Today I found out my virus scanner and firewall weren't running, so I thought I had a virus (especially because I got errors when I tried to reinstall them). So I wanted to restart XP in safe mode, but that's when shit hit the fan. Because now I get blue screens all the time. I've tried to reinstall Windows with the disc, which failed, and now the damn thing even blue screens before I get to the install phase on the disc.
So I wonder what the problem is. I've already tried to reinstall Windows with each one of the two RAMs out, but that BSODs too, so bad RAM shouldn't be the problem (unless they both died at the same time), but before I start pulling out more, I like to have some pointers.

I would try running a Linux cd like Unbuntu. You might have a bad disk. Does you pc run a POST fine? If you unplug the harddrive does it boot to "no operating system found"? Do you have a spare HD to test? Pulling out the rams stick was a good start.

Update: it appears to be my primary hard disk. I managed to load a live cd of Kubuntu (an Ubuntu derivative) and it is able to read that hard disk without much trouble, so I'm backing up my data on a portable one now. I'm not sure if the hard disk itself is bad, or just the WIndows that was on it, because it was only a year old and didn't show any signs before these problems. During boot, the point where it turned bad was always when windows started loading, and the POST message didn't show anything strange. Are there any hard disk diagnostic tools on Ubuntu that I can use to investigate?

That process is where it's loading drivers and whatnot. Also, blue screens are usually associated with driver problems. Since you went from 0 to broken in no time, I'm willing to be you have some piece of hardware that's failing. Then again, it Ubuntu runs fine, I could be wrong. Are you booting into X? Is all your hardware detected and working properly/ Ie, audio, video, network, anything that could be causing Windows to throw up.

Who ever the manufacturer is should have some kind of HD diag tool that does not require a OS. For instances I know seagate has one that you boot to, run the test. Its a DOS based program. I dont think Ubuntu has a diag tool but I could be wrong.


I would try repairing Windows if possible and you can do that from loading the Windows CD. If you cant load the CD then you got a bad disk or their is a 3rd party driver you need to install when you get the option to load 3rd party drivers from the disk by pressing f3.

I already tried the Windows disc, but the repair console wasn't any use. Then I reinstalled Windows on the same spot (choose to install, then select the option to repair the installed Windows), but after rebooting to the second phase of a Windows install (entering settings), it would keep booting into safe mode, complain it can't run setup in safe mode, reboot into safe mode again etc. After that, it would just blue screen all the time.
I've run a Kubuntu live cd yesterday and installed it today, and it can access all partitions. However, according to the Partition Manager, the faulty drive doesn't have a partition table anymore, and the partition on that disc which had Windows on it, has lost it's name (instead of Windows, it's now simply volume (ntfs)).
I'll see around if Western Digital has any of those tools, it didn't come with the drive though.

They wont come with the drive. You have to download it from their site.

Sounds like you need to reformat an reinstall.

yea, honestly the first thing I'd do in that situation is copy off your crap (sounds like you already did that), then wipe all the partitions and start from scratch. Maybe even do a full (not quick) NTFS format during the setup phase.

I think I'll do that. I had some critical stuff to finish today, so I was just happy everything I needed worked with Wine (I think that if I didn't need to play the odd game from time to time and if using Linux wasn't social suicide, I'd be running Kubuntu non-stop). Tomorrow I'll try to fix some more crap. Still, I think it's new-pc-time anyway, I just don't have the money.

on a positive note, computers are getting cheaper and cheaper all the time for more and more. on a negative note, it's still expensive. If I really needed to, I could probably build a pc for a few hundred dollars, though it would only be capable of light gaming.

Theres always the possibility of getting some components second hand like the cpu and ram. They seem to function for years. The OS is still expensive. I wonder if Microsoft would release a gaming version of windows.

There are other discount ways of getting Windows. Like... student versions. Or people selling their old licenses.