Help - Stuck in a boot loop

Message

Peter2150 · #1 Post by **Peter2150** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:24 pm

Hello.

New here. I am trying to help a friend with her ThinkPad. The machine is a T40 Type 2373. Operating system is Windows XP Pro.

Also as a way of background, the machine hasn't been well maintained in terms of backups, and keeping it free of malware. Infection is a clear possiblity

The problem:

Shortly after purchase several years ago Norton Goback 3.0 was installed on this machine, and it has worked perfectly until 3 days ago. The last day it was used, the shutdown was apparently normal, but on startup it is stuck in a Goback boot loop. The machine boots to a goback menu where an error is generated saying a file/sector needed by Goback is corrupted. Clicking okay, brings up a 2nd simliar message. Goback then executes a rollback count down, and if left alone, the machine reboots, and the loop continues.

If you interrupt the rollback process another Goback option menu comes up. None of them work except the option to boot from a floppy/CD.

What I've tried so far:

I downloaded a program Symantec has for removing Goback from the MBR, allowing normal reboot. After putting this program on a CD and booting it up, I tried this program. I again got the same kinds of error messages. I next booted a Windows XP Pro CD, and ran Chkdsk /r. It found a few problems, said it recovered some data, and then moved on. After this finished I tried the Symantec program. Again it said there were problems and failed.

It appears to be an MBR issue, and normally I would run FIXMBR from the recovery console, but I know this machine has some hidden area's and I don't want to mess them up.

Would it be appropriate to run the Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette at this point, and if not I would sure love suggestions.

Thanks so much in advance.

Pete

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:27 pm

You might try the MBR fix floppy, click on the HD clone link in my sig and scroll down to the bottom of the document and read through the part about the f11 fix, this repairs the mbr. I have not messed with goback, but this may straighten out the mbr.

Peter2150 · #3 Post by **Peter2150** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:51 pm

Kyocera wrote:You might try the MBR fix floppy, click on the HD clone link in my sig and scroll down to the bottom of the document and read through the part about the f11 fix, this repairs the mbr. I have not messed with goback, but this may straighten out the mbr.

Hi Kyocera

Thanks. This is what I saw as the next step, but wanted to be sure. Is there any downside to doing this step?

Pete

#4 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 5:35 am

I've done the fix, under different circumstances than yours, but it works and is fairly simple. I guess the other suggestion would be to do a complete system recovery using the CD's.

Peter2150 · #5 Post by **Peter2150** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 6:41 am

Kyocera wrote:I've done the fix, under different circumstances than yours, but it works and is fairly simple. I guess the other suggestion would be to do a complete system recovery using the CD's.

Again thanks. Yep that would be the next step, of course that would entail losing data. I'll keep you posted.

Pete

Peter2150 · #6 Post by **Peter2150** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:50 pm

Hi Kyocera

Just wanted to drop back in and update you. I ran the IBM fix and that actually did fix the MBR. But poor thing couldn't get past the XP logo with out blue screening. Tried imaging the disk but it hung at the same place several times.

I then got hold of an NTFS file reader that could read the disk from a dos floppy. What a mess. It showed the disk as a fat partition(it wasn't) and couldn't read a thing.

Finally ran Spinrite on it. First thing it told me was SMART was reporting imminent failure. First 25% of the disk was a mess of unrecoverable errors.

Anyone know a good Disk data recovery house?

Pete

christopher_wolf · #7 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:48 am

Boot loop from the XP OS loading screen? That is almost 95% an indication of HDD failure. I have had several near-decade old Compaq laptops go out exactly like that, except it was aggravated by heat and the Compaqs had to cool before the next startup else they would get locked in the boot-bootstrap OS-OS loading-boot loop.

I don't know any really good data recovery services off the top of my head, but you might want to do a search through the forums as well as on the web in general. If the HDD hasn't undergone a head crash, it becomes significantly easier to get the data off of it, which is a good thing.

Good Luck.

Peter2150 · #8 Post by **Peter2150** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 6:58 am

Thanks Chris

I fear data recovery is going to be tough, as I'll bet this HDD hasn't been defragged in 2 years.

Pete

#9 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:53 am

Have you tried using Spin Rite to correct errors? I could not tell from your description. If Spin Rite doesn't work, data recovery from a service will be dicey and expensive (as has been noted). Unless your friend's data is truly critical, I suggest getting what Spin Rite will give you and moving on. I have done that for clients and in the cold light of day, that is all they really needed. ... JD Hurst

Peter2150 · #10 Post by **Peter2150** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:07 pm

jdhurst wrote:Have you tried using Spin Rite to correct errors? I could not tell from your description. If Spin Rite doesn't work, data recovery from a service will be dicey and expensive (as has been noted). Unless your friend's data is truly critical, I suggest getting what Spin Rite will give you and moving on. I have done that for clients and in the cold light of day, that is all they really needed. ... JD Hurst

Hi JD

Thanks for replying. At least you've confirmed my faith that buying Spinrite was a good move. I did run it. First thing it did was report from S.M.A.R.T. that drive failure was immiment.

Spinrite had trouble in several area's At around the 8% mark it had several unrecoverable errors. Then at around 13% it spent 4 hours going sector by sector, all unrecoverable. I aborted it and restarted at 14% and it was just as bad. Restarted again at 15% and it finally moved on finding more U's until around 25% when finally it just ran an finished.

Other issue is I think the file system is trashed. I know it's NTFS, and I found a DOS NTFSreader program, which worked fine on my desktop. It reported this laptop's disk as a FAT disk and said it couldn't identify anything. So I haven't even found any way to access what might be okay on the disk.

Not good.

Thanks again,

Pete

#11 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:21 pm

I had a hard drive from a client that I recovered data from using Spin Rite. I do recall that after the recovery, the hard drive said it was FAT. I don't understand why that happened unless it was an error on the drive that Spin Rite couldn't deal with. I put the drive in a machine with two drives. I formatted a small temporary drive as FAT. Then I booted with a Windows 98 boot diskette (Bart's Boot Diskette) and copied the data I could from the damaged drive to the temporary drive. ... JD Hurst

Peter2150 · #12 Post by **Peter2150** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:36 pm

jdhurst wrote:I had a hard drive from a client that I recovered data from using Spin Rite. I do recall that after the recovery, the hard drive said it was FAT. I don't understand why that happened unless it was an error on the drive that Spin Rite couldn't deal with. I put the drive in a machine with two drives. I formatted a small temporary drive as FAT. Then I booted with a Windows 98 boot diskette (Bart's Boot Diskette) and copied the data I could from the damaged drive to the temporary drive. ... JD Hurst

This drive was reporting as FAT before spinrite. I am not set up to do what you did so at this point, I've probably done all I can do for her.

I do sincerely thank you folks in this forum for you help. Really neat.

Pete

Help - Stuck in a boot loop

Help - Stuck in a boot loop

Who is online