Cannot Progress Past Recovery Console

Question

After a restart of Inspiron 8600 'Error loading operating system' occurred. Many hours and much reading (and rebooting) rebooted using OEM installation CD. On completion went into Recovery Console which completed with the command prompt ('C:'). Can list files on CD but a dir of C gives 'An error occurred during directory enumeration'; mkdir gives 'Access denied'. All the error messages cited in other similar posts occur! I would like a solution that would hopefully retain the data on the HDD, Windows/Office updates/upgrades, etc. Backup is about a week old and was not complete as there have been problems with this process (while the subject of another post, 'Read/Write fail' errors are occurring with ntbackup using a Maxtor OneTouch 250GB external drive - it was the restart following one of these errors when the current problem occurred). You have probabaly guessed there is no current recovery backup disc. Any solutions?

tgsmith · Answer

Btq, At the Recovery Console, type chkdsk /r.  The directory enumeration error and the read/write fail error messages indicate your hard drive may be failing.  After running chkdsk, you should reboot and immediately backup your data.  I would purchase a new drive.  Follow instructions in new drive's setup guide to clone your present hard drive to the new drive and make the new drive your boot drive.  If you are able to successfully clone the drive, you will have an exact duplicate of your existing system.  Assuming that existing files and data are not located in bad sectors, you will not have to reinstall anything.  You may have to do a repair installation after cloning if critical system files are located in bad sector areas on your existing drive. You will need a USB laptop drive adapter to temporarily mount the new laptop drive for cloning.  Alternatively, you could use your external USB drive and create an image of your existing drive with Ghost or Acronis imaging software.  I use Ghost 8 which supports Firewire and USB drives. Tony Message Edited by tgsmith on 01-15-2006 02:14 PM

btq · Answer

chkdsk /r gives error 'The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.' Now looking for Maxtor instructions to clone a drive.

tgsmith · Answer

Btq,

Maxtor Maxblast4 can be downloaded from here: http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/View%20By%20Category/Desktop%20Storage/Maxtor%20Other/Utilities&downloadID=57

Creates a bootable MaxBlast 4 installation diskette.

Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

The copy feature lets you make an exact duplicate of your existing hard drive.

Maxtor "Powermax" drive diagnostics can be downloaded from here:
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm
For Maxtor and Quantum HDs. Will diagnose other HDs.

Tony

btq · Answer

Could not use MaxBlast as the external drive could not be found! After some more research decided to do a fixboot - which said the boot sector was corrupted and proceeded with repair. Rebooted and all seems to be okay - files in tact, etc.

Thankyou Tony for pointing me to the Maxtor pages - will use these to do a copy (just in case!) and run diagnostics.

tgsmith · Answer

Btq, You're welcome.  Good utilities to have on hand if you have a Maxtor or Quantum hard drive. Tony

Windows General

Cannot Progress Past Recovery Console

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