I think my main drive is failing and that's causing all sorts of i

Hi Phill,

Can this all be done by command line?

Remember, my machine is erroring out upon start-up and I can only get to the command line through the options found on the Blue Screen recovery options (through the troubleshooting option button).  

This is very challenging.

Thanks

Alex

Hello Alex,

Missed the fact that you cannot boot into Windows and had I done so would not have asked for the crash dmps etc, chances are that this is because of a driver problem and most likely iaStorV.sys) which is a now obsolete driver that has been replaced by Intel rapid storage technology which is what you should have if running Windows 10, see info here

Try one of the restore points if you can, if you are able to get into Windows, run Speccy, get your motherboard details and then use the details to check the board manufacturers download page for the latest chipset drivers for the board.

Going offline now as I have an early start but will check back sometime in the morning all being well, good luck meanwhile.

Morning Phill,

I attempted both restore points that I had (one has since disappeared) and both failed.  The paraphrase of the error message I get goes something like…

not completed successfully, nothing changed.

Failed while scanning file system on drive D:\ (this is odd as drive D:\ I thought was my failing 2tb Hitachi which I pulled out of the machine for this restore)

Drive might be corrupt. Suggest retry after running chkdsk /R (never works and I only have access to command line now)

An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x81000204).

I even tried a 2017 back-up and that failed as well.

Oddly, the tweaking diagnosis thought my c:\ drive was OK. and that's the only drive left in my machine now. Why does it think it's the d:\ and apparently that's also possibly corrupted?

I have a USB media install thumbnail drive but I don't know how to use it…would that help?

Maybe a stick of dynamite? :p

Thanks for your patience.

Alex

Speccy snapshot
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/8WDAWYQNSX58tAZpr8g7qLf

Hope this helps.

Thanks

Alex

I can't be sure but there are two Supermicro MBs with similar model numbers to mine. X8DAL-i and X8DAL-3. Mine is listed as just X8DAL.

Both claim (on specs) chipset 

• Intel® 5500 (Tylersburg) chipset
• ICH10R + IOH-24D

I've been looking but I can't seem to get a clear explanation on how to download and then update my chipset (does this include BIOS?).

Thanks

Alex

Hello Alex,

Lot of reading for you below;

I will come back to your Speccy report after addressing your other points first;

I've been looking but I can't seem to get a clear explanation on how to download and then update my chipset (does this include BIOS?).

 

The only Windows 10 drivers available for your board are for the LAN device and if me I would download the actual driver CD from the SuperMicro Links & Resources tab, both boards have the same chipset but to be sure of which of the two boards you have you will need to open up the case and have a look to see if your board has a heatsink at the back of the CMOS battery, the X8DAL-i does not have one but the X8DAL-3 does have one, either way the latest chipset drivers are for Windows 7. 

The BIOS has no direct bearing on the Windows operating system software itself and updating the BIOS is always a last resort when troubleshooting a known hardware issue, if anything goes wrong during the BIOS update you are most often left with a trashed motherboard, dual BIOS MBs are invaluable in such an instance. 

I attempted both restore points that I had (one has since disappeared) and both failed.

 

The amount of restore points available is determined by how much storage space the user has allocated for them on the HDD, more is better if you do a lot of downloading and updating of Windows, AV, games and other programs etc, mine is set at 10GB on this notebook that I use solely for working on the forums, also worth mentioning is that as new restore points are created older ones are deleted to free up space and programs like the Windows AIO repair tool create a new system restore point before making any changes, your located space for restore points could be too small and your older restore point/s may have been deleted when you ran the AIO repair tool.

Can I ask how you managed to run Speccy if the computer would not boot - any luck with the crash dmps.

Things of note in Speccy, mentioned in the order that they are listed in the Speccy report, please create a new system restore point before doing anything else.

If using a computer and not a mobile phone, please avoid adding multiple posts while waiting for us to reply to your last, edit your last post to include anything that you wish to add, this will ensure nothing gets overlooked which can sometimes happen if a thread has more than one page. 

Whoa, that's overwhelming!

I'm sorry, I understand the avoidance of multiple posts and I'll start editing last posts. My apologies for any confusion. I realize you must be juggling a lot of these requests all at the same time.

Came home from work and, after a night of repair (one of the blue screen options which I must have hit a dozen times before) I was presented with my normal login page?!  Not sure how that happened but I'm ecstatic. That's how I was able to run Speccy.  Pretty sure, the minute I need to restart my machine, I'll die again…Oh well…

I attempted to create system restore point BUT I get the following Error.
"There was an unexpected error in the property page: The Volume Shadow Copy service used by System Restore is not working. For more information view the event log. (0x81000202) Please close the property page and try again."

Trying again does the same. VSSVC.exe is one of the files I'm finding is corrupted (see below).

As a last ditch effort to save my c: drive, I'm literally copying the c: drive to a portable usb drive.  I'm hoping to salvage any data just in case.  The interesting thing is, as I attempt to copy, a lot of errors pop up related to some of the files that I've seen mentioned in earlier error messages (iaStorV.sys, oledlg.dll, VSSVC.exe) and these errors seem to revolve around 16 dates…don't know if that pinpoints the days these got corrupted.

I downloaded the two isos for my MB X8DAL.  I'm a relative NOOB at computers (bet you couldn't tell) so I'm not sure about the exact board yet (finding heat sink on CMOS battery?).  I'll probably also need a step-by-step on which iso and how to update using that iso (I know I need to burn one of these onto a disk).

As soon as my c: drive copies over, I'll attempt to pinpoint the MB type, but I'm not sure what bearing that will have on which .iso I need to use.

As always, I much appreciate the time you are spending on my case.

Also, have a great weekend!

Thanks

Alex

No need to worry about checking the MB for the time being would suggest that for now you do not fully shut down the computer.

Follow what steps you can in my reply #21 then see the info here for "how to" refresh Windows as is detailed below;

• Refresh your PC to reinstall Windows and keep your personal files and settings. Refresh also keeps the apps that came with your PC and the apps you installed from the Microsoft Store. 

Hi Phill,

I cleared the c: drive so that it had 144 of 464GB or 31% free. I could not find where to set storage space allocated for recovery on the HDD.

I could not create a new restore point.

I disabled hibernation per your code.

I think I've changed the monitor settings and definitely turned off the screen saver.

I could not find the AVGPCTuneup but I did uninstall AVG and hoped it left with that uninstall.  It doesn't show up on my apps list.  Is it still on the upgrade list?

I removed RogueKillers app and I'll keep Malwarebytes for now.

I could not create a recovery drive in case the refresh goes bad. It recognized my 16GB thumbnail drive which was already formatted but it would only write for a second before giving an error message.

When I attempt a recovery with "Keep my files" selected (I'm guessing that's a refresh? It's very confusing how Microsoft uses so many different terms that don't match the GUIs or option titles), it fails with…

"There was a problem resetting your PC" No changes were made.

I think that's all I was able to accomplish.

Thanks

Alex

Hello Alex,

Apologies for the delay getting back to you, not been around for a couple of days.

I could not create a recovery drive in case the refresh goes bad. It recognized my 16GB thumbnail drive which was already formatted but it would only write for a second before giving an error message.

 

How were you trying to create a recovery drive and what was the error message.

See Windows 10 repair tutorial courtesy of Brink here

Welcome back Phill,

No worries, since I didn't shut down my machine, I actually could get some things done on it.  I hope you had a pleasant weekend.

Re: Recovery drive

I used the directions found at microsoft

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026852/windows-create-a-recovery-drive

Also tried this from PC mag

https://www.pcmag.com/feature/362167/how-to-revive-windows-10-with-a-recovery-drive

I don't remember the actual error message but I think it had something to do with Volume Shadow Copy not working (VSSVC.exe was one of the corrupted files in my list).

I'm attempting procedures suggested (Brink's) and I'll edit in the result.  I believe I tried a new install awhile back and found that the next morning it had failed with a "nothing changed" message.  Fingers crossed this time.

Oh, and I also got in touch with support at Supermicro and they sent me specific iso and directions for upgrading…in case we need to pursue that.

Thanks,

Alex

Thurs morning update…success.

Morning Phill,

I followed the Brink's procedures and at 6:12 am I was treated to a login screen. When I checked the notifications I had a confirmation that my system had successfully "refreshed" the OS.  I was able to also launch File History and I'm currently backing up.

Thank you so much for walking me through, hand-holding me through, this experience!

Now, I'd like to ask you about best practices for the future and maybe some assistance with my secondary drive (which has been pulled out of the machine at this point).

Thanks again!

Alex

Pleased to hear that you have made progress and a job well done on your behalf 

As for best practice, make regular back ups, back up your back ups of the most important data and if at all possible have a back up of your most important data kept off site, on a drive in a safe etc, create regular restore points, how to here use the Configure tab to increase the size of the amount of space that you wish to allocate to creating restore points.

Once you have everything updated and backed up etc, replace the second HDD, check the status of the drive in Windows 10 Disk Manager then either get back to us or alternatively if it is what you wish to do and you are able to, format the drive.

Hi Phill,

When we first started on my journey you had pointed out that my e: drive was formatted in exFAT.  After a little reading I decided that I'd like to repair that HDD and reformat to the more common NTFS format.

The odd thing is, when I use Windows disk management, the format option is greyed out.

When I use the command prompt and attempt it with DiskPart I get the message that…
"Format is not allowed on the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume."

How do I make my disk e:/ [volume 1] none of the above so I can successfully format and turn it into NTFS.  Also, do I need to partition the disk now or can I do that at a later time if I need to? I never really understood the need for partitions so I've never really done that.  Is it just an organizational thing?

Thanks again!

Alex📎Screenshot (4).png

Hello Alex,

I see that you now have another Seagate HDD fitted if the external USB type, use the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media option to safely disconnect the drive before proceeding with the following, if an internal HDD, double check your double check that you have the correct drive selected before deleting the data on the drive.

Instead of using the cmd prompt try the following steps from within Disk Manager, the options only typed in bold so that they are easy to see;

Morning Phill,

Unfortunately, the Delete Volume option is grey-ed out.

That's the disk that had the "Reallocated Sectors Count" when I ran the CrystalDiskInfo diagnostic.  I'm reading on-line that that's a good indication to start shopping for a new disk. Could that be why Format and Delete Volume options are grey-ed out in Disk Management?

Thanks

Alex