backs it up. The reason for this is so the imaged partition can be moved. During the restore process you can right click the drive in the bottom of the restore dialog and select select to restore the drive structure.

You didn't leave a card in the memory card reader, or maybe the reader has failed, had this once (it really should not do that). Could also be a HDD failure.

see:

--http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/hardware.htm--

--http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/rest1.htm--

--http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/backfaq.htm--

--http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/tips.htm--

hope this is useful...

rrrh1

 

Hi Wendo! 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.

Let's do one other thing. If you're the Rollback forum poster, try this (in line with RRRH1's post). 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, replacing your hard disk is a reasonable approach 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!

 

Thanks again Brian, I'll check that out. I don't know what I could have done to cause this, but my dad thinks that it may be a rootkit virus!

Wendi

 

Hello rrh1,

Thanks for your suggestions. I will try to digest those directions and then do another restore (and I too hope that they will prove useful)!

Wendi

 

TRF, thank you for your extensive reply. While I'm glad to hear that you think my hard drive is physically ok I'm rather confused by the rest of your post.

First of all, this PC does not have Rollback Rx. While I did install the Rollback trial several months ago, after learning (from you) that certain malware can easily bypass it I decided not to buy it.

Secondly, I have never posted in the Rollback Forum and as I mentioned in my reply to Brian (above) the image backup program that I use is Drive Snapshot, not IFW.

But I do appreciate your trying to help me with this nasty problem!

Wendi (not Wendo)

 

Hello

Maybe you can fix that problem by following these steps:
First, you'll need a Windows XP CD.

- Boot from the CD (during the boot, check what button you need to press to access the BIOS – maybe F2 or Del – once there find the boot options, and place CD/DVD as the first boot option. Save and exit.)

- Access the recovery console by following the instructions described here (follow all the 6 steps): http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/rconsole.htm

- Once the recovery console is ready for a command, type:

fixmbr (then press enter)
fixboot c: (then press enter)

Take out the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC.


If eventually it doesn´t work or you really have the urge to access some files inside that computer, you can recover them:
Download this iso and burn it to a CD (Puppy Linux – 128MB): http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-5.2.8/lupu-528.iso
Boot from the CD. Once you reach the desktop you should see your disk, down in the left. Access to it and simply copy your files to any media you have (a external disk, USB, DVD…)

Good luck!

 

i would just like to throw this in, make sure your hard drive is seated properly and that the cables are in properly, whilst your at it change the sata/IDE cable to make sure its not a hardware issue, had the exact same problem on a clients PC and it turned out it was a bad sata cable. although most likely its a software issue, its best to rule out the easy things first.

 

Hi, Wendi.
Building on what all prior posters have said,
I think the quickest thing to check would be that your hard drive and storage controllers are indeed securely and properly connected, possibly because I view opening the case to not be a big deal, which you may or may not view the same - I would do this just because it's a BSOD and because of Brian K's interpretation of it. Over time, with thermal cycling startup/shutdown cycles, these connections can become less than perfect. It's a matter of carefully undoing the cable connections, make sure they are clean and not gunked up with dust or oxidation and reseating them, likewise for the storage controller - removing from the connection slot and then carefully reseating it.

Secondly, I would follow up on the missing/faulty MBR theory and follow what AlexC says about using XP boot cd and trying fixmbr. I'm used to seeing a boot message something like "missing NTOSLDR" when MBR is the problem but you never know. a good MBR could be missing from the restore you did and, if that's the case, "fixmbr" from recovery console is a bit quicker way to try this than doing the restore all over again. Nonetheless, yes from your backup restore software you would want to include the MBR/first sector restore (sorry, I only know Image for Windows, rather than Drive Snapshot).

Sorry to be "windy", Wendi but I'm trying to help declutter the diagnosis for you and give you two things to try as possible "low hanging fruit" in getting your problem solved.

 

Wendi

If your dad thinks the PC has a virus, download the following to a good PC and burn a CD. Boot from the CD and let it scan your C drive.

http://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper

 

Thank you all very much for trying to help, but most of your suggestions are beyond my capability. My dad will be coming over later on today and will follow-up on your suggestions.

Wendi

 

Good luck and please post back how things turn out so we can all learn something.

 

@Wendi, since your computer worked fine before restoring the image, you should start with a disk error check on your restored partition.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265/en-us

the following links describe all the possible reasons/solutions for the error message "STOP: 0x0000007B":
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103/en
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/stop0x0000007b.htm

Panagiotis

 

Problem solved and I'm reporting back as a matter of courtesy. It turned out that 'father does know best' as my system was infected (as he first guessed). He started-up my PC with a special disk he had with a few Anit-Malware programs on it, one of which found and removed a 'TDSS rootkit'. He then ran chkdsk /f which found and removed some errors. All is now well.

Thanks to everone who tried to help me with this problem.

Wendi

 

Thanks! Glad your dad was able to make short work of it!