blue screen and recovery How does it know?

I tried to install ZoneAlarm but apparently Zonealarm isn't quite ready for Vista and I got a blue screen when the installation finished the computer blue screened with a memory dump. A google search determined the problem is epidemic with zone alarm. I thought to myself "well there is no telling what that just messed up on my system" and went to recover from the full true image image I made yesterday. I deleted the original partition and restored. When the new image booted up it told me that windows had recovered from a serious error and that the error was a blue screen. That's odd. I deleted the partition with partition magic and tried the restore again. Same thing. Windows has recovered form a serious error.
My question is: If I deleted the partition and restored, how does windows know that there was a blue screen? Is that information stored on a secret partition on the HD or the MBR or something like that? I am 100% positive that the original partition was deleted.

 

The only thing I can think of is when you restored the partition, it must have also restored the log file in windows that contained information on that particular BSOD (Blue screen of death). Then again, that would only apply if you made the backup AFTER the BSOD occurred. So unless that's the case, I don't know. It shouldn't be that big of an issue, however.

 

Try this, reinstall the image, then shut down and pop in the Vista Anywhere dvd and boot from the dvd drive, tell vista dvd to repair current install and let it do its thing. After its done reboot without the Vista dvd in and see if it fixed it.

-Reby

 

That's a good idea Reby. I appreciate the input from both of you. You are right Terraforce, it's really not that big of a deal. I just want my system to be as pristine as possible and if there is something corrupt that is invading my system, it's going to bug me. I guess I am not as in control of things as I thought I was. I just wish I knew how windows knows. Maybe thats it. Maybe they know everything - big brother is watching!

 

I just tried the restore again. Once again it tells me that it has recovered from a serious error. This is nuts. Am I going to get pestered about this every time I restore? I even tried a image file I made a week ago - and get this - I get the same message! Arggg!

 

Maybe I had my external HD on when the blue screen occurred (I don't remember), and since that is where my images are stored, some log file was stored there. Does that sound reasonable?

 

That sounds very reasonable. The "active" log files for windows are in the system directory, which is your primary internal (C drive. However, when you load an image from your external, it's also loading the log file that was once on your C: drive.

Therefore, if you created the image AFTER the BSOD occurred, then your reasoning is most likely the case. If you did it before the BSOD, Windows maybe looking at an older occurrence of a serious error that is no longer relevant.

Just my theory.

 

The image was DEFINITELY made before the blue screen. In fact they all were. I looked on the external HD with another computer and could not find any traces of any problem reports, but I am not really sure what to look for. The only thing that I didn't put on the drive that is there is a folder called "System Volume Information" and a lightweight inspection indicates that it is recycle bin undelete information.