Computer keeps doing scandisk....

[Hayamaneko]

My computer keeps doing a scandisk whenever I turn it on. When its done, it restarts and goes into scandisk mode again or prompts me to go to safe mode. Whenever I try to go into safe mode, it eventually restarts again and does another scandisk or ask me if I want to go into safemode. I've been stuck in this loop for hours and I don't know what the fuck to do anymore. Someone please help me

[Jinto]

I suppose it can't change the dirty flag, or some basic/vital operating system data was destroyed (e.g. some folder of windows had a bad file access table entry so it was renamed to some folder000 and parked in a FOUND.xyz folder (xyz is a number depending on the scandisk incident).

I suggest you install a second Windows (e.g. in folder called Windows2) and look what is different between the two versions (folder wise). You maybe want to look out for such FOUND.xyz folders first maybe those will give you a hint on what is missing.

[RaistlinMajere]

I suggest you just reformat. Don't quick format either, do a full format so it finds bad sectors.

[Hayamaneko]

Ended up reformatting and reinstalling windows. Over a years worth of stuff done the shitter. God damn it.

[Jinto]

Well I knew several other ways to keep as much as possible of your old data (maybe even the setup of Windows), but well... now its too late.

[Hayamaneko]

Dang. I guess that's what I get for being impatient

[raikage]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

Well I knew several other ways to keep as much as possible of your old data (maybe even the setup of Windows), but well... now its too late.

Just for future reference (because this scenario has happened to me more than once) what are some of the other ways?

[IRJustman]

Originally Posted by raikage

Just for future reference (because this scenario has happened to me more than once) what are some of the other ways?

I usually use something like that as an excuse to buy a new (perhaps larger) hard drive. Though in my case, I did so long before any disk readability issues came up.

--Ian.

[Jinto]

I am going to explain a (quite simple) one now:

preconditions:

a) MBR is okay so the drive can be read out
b) there is another OS installed, or another PC where the hdd can be plugged in temporarily
c) the problem affects a minor subset of system files
d) Windows phantom version for filetransfer need to be of the same build (that also implies same SP and stuff) as the broken Windows
e) drive itself is physically okay - if not I would not try to rewrite anything. Rather put the drive in the refridgerator for 1 hour (cooling down), then trying to back up as much as possible data onto another drive - because usually bad sectors increase while trying to fix anything on such a drive (heap crash maybe). One can then try to restore the Windows on said backup drive (that is just a little bit more tricky then, because of the missing bootloader, but that one will be installed with the phantom version, so there is just the need to alter the boot.ini)

(on many drives, precondition b) can be reached by installing another Windows instance in another folder)

the steps:

stuff to know:

with Windows phantom version, a clean installation of Windows is meant. It needs to be of the same build and have the same SP as the broken Windows version. There need not be anything installed however (that applies also for drivers and stuff).

1) Install the Windows phantom (not in the directory the broken Windows resides)

2) Start the 2nd Windows version, that is not! the phantom version. (So if you do not have a second OS you need to install yet another Windows)

3) Copy the content of the phantom version into the broken Windows, except the folder %WINDIR%\system32\config (that needs to stay as is), because the registry and all the other important config data is stored there.
In some special occasions, exactly this mentioned folder is damaged (bad luck), but there is hope... there should be backups of the config files in the %WINDIR%\repair folder. In rare incidents this folder is not accessible either. There is still hope... in the hidden system folder called "System Volume Information" (not a subfolder of Windows) the restore points are stored. Now it might be possible that in one of these subfolders there exist *.reg files. (those are usually made after a major change to the registry). If there are 3 of them (quite huge) you are lucky, those can be imported with regedit later (they represent HKCU - HKEY Current User, HKCR - HKEY Classes Root and the HKLM - HKEY Local Mashine registry entries) these files need to be processed differently however. While the backup files of the repair folder, can be placed directly in the config folder, the *.reg files need to be read in with the regedit tool later on. But for now (only if .reg files are used) copy the system32/config folder of the phantom version into the corrupted one.

4) After copying is finished restart, and launch the corrupted Windows (if the *.reg files where the only registry backup, start into save mode)

5) only applies for the *.reg file case... in safe mode open regedit, and import the 3 reg files (this might take a while, since the files are quite large). After importing all the files restart.

6) this corrupted version of Windows should now start as usual (some applications or drivers may need a reinstallation if Windows or applications act up - yet this is not too likely)

7) the phantom version of Windows can be removed now. (and also the other installation if it was just installed for this recovery).

edit:

Sometimes, a system folder was renamed to folder000 by scandisk (or similar) and moved to a FOUND000 (or similar folder). If the content (files) are still named correctly one can try to figure out, what name this folder had before. So to simply copy it back (in that case the documents and settings folder becomes interesting, because sometimes folders there become corrupted, so Windows misses its accounts and cannot logon (and thatswhy just reboots). With the phantom copy approach on the same partition, this should be solved quite differently, because the phantom copy installs an Administrator account, that should also work in the corrupted version (maybe it needs to be renamed a little bit to plain "Administrator").