Solved Random BSOD in WIndows 7 Kernel-Power Event ID 41

[DrillHead]

The drive is still under warranty. I opened a case with their support team. I'll let you know what I find out there as well as the results I get from my other 2 drives.

Thanks Essenbe!

 

[essenbe]

No problem. Just keep after it. BTW, if I'm not mistaken, the Seatools 'fixed' the bad sector by telling the controller not to write data there.

If it were me I would open a elevated command prompt ( click start, type cmd in the search box, right click on the cmd entry and select run as administrator) in the black box that opens, copy/paste sfc /scannow. If you decide to type it, notice the space between the sfc and the /. It is a system file checker which will scan your system files and attempt to correct any missing or corrupt files. What we want are the results to say windows found no integrity violations. If it says files were found but could not be repaired, close the box, reboot and run it again, after opening the administrative command prompt. You may have to reboot and run it three times for it to repair all system files. If it can't repair them after 3 reboots, let us know.

If they approve an RMA let me know and we will back up your user files and wipe the drive clean before you send it to them.

 

[DrillHead]

They sent me an RMA. Now I'm concerned. This drive contains my XP install with all my studio software and all of my projects. Most of the software will not run under 7 as is without upgrading to Pro for VM... even then there are no guarantees (some folks have had success with VM some not so much)

I ran the sfc once before with know issues detected but that was under 7 and I'm pretty sure it just checked my WD drive. Should I run the command under XP? Is there a switch to scan just my 1TB Seagate drive?

I do not want to lose my stuff. That's the whole reason I went through the trouble of installing the way I did with the option to boot from XP...

 

[DrillHead]

WD diagnostics says it has to be run from a floppy drive. Will it work from a CD if I boot from the disc? Not sure how to check the WD Black drive with the WD diagnostics utility...

 

[DrillHead]

I did this once before earlier in this thread but ran it again.
Here's the results of system file checker under 7:

 

[essenbe]

Do you have a spare hard drive? if you do, you can just clone the drive to the new hard drive and be fine.

 

[essenbe]

Also, see if this looks right. How to test a WD SATA, EIDE, or Solid State drive for errors with a Data Lifeguard Diagnostics CD or Floppy disk

 

[DrillHead]

Do you think I still need to check the WD drive since sfc found no issues with that drive? The file I downloaded from WD is not an ISO file... not sure how to make it bootable in order to boot from CD?

Can I run sfc /scannow under XP and if so what is different and what is the risk?

I don't have a spare hard drive but I can use the RMA option from Seagate to have them send me a replacement drive first (I would then have 25 days to return the failing drive). Couldn't I clone it then? If so would the clone still boot just like my original XP drive?

I've never cloned a hard drive before. I'm not sure what's involved. Could I just hook up the new drive and clone my XP drive from 7? I have 2 partitions on that seagate drive. Could I clone the boot partition and the the extended partition onto the new drive from 7 and then still boot into XP via changing the boot sequence in my BIOS? WOuld everything on those 2 partitions still function as before?

I know that's quite a few questions ut I think I may be getting a little outside of my experience / comfort zone...

 

[essenbe]

Yes, you could clone it when Seagate returns your drive. But, a word of advice. You need a couple of external drives to back up your personal files in case a hard drive crashes. You at least won't lose everything. I'm a backup freak because that is what happened to me. It was very expensive crash too. But, as far as the drive goes, yes you can clone it when you get the replacement drive. If it is done correctly, yes it will be an exact duplicate of the XP drive.

You can run sfc /scannow in XP, I'm pretty sure. As far as the Western Digital drive, I just want to make sure the drive is not causing your problems. sfc just scans system files. The diagnostic program does the same as the segate diagnostic program, it scans it for damage or defects of the physical drive.

 

[DrillHead]

Okay. Thanks again for the info. I will try to run the WD diagnostics from CD and let you know the results.

When I tried to run sfc /scannow under XP it prompted me to insert my XP Home DVD which I did but then was a little concerned about how current my XP backups were (in case something went wrong) so I canceled and came back here to seek your advice.

Will definitely have to get another drive for back up. My original drive (the 250GB Seagate) had some kind of boot problem which is why I replaced it with the 1TB drive. I thought I had lost everything. I did a clean install of XP on the 1TB drive and was able to access my 250GB drive from the new one. I restored my programs manually and re-mapped my old projects. It was very time consuming but it worked. That was a few years ago so I'm not so sure how well that would work if I tried it again...

 

[essenbe]

I'm not absolutely positive about this, but if you are running XP SP3 I believe the DVD has to be XP SP3 or it won't work right. I seriously doubt you will mess anything up, but it may not work right. Another option for your XP drive is a system image, but you have to have an external source to put it on, or at least another internal drive. Read this tutorial and watch the video to see a small example of how it works. And it will not bother your current XP drive at all. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

 

[DrillHead]

I've never cloned a hard drive before. I'm not sure what's involved. Could I just hook up the new drive and clone my XP drive from 7? I have 2 partitions on that seagate drive. Could I clone the boot partition and the the extended partition onto the new drive from 7 and then still boot into XP via changing the boot sequence in my BIOS? WOuld everything on those 2 partitions still function as before?

I know that's quite a few questions ut I think I may be getting a little outside of my experience / comfort zone...

I think your answer to these several questions was "yes". I'm just a little paranoid I guess but I want to make sure I understand before sending in my RMA to get the new drive:

I should be able to boot into 7 and from there clone my old XP drive onto a new drive (both partitions; boot and extended) and then be able to remove the old drive, change my boot sequence and boot into XP just as I am able to do now?

 

[essenbe]

Yes, but you will need to download a program to do it.

 

[DrillHead]

Can you be more specific? What program. I have several 3rd disc / partitioning / management utilities already?

 

[essenbe]

Does it have a cloning function? Or you could do an image. If it doesn't have, you can download free Macrium which does both.

 

[DrillHead]

Let me catch up a couple of things. Aside from the "DELL" screen when powering on these are the screens that show during boot (I know it took me a while but I hope this can answer the RAID or no RAID question).

 

[essenbe]

Your Sata controller is in Raid mode, but you have no raid volumes set up. That's what the second window is. The first Window is the VIA Raid card. If that is what you were asking. But, it does explain a few things.

 

[DrillHead]

Okay. Can you explain to me what that means?

I also ran the diagnostics on the WD drive (which contains my Windows 7 OS and 1 extended partition). I could not get the DLDiag app to run from CD so I tested the drive with SeaTools. SeaTools reported no issues. The WD drive passed all tests.

 

[essenbe]

Your VIA Card has it's own bios. So it is reporting what is connected to it. The second screen is your Motherboard Bios. It is set to raid, which it has no need to be, unless you are running a raid volume, which you're not. It shouldn't be set to raid. But, if you change it, you will not be able to boot into your OS probably, you will have to do a clean install. Will it hurt to leave it like it is? Probably not, you can just try it and see. If you change it, it affects both your Windows 7 and you XP drive.

 

[DrillHead]

Okay. That makes sense. I assume when you say "you can just try it and see" you mean leaving it as it is. Is that correct?

I have been more than 14 days with no BSODs and no issues at shutdown for 6 days. I think that the VIA card being disabled combined with "repairing" the bad sector on my other drive have helped resolve that. I do however, want to replace the potentially failing Seagate drive that has the bad sector.

I have AOMEI Partition assistant SE 5.5 and Paragon Partition Manger 11 Free. Both say they can make sector by sector copies of a selected drive. I take that to mean cloning?

I don't have any reservations about downloading Macrium Reflector Free either. What do you recommend? I do want to file my claim with Seagate to replace the drive so long as I can be confident that I can clone/image my old drive and it will still function as it does now. Would cloning the drive put the data at risk?

Will you help me with that once I receive the new drive from Seagate?