Will Not Boot - Bad Pool Header

BigMck,

Thank you for your help with this. I really appreciate your efforts.

I will wait to see if I can get help here.

BJ

Thanks for your response. I don't know how to run the SF Diagnostic Tools when I can't get into Safe Mode to do anything. I am able to turn on the laptop, push F8, and get to the screen where I have the option of Safe Mode. When I click on Safe Mode, it starts Loading Windows Files and gets stuck. I can go no further other than to shut it down. Any suggestions?

I went to the Emergency Kit web page and created a flash drive with Mint Mate using the Universal USB Installer. I put the flash drive in the USB port of my husband's laptop and turned on the computer. This is what happened:

* Dell logo appeared
* Starting Windows appeared
* Screen with "bad pool header" error message appeared (message copied in previous message) and then within a second or two went to Startup Repair and started searching for problems. After about 4 hours, my husband noticed that the screen had changed, saying the computer had to be restarted to finish the repairs (I didn't see it and so don't know the exact words). Before we could take action, the computer shut down itself and restarted. It went through the loop above and went back to launching Startup Repair. It's been searching for problems for about 2-3 hours since it restarted and is still running.

This is a little encouraging because previously the Startup Repair had stopped without result.

Should I let it run for a while longer? If so, how long?

As another thought, should I cancel the repair, force a shut down of the computer, and then restart and use the F8 key to get to the Advanced Boot Options screen? What then?

NOTE: My husband only has photos saved on the laptop with no other data to lose. I have copies of most if not all of the photos on my laptop. So, at this point, we don't need to worry about losing data in attempting a repair.

What would you suggest at this point?

Thanks so much for your help.

BJ

Very shortly after I posted my last message, the Startup Repair stopped and said that it was unable to fix the problem. So, I allowed it to shut down.

I am not sure what you mean by bug check screens since I am not getting anything other than what I listed above. I did put the text of the bad pool header message in a previous message in this thread. I was able to find that text on the Internet from someone else's message about the same problem. I could not have captured it since that message appeared and then changed within seconds. I have seen no other error pages except (again in my previous message) before it got this bad, I ran a Performance Diagnostic and got error code Ox8007045D, which I discovered from someone else's problem to be "ERROR_IO_DEVICE". That's all I have seen in terms of screens providing any information. Am I misinterpreting your request for data?

So, if it's best at this point to do a clean install, what does that mean exactly? Please be as specific as possible since I have not done this before.

Thank you so much for all of your help.

BJ

Good morning. Thank you so much for your clarification. It helped a lot. This is what I have done so far this morning...

· I pushed the power on button to start the computer.
· At first sight of the Dell logo, I pressed the F8 key to get to the Advanced Boot Option screen
· I keyed down and selected Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure
· Starting Windows screen immediately appeared and began running
· After about a minute, the BSOD appeared – Bad Pool Header – the same one that comes up every time I attempt to boot
· In an attempt to capture a snapshot of the BSOD, I pressed Alt + print screen key. It may be placing the screen image on a clipboard, but how do I get to it when I can’t access any of the computer functions? Is there another way to get a screen capture? Where and how do I collect it and save it to send through MY computer?
· Although I am unable to capture and transfer the screen shot, I was able to read and type from his screen to my laptop. Here is the information. It reads:
*******************************************************************
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
BAD_POOL_HEADER
If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

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: 0x00000019 (0x0000000000000022, 0xFFFFF8A000C00000, 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000)
Collecting data for crash dump…
Initializing disk for crash dump…
Physical memory dump FAILED with status 0xC000009C,

Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further
assistance.


I tried Starting Windows a couple more times. Yes, I get the same BSOD every time with the text as detailed above whenever I try to start Windows normally.

I have been unable to use any Safe Mode.

My husband says that he has not installed any new hardware or software lately, other than whatever comes with the automatic periodic updates.

Whatever we do, we do not need to worry about any personal files, data, etc.

I await the next step. Thanks so much. BJ