Windows Error Recovery Problem, Urgent Please Help

Hey guys,

I have an Asus F8Sn (Vista Home Premium, T9300 Process, 2.5Ghz) which my brother has been using lately. A few days ago he played a few online games (Runescape) and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.

The notebook was left in Sleep Mode for about 2 hours unplugged but running on battery (with the Roller Coaster Tycoon disc still inside).

Upon opening the notebook, the "Users" screen was not present and instead the following Windows Error Recovery screens came up (in the order they are in). No matter what options I click, it always returns to the same starting screen (the first one).

Another thing to note is that my brother has been playing Battlefield Heroes, which uses the .net3 Framework for IE7. (Not sure if that contributes to any explanation for the problem).

Also, Asus did not provide me with any Vista Backup Disk (which is another question I'll post in the Asus forums). I'm not sure which of the disks they gave me to use.

For now, based on the info I gave, I would appreciate any solutions or comments.

If possible, please post replies which do not require deleting all my HD data. Please also let me know if this is something I can fix myself, or if I need to send it to the Asus Service Center.

Thanks...

 

When you get to the third screen, what have you been doing, having the system start up _Vista, or choosing to run the memory diagnostic?

You wouldn't have received recovery discs from ASUS. No large OEM ships physical recovery discs anymore; instead, they provide you with a utility that allows you to burn one set of your own recovery discs from the files stored on the recovery partition (which you, hopefully, did not erase, as it appears from your post that you didn't make your own recovery discs).

The second image you attached appears to provide the answer for what's going on - basically, because the system was left in sleep mode and allowed to run the battery down to nil, your registry files weren't saved properly when the system attempted a last-ditch effort to save itself as the battery failed. Without the registry files, the system cannot finish booting, and thus you're getting the errors you see.

I found two TechNet threads via google that appear to have some relevance to your problem and may contain a possible solution, the threads are here and here.

In terms of doing a repair using the files on the recovery partition, it appears that you should be able to get the equivalents to the options that you're seeing in your first image by hitting F8 (or whatever key ASUS has specified for getting into the recovery mode on the notebook). Once you're in the recovery console, it appears - at least from this Techarena thread - that you may get the same "repair your computer" option that is described in that first image.

If so, then you should be able to get back a working copy of the registry (albeit the version that came from the factory, so you may lose a lot of your installed programs and a lot of the configuration settings you may have customized and/or tweaked) without doing anything to your data files, and that should make it possible for you to boot the system all the way through and at least recover your data files. If the damage from the power-down wasn't too serious, and if the repair utility is sophisticated enough, it's possible that you may get a completely useable system back - at least once you reinstall your programs and reset your configuration settings - however, if the damage was severe, doing a repair on the registry may still leave the system so gimped that it's almost impossible to get any real use out of it. In that latter case, you'd be best served by first recovering your data files and anything else you cannot afford to lose, and then doing a full recovery installation from the recovery console (which will necessarily wipe everything on the system partition out). If you choose to do that, make sure you have a copy of SP2 (and if your system was pre-SP1, a copy of SP1 as well) and a copy of the .NET 3.5 framework SP1 (all three can be downloaded from Microsoft's website) on hand, on DVD, actually, before you start. Then, once you've done the recovery installation - which will put you back to how it came from the factory, bloatware included - go ahead and install SP1, the .NET 3.5 framework SP1, and SP2 before you let the thing get anywheres near a network connection. Once you've done that, put the system online and let it pick up any post-SP2 updates.

 

Thanks for the insightful reply Shyster and explaining how the problem came about.

I chose to run memory diagnostic once and waited for it to complete. After it completed, nothing happened, and once again returned to the first screen. I also have tried having the system start up in Vista and again, it returned to the first screen.

Ok. But I am using a Dell XPS M1530 as well and Dell gave me a Windows recovery disc. Odd that Asus wouldn't do the same as well. And when I purchased the Asus F8Sn last year, they never told me to make my own set of recovery discs, or how to do it as well. Thanks anyway for informing me.

I tried searching for this as well. The key for Asus is F9, but however, the option of "repair your computer" doesn't appear. Instead, Windows Recovery using HD Partition appears, and it only leaves me with three options which this link explains. And also, all these options require me to delete at least one partition of the HD.

Another question is based on the link I provided earlier, how would I know which partition of the HD contains My Documents folder and the other Windows files? The least I would want to do is be able to retrieve the files in My Documents.

Lastly, another poster gave me a link to downloading a Windows Recovery Disc (which Asus didn't provide). If I download this, would it help in giving me more options than just Recovery Using the Hard Disk Partition?

Thanks again...

 

The Vista Recovery Disk is a small portion of system files (less the bulk of the OS) that allows repairs of issue much like yours. Here's a link that explains it a bit. Useful tool - Download, burn the ISO and place in your CD drive. Choose the repair option - if that does not solve it you'll be executing the other options Shyster provided you.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,71039-order,4/description.html

 

Thanks.

However, I just have a few questions since I'm still quite new to Windows Backup and Repair stuff. I know System Restore doesn't delete any HD data as I have done it numerous times.

1. If I opt to run the automated system repair, does it delete any data on my HD?

2. Also, does the Complete PC Backup create a backup copy of all my data on the HD? Or does it transfer eveything and delete the original files?

 

Complete PC Backup copies, it does not move.

This is for XP, so it might make your computer explode if you use it. Still, Windows is pretty consistent across versions, so it might work.
http://www.aade.com/XPhint/XPrecovery.htm

 

System repair simply fixes the issues with the OS, no personal files are altered/deleted etc.

 

As others have noted and the above link suggests, your problem is a corrupted registry hive, specificially the SYSTEM hive. However, the above link does not work for Vista, as Vista does not place the files in the same place as Windows XP.

The above procedure can be adapted for Vista, you just need to substitute the path to the back up files.

First, note that you only need to worry about 1 hive file, the SYSTEM hive.

For Vista, the location of the backup hive is
C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack
not
c:\windows\repair\system

Now, I am going to say that if you already tried Last Known Good Configuration, this is likely not going to work. To know why, you need to understand how Windows works.

When Windows loads, it creates the registry from the hives in c:\windows\system32\config\system. when windows is completely loaded it copies the files from there to c:\windows\repair\system (or in Vista, C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack).

So, the Last Known Good Configuration is actually the hvies from c:\windows\repair\system (or in Vista, C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack).

So the procedure outlined in the link above is really just the manual counterpart of Last Known Good Configuration and only works when something is really, really wrong that prevents the basic copy function from completing.

I have had much greater luck rescuing old registry hive files from System Restore points and dropping them in c:\windows\system32\config\system using a boot disk like BartsPE

 

It may be worth it to run chkdsk, just to see whether any part of the file system is corrupted.

 

Gosh yes, great point...I'm asleep at the switch.

Since you cannot load Windows to run it (even in safe mode), download the following

www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

Burn the iso to a cd, reboot your computer and this will load a recovery console so you can run chkdsk

 

Thanks alot everyone for all your help. Notebookreview.com is awesome and everyone is very helpful here. I was able to fix the problem.

Just a few tips for anyone else who experiences the same problem:

1. Burning a downloaded Windows Vista recovery disc from a website like this did not work for me when burned onto a DVD-RW. However, I tried burning it onto a normal CD-RW and it worked fine.

2. You don't need to use a program like IMGBurn to burn .iso files. The Roxio Creator on my Dell XPS M1530 worked just fine when imprinting the .iso image onto a blank disc.

3. If you are using an Asus notebook (as I think this only happens to Asus), when entering the disc into the drive, my notebook did not read it immediately. Instead, upon startup you should press ESC and then boot from the drive manually.

That's all, and thanks again...

 

Useful info; thanks for posting it up!