BSOD when taking a system image of C: OS

[Scottyboy99]

Tried again but same 95% point BSOD

I had high hopes tonight having freed up a lot of space on the HD (20% now free) and uninstalling literally the only new software in months (other than iTunes updates and windows updates) but it happened again at 95% mark. I guess thinking back I've taken successful images before and I've teetered around the 10% mark in free space for a good couple years. But it now still fails with 20% left.

It just seems weird that with less to image it still failed at the same 95% point if that makes sense. If before it fails at 95% when 609 out of 679 gb is used, then I would expect it to fail at a latter percentage if 545 out of 679 gb used. I could be talking twoddle but it indicates me it's not failing at the exact same point on the HD during the image because 95% with less space used would be at a different point/stage. So it makes think software/the OS itself is to blame. A bad Windows update at some point? But isolating these would be difficult given the amount of updates since the last successful image in early May 2015 (I let it slide for a long time). Maybe a recommended disk defragmenter to try and order the data in a better way on the HD (although I believe Windows does this automatically and in the screenshot it's only 3%).

It still baffles me why in normal use the OS is solid as a rock. Anyway I just thought I'd share my findings. If it helps at all here is the latest BSOD screenshot and disk management. Unfortunately no minidump as that still fails to initialise.

Cheers,
Wayne

 

[axe0]

Could you provide the photos I asked?

Please make photos of the connection:

1. the cable itself, prefered photos close to the cable
2. the connection on the motherboard port with the cable connected,
3. the connection on the hard drive port with the cable connected,
4. the connections of the cable when not connected,
5. the connection of the motherboard when the cable is not connected,
6. the connection of the hard drive when the cable is not connected.

 

[DavidE]

Hello axe0,
I'm not a BSOD expert, but i noticed the memory dumps failed with different status codes in the previous BSOD screen prints.
Do you think RAM tests should be run to rule out bad memory ?
tyia, David

From Post #21:
View attachment 381415

From Post #7:
View attachment 381416

 

[Arc]

I'm not a BSOD expert, but i noticed the memory dumps failed with different status codes in the previous BSOD screen prints.

Very good point noticed!!

0xF4 and 0X7A are not really very different, both of them points to disk related issues. Status codes are subsidiary parameters, but definitely having great impacts.

Such as, the image you snipped here ...

​

Error status 0xC000009C perfectly goes with the issue. It is STATUS_DEVICE_DATA_ERROR which simply means There are bad blocks (sectors) on the hard disk.

So, the target device is the disk. Here the other status code is 0xC0000010, STATUS_INVALID_DEVICE_REQUEST, reads as The specified request is not a valid operation for the target device.

My logic says, why not valid? Because there are bad blocks in the disks.

The original post says Seatools found no error. The dump says there should be errors.

I think Scottyboy99 should run Seatools for DOS Long Generic Test once again, and provide us with a camera snap that the Long Generic test passed without any issue.

I also think that my friend Axe0 will agree with me.

 

[axe0]

Of course I agree, but I would like to see the status of the cables and connections to ensure they are fine

 

[Scottyboy99]

Hi, thanks for the continued interest. I will try and do the pics in next few days. I just need to get suitable tools and spare time before opening her up. I'll snap away as best I can, have a rough idea what to picture but am not really geared up on the internals.

I did some googling and tried disabling the page file this evening and then running disk defragmenter with the intention of then re enabling the paging file back to system managed. It's only because that was a success story for somebody else. Alas it froze on pass 6 and BSOD mentioning a fatal error but no codes this time. Then a ran memory diagnostics tool in Windows (well it restarted and then ran them outside Windows) but no errors were detected.

I intend to run Seatools for DOS Long Generic Test either tomorrow or the following evening as instructed

Cheers, Wayne

 

[DavidE]

fyi, Your SF specs show Desktop, but this is a laptop you are using, right ?
I don't know if that matters for the pics axe0 wants.

If you never opened the laptop, you can search for videos on your specific laptop model.
Or check the manufacturer website to see if they have a service manual available.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Oops, your right. I've updated that now. Thanks I'll look into the info. I guess I'll do that whilst the Seagate long generic test runs.

 

[axe0]

In the case of a laptop, ignore my request for those pics

 

[Scottyboy99]

Sorry I mislead you. Have to admit I'm losing hope of it turning out ok. I will do the sea tools in next couple days but i might have to replace it. It's out of warranty by a couple years and I guess the cost of getting HD plus someone to replace it might not be economical given the age of the entire thing. Under warranty it had two separate gpu failures too which dell fixed, so maybe the HD gets changed it'll only be a matter of time before something else goes

 

[DavidE]

Getting a new HD should not cost that much, and from what i know about laptops they are easy to replace.
Then you could hopefully restore your latest (quite old) successful backup image.
You would then have many months of updates to re-apply.
It's up to you if that is worth considering before trashing the laptop.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Yeah it's something to ponder, unfortunately my last successful image is no longer an option as the USB drive containing it died. This led to the discovery of the issue I now have because I bought a new one to re image onto. And now the continual failures. I thought maybe I'd been unlucky and the USB drive was too blame so I returned it to the retailer and got a different brand but same issue. If I could get a new HD and image onto it the old setup I'd go for it. But as it looks like I'm going to have to start over from scratch it's making me question if it's worth it.

 

[Arc]

I did some googling and tried disabling the page file this evening and then running disk defragmenter with the intention of then re enabling the paging file back to system managed. It's only because that was a success story for somebody else. Alas it froze on pass 6 and BSOD mentioning a fatal error but no codes this time. Then a ran memory diagnostics tool in Windows (well it restarted and then ran them outside Windows) but no errors were detected.

Another strong indication of disk failure.

Only thing that contradicts here is your original post ....

Seagate tools (I have Seagate Momentus 750gb) passes diagnostics

And that is only why we have to wait for another complete long generic test using Seatools for DOS.

   Information

Please follow the Caution for AHCI Storage Controller minutely. Otherwise Seatools for DOS may reject to run in your system.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Just a quick question but does the seagate test have any chance of fixing the drive if it finds the offending sectors? Or is this just likely to confirm what is suspected but the overall aim to save the drive/current OS ultimately futile?

Cheers, Wayne

 

[axe0]

SeaTools can only repair Seagates hard drives and 1 other which I have forgotten.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Ok, so there is a slim chance it could do something for my Seagate Momentous. I'm not pinning my hopes but it's in my interests to give it a go. I'll report back when I've run it. Unfortunately working is getting in the way but I hope to do it in next couple days.

Cheers

 

[Arc]

Just a quick question but does the seagate test have any chance of fixing the drive if it finds the offending sectors? Or is this just likely to confirm what is suspected but the overall aim to save the drive/current OS ultimately futile?

Cheers, Wayne

Your HDD is seagate. So if the test got any error there is a mechanism in the test that will lead you to an attempt to recover the errors. See the part IV of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/313457-seatools-dos-windows-how-use.html#Part2

If the error is beyond repair, It will give a message that repair was unsuccessful.

SeaTools can only repair Seagates hard drives and 1 other which I have forgotten.

The other one is Maxtor brand, which was absorbed by Seagate in 2006.

 

[Scottyboy99]

Additional info

Sorry I haven't had time to do the seagate dos test, it's difficult to do when there is something you cannot do in Windows itself and you have to burn a disc, possibly change the setting from RAID to IDE etc. I will try when I can

But something interesting I noticed. Yesterday I kicked off disk defragmenter and it crashed with BSOD on pass 6. Similar pattern to the previous scan with HD tune and attempts at taking images. But what I noticed is disk defragmenter was last run 31 Jan at 2.54 pm. So it managed to complete relatively recently which kind of makes me think whatever is going wrong is a recent thing. So I think back to what happened on that Sunday afternoon. Well it was then that I got my USB powered hard drive containing my old image to do another Windows image over the top (as always done before). This is where things started to get troublesome, as I plugged the USB drive into my power strip I heard a bang and our electrics tripped. I unplugged the USB drive, flipped the breaker and power restored (during this time the laptop had not yet been turned on). There was no problem with the power strip as I tested plugging into that with other devices and it was still working. But what baffled me was the USB drive seemed ok too, I plugged it in elsewhere and it came on fine. So I then proceeded to turn the laptop on, and USB connected the hard drive to the laptop do the image. Everything all appeared ok until the 95% mark when it blue screened. It was then I thought just bad luck so I'll try again. But this time when I plugged the USB hard drive in Windows would not recognise it. I could see lights were on inside the USB hard drive but still nothing registering. To ensure the USB ports were still ok I then plugged in some flash USB drives as a test and they all registered ok. So it was at this point I thought I need to buy a new USB hard drive large enough for the image, I chose a portable one and tried again but same point BSOD, I sent it back and bought another only for same to happen.

So I guess my long winded point is could the USB hard drive that I tried to image with first time round after the 'bang' incident be responsible for all this mess? And be possible for causing some kind of OS corruption rather than the actual HD itself having bad sectors? It just seems strange the machine managed to complete disk defragmenter before these incidents happened but since then it cannot. My old image I suspect is no good as (a) that bang incident makes me want to stay well away from using that USB HD and (b) the image probably got messed up as Windows was busily over writing it at the time of the BSOD

Just for the record I tried seagate tools for Windows tonight as it was much easier and quicker to kick off. Selected long generic test and it got as far as 88% and then shut down BSOD. Would Windows chkdsk /f c: be a better one to run? It certainly sounds more convenient to try and run than seagate tools for dos?

Cheers, Wayne