XP boot problem after Eraser crash

S

spimby

New Member
Hi,

Ive been using Eraser for a while now. This morning I got up and Eraser appeared be taking much longer than normal (several hours...normally its an hour operation max). I hit the stop button, Eraser crashed along with XP. I rebooted. Reboot failed due with an error message "NTLDR is missing Press Ctl+Alt+Del to restart". I cannot boot XP or get into my C drive to try to delete the eraser temp file. I suspect that this file has completely filled up and/or fragmented my HD and is causing the problem. Any ideas on how to fix this? I cant seem to access the C drive at all using the boot CD.

Thanks,

Spimby
 
quote:Originally posted by spimby
I hit the stop button, Eraser crashed along with XP. I rebooted.So it was the operating system that crashed. Does your C: partition have FAT32 file system by any chance?
quote: Reboot failed due with an error message "NTLDR is missing Press Ctl+Alt+Del to restart".This problem seems to come up every now and then when Windows corrupts the hard drive, or system files. And unless you told Eraser to remove ntldr, ntdetect.com or boot.ini, it is quite unlikely that Eraser caused this problem (it could have triggered it though).

A similar incident was reported here: http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-xfree/2003-01/msg00086.html.
quote:I suspect that this file has completely filled up and/or fragmented my HD and is causing the problem.I dont think that would cause Windows to lose its boot loader. You could try following these instructions and see if they help: http://www.microsoft.com//technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prmb_tol_zldj.asp
quote:Any ideas on how to fix this? I cant seem to access the C drive at all using the boot CD.Maybe there is something wrong with the partition table? What does fdisk show?
 
"So it was the operating system that crashed. Does your C: partition have FAT32 file system by any chance?"

Yes, FAT32. With a 3GB partiion that is a backup image file.

"Maybe there is something wrong with the partition table? What does fdisk show?"

Well, I was completely unable to see the drive. All the boot utility/boot CD would do is ask me for my admin password before doing any repairs. I tried every password it could possibly be, and failed. Tech support was unable to help me, so I had to clean re-install.

Ill also add that Ive been a user of Eraser for at least a couple years now (I am a paying customer..Hows it going Sami?) and Ive never had this problem before and had done the same opperation probably 50 or so times on this current system, and hundreds of times on a previous Windows 95 (yikes) system. Looks like it is some sort of freak accident, and maybe just a coincidence. Ill give you any details on my system if you think it will help. Im back up and running with a fresh copy of Eraser 5.6 installed. I do believe the version I had previously was 5.3 (?). It was not 5.6.

Thanks,

Spimby
 
Spimby

Eraser 5.3 was not compatible with XP, the 5.6 version is.
No reports of your problem with 5.6, "fingers crossed"

Garrett
 
quote:Originally posted by admin
Eraser 5.3 was not compatible with XPHow do you mean? What was changed in 5.6 to make it compatible with XP?
 
quote:Originally posted by spimby

Yes, FAT32. With a 3GB partiion that is a backup image file.

"

Acutally, I just realized that the primary partition (with Windows XP) is NTFS and the smaller partition with the drive image file is FAT32.
 
Did you have all other applications (including services) shut down during the free space erasure that crashed? One thing that comes to mind is that another application or driver needed free space, and sent your system to hell when it couldnt find it. Another possibility is that you had MFT corruption, or your hard drive burped.

To be safe, I would run a CHKDSK /r on the drive, and also DOS-based diagnostics (which are usually available from the manufacturer).
 
Sami,
>>How do you mean? What was changed in 5.6 to make it
>>compatible with XP?

I had to change some declarations and how it detected the OS.
Remember the app is now compiled in C7. I recall a few tweaks were needed.

Garrett
 
Over the years of using eraser, I have had 8 or 10 total system crashes which required me to do a clean install. It was always the same problem of eraser running forever or sometimes just doing a single free space cleaning and then trying to reboot and getting the message that says Cant find "ntldr" cntl,alt,del. One day Garrett suggested that I make copies of "boot.ini", "ntldr" and "NTDETECT.COM" and try copying them back onto my PC after I did a clean install. I decided to copy these 3 files and I noticed that both "ntldr" and "NTDETECT.COM" were marked as "READ" only files. On the other hand, the "boot.ini" file was not marked as "READ ONLY". I unchecked the read only on ntldr and NTDETECT.COM and copied all three files to a floppy and a CD. I rechecked all three as "READ ONLY" including the previously unchecked "boot.ini" file. Since then, I have never had a system crash again. I am currently using win/xp w/SP1. Eraser is a great product and I doubt that it will cause any system crashes is your PC is set up properly. Could my problem have been the "boot.ini" file not marked as READ ONLY? (more below)

One problem I did have though. The decreasing free space problem. When I changed to the "C" prompt and tried running the deltree?.?.? command I was never successful. I always received strange messages such as cant find, wrong syntax, and others like your an idiot, you cant do that. So I just gave up.

I did find that when running running Eraser from win/xp to clean free space, eventually my missing free space returned to what it should be. I would like to know how to use the "C:" promt properly.
 
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