Blue screen error message; cannot open in safe mode

[pasme]

Help. I am trying to get to the safe mode on my computer to see if I can figure out what is wrong.  I keep getting a blue screen that says:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevnt damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears agin follow these steps:

Check to make sure you have adequate disk space.  If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates.  Try changing video adapters.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x82F1DBCB, 0xF8A4169C, 0xF8A41398)

I tried several times to shut down and restart in safe mode but I get a black screen with a list that begins with :
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windowsAppPatch\drvmain.sdb
and a whole list of similar messages, then goes back to the blue screen with the error message.  What can I do?  Any help is appreciated. 

I have a desktop Dell computer with Windows XP.

Any suggestions are welcome.  Where might I look for help?

Thanks,
Pat

[killerb255]

The moral of the story:

Always install the oldest Windows operating system first.  The newest OS's bootloader will autodetect your old OS and give you a choice.

Then again, the horses escaped the stable, so there's no point locking it...

With that being said, you have a few options:

1) Go into the BIOS and put the hard drive you want to boot from first in the boot order.  Change this when you want to boot into the other OS.  Major pain in the rear...

2) Edit Windows 7's BCD database.  Another major pain in the rear, but you might be able to use EasyBCD to help out...

3) If you are using Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate, install "Windows XP Mode" and forget about using a separate hard drive for XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Now copy all the stuff from your XP hard drive into your XP Mode virtual environment.

4) Use a third-party boot loader like GRUB.

[dahlarbear]

0.  Backup Data.  If there's "data" you can't afford to lose, standard operating procedure (SOP) is to slave the hard drive to a working computer system to recover the data.  If you're workking with IDE hard drives, you must ensure they are jumpered correct (single, master, slave, or cable select).  See http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/.

1.  Which Computer.  Your recovery options may depend upon which computer you have.  If you can provide the model name/number, or better yet, the service tag number; we may be able to find some documentation on the Dell support website.

This information should be on a plate/sticker on the back of the computer.

2.  Resource(s).  What recovery resources do you have?
     a.  Windows XP Installation CD (Dell or Microsoft)
     b.  Dell restore/recovery discs
     c.  Dell restore/recovery partition on hard drive

3.  Recovery Console.  If you have an "installation" CD (not restore/recovery discs), you should check the integrity of the file system.

Boot to "Recovery Console" from the Windows XP Install CD.  When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press <R> key to start the Recovery Console.

You'll be asked to enter the "number" of the Windows installation you wish to repair (usually "1"), then the "Administrator" password, if one was set.  If you never assigned a password, just hit <Enter> key.

Use the "chkdsk" command to verify the integrity of your file system and automatically attempt to fix errors found.  Use the following syntax: "chkdsk /p /r".    If you've followed the instructions, you don't need to enter a drive letter because you should be on the correct volume.

Depending upon the size of your partition, these checks could take a long time.  Let them run to completion without interruption.  The chkdsk utility was not designed to be interrupted - so don't.  Doing so might corrupt the file system.

The "exit" command is used to quit Recovery Console and restart the computer.

See:  Recovery Console Commands.

[Wanda]

How do you go poast 1 in the solution. GO into BIOS.

[dahlarbear]

Wanda, if you have a computer "issue" you'd like help with, you need to start your own "thread".  That being said, see How to enter the BIOS or CMOS setup.