Halp! "the windows boot configuration data file does not contain a valid OS entry"

[theotherguy]

Today I started up my computer and got this error:

Windows Boot Manager has experienced a problem.

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000098

Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry.

Last night I was using a java applet that accessed my hard-drive in a very inefficient manner, and the hard-drive was making very loud noises and things were going quite slow. When I exited the applet, none of my start-menu shortcuts worked, and most of the programs in "All programs" had been deleted. Everything was still in C:\ so I wasn't so worried.

But now it appears my hard-drive has been corrupted. When I enter BIOS, it can't even detect my hard-drive, and when I use a vista CD to attempt to recover, it can't detect the hard-drive either.

I'm thinking about going to buy a copy of XP (that is what I was running in the first place), to see if it can detect my OS and repair it, but the situation is looking very dire indeed.

 

[-Psy-]

It sounds like your boot file is screwed so it can't tell youre computer where the OS is in order to boot up.

 

[theotherguy]

Oh shit.

I plugged in a winXP recovery CD, and fixmbr and fixboot won't work!

When I use chkdsk it says "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"

 

[VirusType2]

is your HDD is dying?

if you think it's okay, then why not try to reinstall your OS.

 

[Laivasse]

Is it that you want to recover your data? I think you might be SOL.

If you're only looking to salvage your HD, or if you find that it's your only option then you can try to format C: from a DOS prompt and see what happens.

 

[VirusType2]

I know with XP, when I went to reinstall the OS, it gives me the option to put all the data on the drive (except the OS) in a backup folder. So if you do that, you won't lose any data, but installed programs usually don't work since they aren't in the new registry.

Once you've done that, you'll find a folder named 'Backup [date of backup]' on your HDD.

 

[theotherguy]

My hard-drive appears to be dead.

Not even BIOS can detect it. I can't access C: even from the recovery command prompt.

I think what I'll do is buy a new hard-drive, make my old one a slave to it, and try to recover as much of the data as I can.

 

[VirusType2]

best of luck. You must be a mess. I know you've made tons of music, and hopefully you don't lose anything irreplaceable.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

what kind of java applet were you using might I ask?

 

[theotherguy]

what kind of java applet were you using might I ask?

It was an applet for creating and signing jars. Whenever I tried to generate a .jar, it spammed C: with a ton of 0-byte .jar files, hung up, froze, and had to be terminated. After I terminated it, I started getting all these problems..

 

[DreamThrall]

point of curiosity... doesn't uac in vista help prevent this kinda thing?

 

[theotherguy]

Don't have Vista.


I took it to a computer repair shop today, and then took it back home without paying a dime. $1K plus for data recovery?!?! **** that, I'll just make do with a fresh hard drive.

 

[No Limit]

point of curiosity... doesn't uac in vista help prevent this kinda thing?

UAC is set up so you must confirm administrative actions. So this would not have stopped is since this was an applet that he trusted.

Once you get your new OS installed and this drive set up as a slave you can go to diskmgmt.msc to see if it shows up there.

 

[theotherguy]

My new HDD came in today, and I installed it!

I can't believe the pace of technology. In 2002, I bought my old 160 GB hard drive for the same price as I got this 1TB hard-drive today!

That's like a 6.25X increase in storage for the same price.

Unfortunately, the new HDD came in OEM, so I don't have any cabling to make it the master of the old one. I'm considering buying more cables and possibly one of those USB adapters for the old one.

 

[Adabiviak]

Did you enslave your old drive to get the data off it or at least look at the boot.ini file?

 

[giant384]

I took it to a computer repair shop today, and then took it back home without paying a dime. $1K plus for data recovery?!?! **** that, I'll just make do with a fresh hard drive.

wtf what shop did you take it to? the shop i worked for was a small buisness and we only charged about 150-200.

 

[theotherguy]

This new HDD does not appear to be working. I've finally got BIOS to detect it, but windows refuses to see that there is a drive there.

 

[giant384]

This new HDD does not appear to be working. I've finally got BIOS to detect it, but windows refuses to see that there is a drive there.

it is not formatted then, can you see if it shows up in device manager?

 

[theotherguy]

it is not formatted then, can you see if it shows up in device manager?

It is brand new. I don't have any other hard-drives installed on this machine, and there is no OS installed on the hard-drive.

My SATA-RAID utility detects the hard-drive and says it is "functional" Both the windows Vista and Windows XP discs cannot detect the hard-drive at all, and thus cannot install to it.

 

[theotherguy]

Apparently my Mobo is so old, ASUS doesn't even make Vista drivers for SATA RAID anymore, so it simply won't work with Vista.

Getting it to work with XP is a totally different story. To do that, I need a floppy disk.

I have no floppy drives sitting around anywhere...


So it looks like its off to the computer clusters for me!

 

[AtomicSpark]

This thread gave me a good laugh. I've had XP 64 for so long, that I know what a floppy disk is.

Next time, try booting from a Linux live CD and seeing if you can mount the Windows partition. This will let you at least copy your files and back them up.

 

[theotherguy]

I dug up some shady, 3rd party SATA RAID drivers for vista, and it STILL won't detect the hard-drive.

This is starting to piss me off. What the hell is going on here?

 

[theotherguy]

BOO-YAH! I found working drivers from a french site!

Now vista detects the HD, but it says "Windows cannot determine if this drive contains a valid system volume"

Huh?

I am formatting it now...

Formatting did nothing.

 

[No Limit]

Can't you disable the raid function completely? Why do you need it with just one drive?

 

[theotherguy]

HA! Apparently this error is because my USB drive is now considered the "primary hard-drive" by vista. All I had to do was change the boot configuration.

Vista installed!