BSOD after windows update with vista

[defyfate]

I've got a hp media center desktop, with 2 320 gig sata drives. when I first bought the pc I didn't shut off automatic updates, and while in the middle of an online game I get booted off, and automatic updates downloads, but freezes up in the middle of it. can't do anything, I waited 20 minutes, and nothing is moving or working. so I reboot the pc, it gets to the loading windows screen and straight to the BSOD. so after spending hours of wasting time to fix the problem, and going through hp support. I decided to set my 2nd sata drive up for vista. but I need my first drive for the xtra space, but it's always giving me bsod. here are the steps i've taken to attempt to fix it


1. Use the restore disk to reformat pc.
A. always starts loading files, then automatically goes to bsod. will not format with disk.


2. go in bios set my working drive to boot up first
A. never boots the good one up, always boots the bad drive.

3. after hearing some people say that you need to install the original video card that came with the pc, because it would give them the BSOD as well. i've done that and still no change.

so now i'm completely lost on what to do. I know the drive can't be bad, it runs just like a new drive, no strange noises or the usual noises and signs of a drive becoming bad.

anyone have an idea of what to do?

[endrien]

Originally Posted by defyfate

I've got a hp media center desktop, with 2 320 gig sata drives. when I first bought the pc I didn't shut off automatic updates, and while in the middle of an online game I get booted off, and automatic updates downloads, but freezes up in the middle of it. can't do anything, I waited 20 minutes, and nothing is moving or working. so I reboot the pc, it gets to the loading windows screen and straight to the BSOD. so after spending hours of wasting time to fix the problem, and going through hp support. I decided to set my 2nd sata drive up for vista. but I need my first drive for the xtra space, but it's always giving me bsod. here are the steps i've taken to attempt to fix it


1. Use the restore disk to reformat pc.
A. always starts loading files, then automatically goes to bsod. will not format with disk.


2. go in bios set my working drive to boot up first
A. never boots the good one up, always boots the bad drive.

3. after hearing some people say that you need to install the original video card that came with the pc, because it would give them the BSOD as well. i've done that and still no change.

so now i'm completely lost on what to do. I know the drive can't be bad, it runs just like a new drive, no strange noises or the usual noises and signs of a drive becoming bad.

anyone have an idea of what to do?

How long ago did you buy it?If it wasn't too long ago you could probably bring it into where you bought it and they can look at it with no charge.If it was awhile ago,you could bring it to your local tech shop.Also did you install any new pieces of hardware or any new drivers?If so,what ones.

[defyfate]

I've had it for nearly an year now, surprisingly I called back tech support with hp yesterday. and I just happened to be 10 days out of my warranty "How convenient" although when I had the problem, and talked to hp support, after about a month of calls to them, and getting so many different excuses about the problem. they finally sent me the recovery disk, the only disk that came with the PC was a vista home upgrade disk. so of course they charged me for the disk, and said that would fix my problems. well I become comfortable using the other drive, had all my important stuff on there and games, so I never bothered with the bad drive. Now i"m running out of space and I need it.


as far as drivers, the only thing I installed on that PC was wow, that's all played at the time. everything worked great, I never had a problem until Microsoft update started doing it's thing. so apparently something they tried to install just hung there, and never installed. so now I can't do anything with that drive.


and as far as getting people to look at it, they are wanting between $69.00 - $159.00 just to do test on it. I figure if I had to i'll just buy a new sata drive for it, but I'm hoping to salvage this one because it was brand new, and never had any problems until microsoft did it's automatic updates.

[electric]

computer>>right click on drive >>properties>>tools

windows will check your harddrive,may have to choose reboot


when ever my game closes because of an update or other reasons,i just
hit ctrl +alt+delete and switch users [ same one]...only takes seconds to get back
into the game

[defyfate]

I can't boot up to windows desktop with that drive connected. I can't get in safe mode, can't do anything. even when I set my good drive to boot first, it still reads off my bad one. only way I can boot to windows is with the bad drive disconnected.

[Big_Daddy]

If it were me:

I would boot Linux off a CD(maybe Knoppix) and blast the drive.

Is the bad drive connected to SATA 1?

[defyfate]

Originally Posted by Big_Daddy

If it were me:

I would boot Linux off a CD(maybe Knoppix) and blast the drive.

Is the bad drive connected to SATA 1?

I haven't thought of trying linux. I did try using windows xp, and it comes up with a different bsod error. but yeah, the bad drive is connected to first sata, but i've switched cables and power supply between both drives and still get the errors. also, I've talked to someone at a pc repair shop that said he would do this. "boot to a program that will do a drive image from the smaller to the larger drive"

he wouldn't tell me anything else about it. other than he would charge me $75.00 an hour to do it for me. I'm not sure what program I can get that would do that.

[electric]

How to automatically repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair

i had vista install on two different HD and use Startup Repair
to be able to select which hard drive to boot to

give that a try

[defyfate]

Originally Posted by electric

How to automatically repair Windows Vista using Startup Repair

i had vista install on two different HD and use Startup Repair
to be able to select which hard drive to boot to

give that a try

ok, here's the thing, when I put in the restore disk here's exactly what it does.

shows windows loading up files. it pauses for a bit on a black screen, then goes straight to where it shows windows is loading up, then directly to the bsod. it never takes me to any of the options of the restore disk. it's the strangest thing I've ever seen. but when I try windows xp, it goes through the process, prepares to install all drivers, but when it gets ready to do it's install, it goes straight to bsod as well.

i'm no genius in technical hardware and software for pc's. but I've never had a problem where I couldn't format a drive, or reinstall an OS on it like i'm having with this. whatever files windows was trying to update, must have been a very important file to run the entire system.

And i've been told by HP, and PC repair shops, that Microsoft won't admit to this problem, and will blame my computer for the trouble. when in fact it was on their updates that the pc froze up, and completely crashed from it. I never had one single problem before the updates.

[electric]

i never used a restore disk ,so not much help there

i assume you change the boot order to cd-rom and disable
the harddrives to boot [ BIOS]
example:
1--cd-rom
2-- disable
3--disable