Hi Gurra1,

Welcome to Microsoft Answers Forums.

• When exactly you get the Blue screen of death?
• How did you perform the system restore?


I would suggest that you try performing the system restore using the Windows vista installation disk.

First, start the computer from the DVD\CD drive. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows Vista CD or DVD, and then restart the computer.
2. When you receive the following message, press any key:
Press any key to boot from CD or DVD.
3. Set the following preferences, and then click Next:
o Language to install
o Time and currency format
o Keyboard or input method

Then, use offline System Restore to remove the Windows Vista service pack. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Repair your computer, select the operating system that you want to repair if it is necessary, and then click Next.
2. Click System Restore, and then click Next.
3. Click to select the Restore Point that matches the installation date for the service pack. The Restore Point will be labeled either Install: Windows Update or Install: Windows Vista Service Pack <version>.
4. Confirm the hard disk that you want to restore, and then click Next.
5. Click Finish, and then click Yes when you are prompted.
6. When the System Restore process is complete, click Restart to restart the computer.
7. After the computer restarts, click Close to confirm that the System Restore process has finished successfully.

If these steps successfully uninstall the Windows Vista service pack and restore your computer, you are finished.
If you are unable to perform the system restore using the vista installation disk then I would suggest that you try uninstalling the vista service pack 2 using the vista installation disk refer the below Microsoft KB article and try the steps mentioned under Method 3:  Uninstall Windows Vista service pack from a Command Prompt

How to uninstall Windows Vista service packs as a troubleshooting step
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948537

You may also need to contact the computer manufacturer for more support.

Halima S    - Microsoft Support.
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Hi Halima S,

• If left alone, the system will just reboot shortly after displaying the windows logo [clarification: Windows logo = scroll bar with (c) Microsoft Corporation underneath] but if I press F8 before the windows logo to get the Vista boot options menu and then choose the option to not automatically reboot after a stop error, it stays at the blue screen.
• After every failed boot I get a menu with 2 choices. Choice 1 says the previous boot failed and asks if I want to do a repair. Choice 2 lets me boot normally. If I choose option 1 it will get me into the standard Vista repair menus. I suspect this comes from the dell restore partition as no Vista install DVD was shipped with it.

 

I have the MSDN versions of the microsoft products. I assume I can use one of the MSDN Vista DVDs for repair purposes if you think it is better than the Dell built in one. However, there are no restore points on this system. Either SP2 cleared them all out or restore points are specifically disabled on the Dell factory image.
I agree, the KB article you suggested is a good way forwards. I am already familiar with it. Since the system doesn't boot, my only option is as you say to use Method 3 from the command prompt on the repair menu.
My problem is that I cannot find the file Windows6.0-KB948465-X86 .exe on the disk (the factory image is 32bit Vista). It is either stuck in a hidden folder or doesn't exist. I searched the disk for Windows*.exe and it wasn't found. Can I download this file somewhere or do you by any chance know what hidden folder to look for?
I have not yet tried running sfc /scannow from the repair menu command prompt. In my experience it is good at detecting problems but not able to fix much. Do you think it would be a good idea to try it?

Update: Tried it - no good. sfc /scannow won't run from the recovery command prompt: "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again".
I'm stuck again with this until I can get hold of the uninstall file.

Update 2: Tried running sfc /scannow from the recovery command prompt from the vista install dvd. No good - "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation"

Thanks for your reply and your help.
/Gurra

Hi again,

Downloaded Windows6.0-KB948465-X86.exe from microsoft and followed the instructions in the knowledgebase article. The example command line in the article didn't work until I had copied pkgmgr.exe to the local temp directory:
"start /w pkgmgr.exe /m:c:\temp\Windows6.0-KB948465-X86.cab /up /s:sandbox".

Bad news. It completed after a while without any message whatsoever, no prompt to reboot, the sandbox folder was empty afterwards, and it made no difference whatsoever, the original problem is still there after reboot.

Update: There is one difference. Signature 5 has changed from BadPatch to unknown. Signature 6 is still BadPatch.

Update 2: Took out the external ATI graphics card and booted with internal graphics. No differece, same crash.

Any more ideas?
/Gurra

Hi again,

I'm trying to think of different ways of progressing this issue.

• Can SP2 be reinstalled from the system recovery command prompt?
• The system doesn't write a dump file and crashes before it can write a ntbtlog.txt. How likely is it that null.sys is the offending driver? I replaced the null.sys with the null.sys from the X drive (same size but a file compare shows differences) - it made no difference. Could I use Kernel Debug to find out what the offending system file is? The system doesn't have a serial port, but I do have 2 firewire cards albeit with via chips. I also have the debugger from MSDN.

/Gurra

Hi again,

It looks like no one knows how to get out of a situation such as this. I'm facing another reinstall. I can't believe it has to be this difficult. Even XP was relatively easy to recover.
The problem with a reinstall is the original data in the user folder. If I reinstall vista to a new hard drive, how do I get access to my user folders on the old drive? I have run into this problem in the past a number of times with vista, in fact I still have an old drive with an unbootable vista installation (caused by a security update that time) and inaccessible user data.

Does anyone have any helpful ideas?
/Gurra

Hi Gurra1,

A.      Are you still facing the same issue?

B.      Did you reinstall vista?

If you have reinstalled vista on the same partition without formatting the hard drive the data will be saved on windows.old folder. Please update us on the current status.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932912

Bindu S -- Microsoft Support

Hi Bindu R,

I am sorry to say that I'm still facing the same issue on this machine. I have not reinstalled the operating system. OS reinstalls have caused me nothing but grief in the past, especially so when forced to use OEM versions of Vista. Are you 100% certain that all OEM versions of Vista (including Dell) support saving old user data on a reinstall to the same partition? Do OEM vista builds even support reinstall to the same partition? If I were to send the machine to Dell they would simply wipe the disk and restore the original factory image.
Vista security "features" will not let me access my own data in the user directory (if I install the drive in another machine) so I have no way of backing it up as is.
I would very much appreciate if this problem could be resolved without risking a reinstall.
What are your thoughts?

/Gurra

Type ownership in Help

To take ownership of a folder
Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.

Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.

Click Edit. If you are prompted for an administrator password or
confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.

If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this
folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.

Click OK.


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"Gurra1" wrote in message news:04492a07-89dc-4c89-b06d-2598bd12dc5c...
> Hi Bindu R,
>
> I am sorry to say that I'm still facing the same issue on this machine. I
> have not reinstalled the operating system. OS reinstalls have caused me
> nothing but grief in the past, especially so when forced to use OEM
> versions of Vista. Are you 100% certain that all OEM versions of Vista
> (including Dell) support saving old user data on a reinstall to the same
> partition? Do OEM vista builds even support reinstall to the same
> partition? If I were to send the machine to Dell they would simply wipe
> the disk and restore the original factory image.
> Vista security "features" will not let me access my own data in the user
> directory (if I install the drive in another machine) so I have no way of
> backing it up as is.
> I would very much appreciate if this problem could be resolved without
> risking a reinstall.
> What are your thoughts?
>
> /Gurra

Hi David,
Take ownership fails. I can't remember the exact error message I got, it was something to the extent of "operation not permitted"
/GSt

Is this when you put the drive inthe other machine?

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"Gurra1" wrote in message news:4f1b5cf4-0017-467a-be20-af905f5c0d9e...
> Hi David,
> Take ownership fails. I can't remember the exact error message I got, it
> was something to the extent of "operation not permitted"
> /GSt