Solved BSOD and HDD corruption - hard format not effective.

[JammyPox]

Hi all,
So it finally happened - my hard drive began to fail a few days ago, (after update patch KB2823324, managed to fix that but performance slowed).
Then began to get 'rinit.exe - corrupt File' message boxes, "The file or directory C:\Windows Live is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility" and "C:\Windows\Fonts\REFSPCL.TTF is corrupt . . . etc" followed by 'dwm.exe - System Warning' "Windows discovered a corruption in the file 'C:\Windows\System32\dxgi.dll'. This file has now been repaired, and shortly after -
'dwm.exe - Corrupt File' "The file or directory C\Windows\System32\dxgi.dll is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility." This was followed by a flurry of failed applications messages - then my BSOD.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000006, 0xFFFFF88000EDB0E9, 0xFFFFF880027E5738, 0xFFFFF880027E4F90)

*** CI.dll - Address FFFFF88000EDB0E9 base at FFFFF88000ECA000, Datestamp 4ce7c944

collecting data for crash dump . . .
Initializing disk for crash dump . . .

I was never able to retrieve the dump file, and after several blue screens and chkdsk/r,f,b etc, plus a hard format, windows installs from the disk with the warning "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This disk may fail soon"
I have a nice Samsung 840 ssd, and Barracuda 500 ordered - before I install them, my concern is if KB2823324 did more damage than I thought and if the BIOS could have been compromised, so
Any advice from the Wise Sages of sevenforums would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[VistaKing]

Are you able to get to the Advanced Boot Options menu by pressing F8 ?

 

[JammyPox]

Hi VistaKing,
Not any more, sorry. The Hard drive has been removed. I might try to get a data recovery company to take a look at it, but my concern is a possible reoccurrence of this issue when I install the 2 new drives.

 

[VistaKing]

Be wary about the update . I was going to see if we could remove the update that caused your BSOD .

 

[JammyPox]

Yeah I think they took out quite a few PCs with that one, although they removed the update pretty quickly from download section, a fix was easy to come by. I'm unsure if this was just coincidence - that the hard drive experienced accelerated corruption like that.
Do you think I should re-flash the bios firmware just to be safe?

 

[VistaKing]

The bios will not help

 

[JammyPox]

Then, I may be doomed . . .

 

[VistaKing]

I meant to say don't worry about the update . Microsoft did remove it from the updates so if you do a clean install on your SSD you will not get a BSOD .

You might want to run a memtest as well .

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

If you get any errors test every ram on every slot

 

[JammyPox]

Ok, actually, the memory diagnostic is the only part from the System Recovery Options that I didn't try. I'll definitely run a memtest when I'm up and running again.
Thanks for the reply and the advice, VistaKing - I'm not so worried anymore.

 

[VistaKing]

Run the memtest from the link above not the one that is builtin with Windows

 

[JammyPox]

Alright, I'll post back with the result when the drives are in, and thanks again.
. . . Every slot.

 

[VistaKing]

Make sure the SSD is the only drive installed when you install Windows . Update the Windows and install Drivers. Shut the computer install the second hard drive and turn the PC back on .

 

[JammyPox]

And do you think the SSD should be set up for RAID or AHCI?

 

[VistaKing]

RAID is if you have more then 2 drives . It should be setup in the bios as ACHI

You never want to setup a raid with an SSD and a mechanical hard drive .

Info :

RAID 0 : is with 2 drives meant for speed but if one drive goes bad you loose everything there is no tolerance

RAID 1 : is with 2 drives also known as mirrored . If one drive goes bad replace the bad drive and the raid will fix itself and you won't loose your files . Raid 1 is not meant for speed cause it rights two both drives . So both drives have the something . Meant for tolerance .