Wind. Problem- System Recovery,Error 1021,Raw Disk

[dsauter]

First of all, sorry if I post this in the wrong place. I looked around, but honestly, I don't know enough abou the problem to know where to put it for sure.

So here we go:

Windows XP, on a Gateway computer.

Last few days, the comp. has been just shutting down randomly, restarting back up. I got worried, ranks some disk cleaners, and some anti-virus scans: nothing changed. Kept just shutting off, going blank, then starting up again every half hour.

Today, shut down and didn't start back up.

Basically, it went through all the startup screens a bunch of times.. like the windows entry screen, gateway entry screen, welcome entry screen, etc. and would get to my desktop.. then shut back off, and continue this cycle.

I evenutallly got a black screen with:

Error (1021) at line 5133 in d:\xpspl\base\setup\setup.c

Then said something about damaged and raw disks.

I pressed F11 to get to a system recovery screen. I select the nondestructive restart.

Windows goes through a bunch of stuff, as if it is starting up for the first time. Looks like things will work..

then it freezes at a screen, I go through the whole thing again, it freezes again..

It just keeps going through all the startup screens randomly.. sometimes gets to desktop, then will shut back down again.

HELP? Anyone? Please..

thanks

[GX1_Man]

It would be nice to have the full error message but RAW is not a good term.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1162467047

Did you get a restore CD as well as the recovery things on the hard drive (which obvviously has problems)?

I would do a disk diagnostic with the free tools from the appropriate drive maker's site or SeaTools from the www.seagate.com site.

I don't think you will survice this without a full format and reinstall of the Gateway CD.

How old is the machine? Do you have a CD or DVD burner? Other problems prior to this? What preceeded this? Is there critical data you need to save first?

[dsauter]

Thanks for the reply. I will take a look at what you said.

few more things that might help..

I got that black screen with the 3 options a lot.. start up in safe/normal mode, or the last good one..

comp. is just 3-4 years old. do have cd/dvd burner.

[dsauter]

I remember FAT32 also.. and a blue screen asking if i'd had this error before or not.

I do have things on here I need to save.


Thanks much..

[dsauter]

computer won't even start up half the time now.. nothing is shown, screen stays black

[GX1_Man]

Run the diagnostics. You can make a bootable floppy so Windows is not required to test.

You may want to backup your important data while you can. I would recommend Linspire as it is the most Windows like and easiest to comprehend.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1152393515

If the hard drive is damaged or failing you need to know that soon.

[dsauter]

How do I do this (save/backup stuff now) if I can't even get the computer to show anything?

Thanks..

[GX1_Man]

Do you have a known working power supply of sufficient wattage to try in that machine?

Last few days, the comp. has been just shutting down randomly

This is a little worrisome also and can be caused by a variety of things. Power supply must be first on my list.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1149804407

You can always slave that hard drive into another working machine to see if your files can be saved before you proceed.

Are you planning on troubleshooting and fixing this yourself?

[dsauter]

Thanks ... I'll look into that.

PC On Call is coming out this week to take a look. I'm just hoping everything is not erased. If so, I will be pretty sad.