Out of Pod Experience

Reinstalling WIndows is NOT an option
Reformating is NOT an option.

I recently cloned everything onto a hitachi 500gb drive. All SMART stuff says the drive is in great health.
I have tried sfc /scannow but it says some files were unable to be "scavenged". (how do I make sfc use my vista disk?)
I have tried windows repair from the disk and it said it repaired file system errors that I guess resulted from or caused my computer to not start up from sleep mode.

Everything in my pc is brand spanking new except the OS. I dumped about 4 grand into it over the past month and an hoping I can find a way to fix everything.

My best guess is that the OS is corrupted, which is unsurprising because it was cloned off of a failing drive onto a semi failing drive and then onto my current allegedly not failing drive.

I need a way to repair my OS that does not involve reinstalling it. I know a way exists but I dont remember how.

If somebody could tell me what the probable cause of my problem is that would be great.
If somebody could also tell me how to get SFC /Scannow to pull files from my vista disk so it is able to repair everything that would be great too.

I have backups of my registry. from before the problem ever occurred.
I want to find the precise source of the problem first however.

I do not have disk cache enabled.

I will run a checkdsk and hope everything resolves itself.

Ok did windows repair disk thing it repaired file system AGAIN.

Now I dont have that registry error anymore and I was able to run some FIX IT tools that fixed my icon problems and sapposedly the problems with win update I have had for months.

Would need to know the stop code from the blue screen, it should be logged in the event log, under system (I think or Application). It will be something like event type of bug check or something.

Really to figure it out for sure you would need to follow this procedure:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263

The above procedure will tell you pretty much what driver caused the stop. I have a feeling it has something to do with a device making too many completion requests to the I/O subsystem at the same time. It could be bad ram, could be problem with the chipset on your motherboard, could be bad drivers for something etc.

You will have to figure out if your hardware is messed up (or somehow incompatible with some other piece of hardware). The fact that you cloned a disk that was corrupted to begin with, your stuff ended up getting copied over corrupted anyways, including bad sectors, in which case the SMART on the drive won't really see it because the drive itself isn't malfunctioning.

You can test your ram with this: http://www.memtest86.com/

Most likely your headset if it's USB or bluetooth is the culprit. You can get updated drivers and it might fix the problem. Use the minidump reading thing to find out what driver is causing the problem though.

The other problem is, if you cloned your operating system, but have different hardware installed than when you cloned it you're going to be in all sorts of trouble due to the fact that your original install was configured for the hardware you had. Cloning an OS image to dissimilar hardware causes all sorts of problems. If the hardware is the same and you just cloned to a different drive it could just be corrupted stuff.

Seems rather obvious, but did you use a repair disk yet? However if both HDD have disk errors... You're kinda boned.

Best to ask MS forum I got good help there actually. (The none paid kind too.) They might be able to give you a way to repair it,(certain files can have values manipulated or say replaced, but often in such situations they would say off site backup, (external or cloud) and re-install because there isn't any feasible way. Especially with disk corruption.

I've actually done that before (going from AMD to Intel no less - complete swap job, old MB fried at the wrong time and I needed it running quickly). Its doable on Win98/XP because you can do a 'Repair' install, I've not looked at what Win7 can do in that respect.

But as you said that is not always stable or sane for the PC - once things calmed down I did eventually start over.

In the case of my Win7 box an installer did something dumb that only affected how Norton Ghost worked (it would not backup). I eventually got images using different software and started over (and in a reverse twist to the OP, repairing was not an option that Win7 allowed me).

Update:

Problems Isolated to the OS.
The single most common problem I experience is when I will be doing something or more often when I go afk and the entire system freezes solid. Blue light stops blinking and computer is basically brain dead.

I originally figured this was the power supply so I replaced it. When problem continued to occur I replaced hard drive.
So at this point in time the entire inside of my computer is brand spanking new and high end except for the cheap hdd.

The freezing CAN happen at the login screen after being logged out.
The Freezing has yet to happen to safe mode.
The Freezing has thankfully yet to happen in the middle of playing EVE.

Fixes Attempted:

Sfc /scannow
windows startup repair

I recently ran sfc in offline mode from the command window in the windows repair disk menu. We shall see is problems occur again.

Edit: to those asking my OS is legit and authenticated, I do not pirate windows products. Especially not something as vital as an OS.


I am thinking my next practical step is to buy Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit and "upgrade" install hoping that it overwrites the damaged/missing windows files and guts of my current OS.

I had a similer problem when this computer was windows XP pro. The OS was messed up pretty bad so I just upgraded to Vista ultimate and that solved the problem.

IE used to do that to my system, I started using Chrome, perhaps same issue since IE is closely tied into the OS. If you're not going to reinstall, doing the win7 upgrade will probably correct your problems. I would definitely make sure all your drivers for all your hardware are up to date too, that may solve your issues.

I have an idea! First you need an industrial strength magnet then we'll talk.