Re: wrong magic number hangs format in solaris 9

On Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:03:51 -0700
Josh McKee <jtmckee@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <20061101123232.5ced0501.hoendech@xxxxxx>,
Stefaan A Eeckels <hoendech@xxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:19:25 -0700
Josh McKee <jtmckee@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

However I suspect that even re-installing was unnecessary. In all
probability you should have been able to use the recovery console
to run chkdsk against the problem disk. This should have cleared
up any file system inconsistencies that would have prevented
Windows from starting. Here is more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

I am aware of that page. My laptop bluescreened with stop code 0x24,
and the problem was that it was impossible to boot the recovery
console, BartPE, or Windows upgrade as long as the damaged disk was
in place.

What do you mean by "As long as the damaged disk was in place"? I am
not clear if you're referring to the disk which Windows is installed
and boots or a disk separate from that. Your comments below lead me
to believe that this is not the Windows install/boot disk but a
second disk.

It was the sole hard disk of the portable, on which Windows XP was
installed, and which -due to the Stop 0x24 in NTFS.SYS- made it
impossible to boot, whatever type of boot was attempted. That is, it
could not boot into the recovery console, it could not boot BartPE, it
could not boot a regular Windows XP installation CD (to perform an
upgrade or re-installation). Once I removed the portable's sole hard
disk, I could boot witb BartPE, as well as with the Windows XP
installation disk.

Once I removed the disk, there was no problem booting whatever I
wanted, but it's rather difficult to fix a volume that's physically
not connected. Maybe if this would have been a server with hot-swap
capabilities I could have brought it up on another disk, then
plugged-in the damaged disk attempted to run CHKDSK, but it was my
laptop...

I have to question why you re-installed Windows instead of just using
the installer to partition/format the problem disk.

Because it was the only disk, and Windows XP's insistence on scanning
it made it impossible to boot from anything that used XP as its kernel.

It seems to me if
you were able to re-install Windows with this disk connected then you
should have been able to partition/format the disk without
re-installing. In order reinstall Windows you have to go through the
partition/format screen.

It would never get this far.

Likewise I don't see how re-installing would have solved your
problem. Re-installing the operating system wouldn't have done
anything to the problem disk. The corruption in the filesystem would
remain no matter how many times you re-installed the OS.

It was the OS disk - the portable was dead, like the proverbial parrot,
so I had to use the Acer recovery disks - which fortunately are based
on Windows 98 and hence ignored the NTFS partition.

But even partition/formatting the disk may have been unnecessary. The
recovery console is available from the CD through the installation
screen. It's on the first page of the installer. You should have been
able to:

1. Select "R" from the first installation screen to use the recover
console.

Wherupon the machine BDOSed with STOP 0x24 in NTFS.SYS. I told you it
never got as far as the recovery console. Obviously the corruption in
the NTFS partition was such that the kernel crashed. The moment
NTFS.SYS started reading that disk it took the whole kernel down.

Believe you me, I tried every damn trick in the book, but this was a
situation where it was impossible to get the OS to boot. There
seems to be a condition where the simple scanning of the NTFS
structures causes Windows XP to die then and there. Once you get to
the DSOD with stop code 0x24 your system is toast, unless there's a
way one can instruct Windows not to try and autodetect volumes.

While I have never had to deal with this personally (never had a
corrupt NTFS filesystem) it seems to me there was more to the problem
than just a corrupted NTFS volume.

Nope - I ran a memory test, I ran a disk test, and there was nothing
wrong with the hardware. What must have happened is that a stray cosmic
ray caused some kind of subtle corruption in the NTFS structure that
caused the kernel to crash when scanning it.

Regardless I don't see this being equal to the OPs problem. In his
situation he had to jump through hoops in order to label the disk. In
your case all you had to do was boot the installer and work through
the normal process. No hoop jumping necessary.

In my case I could not even access the damn disk. There were no hoops
to jump through, because the sorry excuse for an OS that Windows is
doesn't give one enough control to stop it from scanning disks for
Windows File Systems even when one is not booting from them. This is
why I could not boot BartPE from a CD to CHKDSK the corrupted NTFS
partition. On any sane OS that would have been possible, even if the
recovery of the corrupted partition could have been laborious and
non-obvious (like what the OP experienced).

Get it - no recovery console, no BartPE, no re-installation, no
nothing. No File System debugger, no way to influence the boot, no
stand-alone tool to check and repair the partition.

That's Windows, and it's a joke.

--
Stefaan A Eeckels
--
One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils
in this world are to be cured by legislation. -- Thomas Reed
.

Relevant Pages

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