BSODs can not restore

I have Paragon/Pro 10. My full image backups are on a USB connected HP Personal Media Drive (storage device only) and I have one archive on the C: drive. I have XP/Pro installed (preloaded).

My system will not boot. I get BSODs with error message 0X0.7B OXF7984528. I have tried Safe boot and Normal boot, but the error persists. I used the Paragon WINPE CD and it is asking me for a driver which HP only supplies with the unit (plug and play). I tried selecting the archived backup file on the HP drive, but it does not recognize it. I may be selecting the wrong file! As the HP unit is not a bootable device, I just want to make sure I can access the correct archive file, so the restore can run. I am having no luck with it.

As a note: As I do not have an XP install CD, I put my W7 install CD in and selected 'Repair your System' ... opened the Command Prompt and ran CHKDSK /f /r. From my limited knowledge, it appears that the MBR is corrupted.

I may not need to restore the entire system at this juncture, but I have no idea how to write a new MBR for XP. If I could get something onto a CD or floppy and have the appropriate instructions that would be a tremendous help. I have a 'boot to DOS' on a diskette, so I can get that far (but using DOS is not a skill I posses).
Can you help me?

 

Try to use the MbrFix commend using the Command Prompt, you can find a complete explanation of the program in the following link:

http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm

 

Thank you very much for your response, I do appreciate it.

I think that this will help me resolve the problem, however when I use the WINPE disk that I created from Paragon, I do not know how to implement this utility. It is now installed on a thumb drive and on a CD, but how do I execute it under Paragons WINPE? The other prerequisite of this utility is that Administrator is required. Do I have this on this when I use WINPE from Paragon?

I thought if I went back to the W7 install disk, that I would be able to access the thumb drive or the CD to access the utility, but it can not see either. A DOS startup disk can only see the A: drive, so I am not having any luck there either.

This utility, according to the creator, does not run in DOS and it does not require the XP recovery console. He said he got it running using WINPE. Do I need vanilla WINPE to make this work?

I am lost. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 

If you have the Paragons rescue WINPE, you can do all the boot fixing from the paragon main page.

Just select the Tools, Boot correction Wisard and then you'll have access to several tool for correcting the boot sector, including fixing the MBR sector for XP.

 

Tnx guys for the words of wisdom.
I found the media recovery CD that I created a year ago and used it to fix the MBR (guess it is the same utility that is on the WINPE disk...dah to me!). On reboot the BSOD returned, so it must be XP itself.

I tried the restore again, this time from the recovery media CD and it found the archive files on my HP PMD. I think I just screwed it up before. The restore was very straight forward. Tnx again.

 

BSOD 7B usually means that there are some drivers that prevent Windows correct boot.

Please try to restore the last known good configuration using Advanced boot menu (press F8 during Windows startup). In most cases it helps to roll-back the registry.

As of restoring from WinPE:
in the Restore wizard navigate to the backup folder (where all archive files saved) and click them one-by-one to find the correct one you need. You may also need to switch to "Show files" view instead of "Show archives"

 

Thank you for your response. Yes, I looked up the 7B BSOD code and it is as you say. The boot process is a process and more than the MBR being OK. I agree with you that the windows boot drivers have become inaccessible and that is why the C drive will not boot into XP. I understand that this info is initially loaded from the XP installation CD (which I do not have).
I did try Safe Mode and PF8 Last known good config after the 7B BSOD error, but got nowhere. I am pretty sure that I do not have a BIOS or motherboard problem as Ubuntu loads on this system and works like a charm.
I think my only option is to get the restore to work. My XP/Pro is obviously corrupted on my C drive. The full system image on the backup drive is about 1 year old and the archive files are the same...it was my last working system. I accessed the archive file on the backup drive and it took 6 hours to restore. It finished without errors and I rebooted C. The same BSOD returned after the restart.

Before consuming another 6 hours on this, should I reformat the C drive first, then try the restore again from the archive? I can see the boot files on the backup drive ... I assume they also get restored.

 

You don't mention any known cause for the machine not working and other possible fixes have failed so before I went any further:

I'd download the manufacturer's disk diagnostic program and check your HD.

I'd download and run Memtest86+ from www.memtest.org for a few passes.

Yes, you said it boots up Ubuntu but not all OSs do things the same way and use the same RAM locations for critical info or use the same device commands in device drivers. It the above show no errors then you have eliminated a possible cause.

 

I ran PC Doctor for DOS on the system. All the tests passed. I set the BIOS to start with diagnostics...it checks RAM. I ran CHKDSK /f /r and it came back indicating that there was a problem with the boot. I started chasing down the boot problem after this. The original problem was caused by me hitting restart before a defrag of C was complete.

 

Fair enough, I can see why you are taking your approach. One point, a manufacturer's disk diagnostic is typically better than chkdsk.

What is strange is your restoration of the old archive and the problem persists. Formatting the disk will do nothing because the format is just the filesystem structure and you restored that when you restored the archive. What you might try is to redo the partitioning in case the partition table is bad.

Did you restore MBR/Track0 when you did your restore?

 

I remember selecting it when I did the backup. There were 3 archive files merged into one and when I selected it, all 3 were presented and restored. I think track 1 contains the MBR.

Would there be a possibility that I could make use of the full system image of C that is also on the backup drive? I can see this image on the backup drive (and the boot info).

I am up to trying your re-partitioning suggestion ... makes sense. My laptop did not come with a manufacturers diagnostic disk. Sounds like a nifty thing to have.

 

If you have another image of C then I don't see why it wouldn't be worth a try - I assuming the "full system image of C" is just a regular image of C. I'm not totally familiar with all of Paragon's terminology so I sometimes wonder if somethings are a special entity. Since you already have restored to the state you are in, if something goes wrong you can always get back to this stage with another restore.

You can usually download a diagnostic program for your disk from the manufacturer's website.

 

Tnx to all here for your time. So so soooo much appreciated.
The diagnostic program ... success! I finally just selected the factory install. This allowed me to reboot successfully and Paragon got me to my full system image backup on the USB drive. Voila, the restore was smooth. XP is back. I re partitioned C with XP and Ubuntu. I am falling in love with Ubuntu (go figure!)
Thank you thank you thank you

 

Glad you got it working and thanks for letting us know.