Vista Boot Problem "..crcdisk.sys"

[Salinger]

Vista home premium Operating System

 

My computer will not boot up. It was working fine and suddenly the Windows Sidebar stopped workng - maybe connected ?. The computer continued working OK. I turned computer off as per usual.

On turning the computer on later it would not boot up. Using "safe mode" "Loading Windows Files" was displayed but this stopped at "windows\system32\drivers\crcdisk.sys".

I have tried using F8 + F10 using Start Up Repair, System Restore etc but to no avail. Sometimes Start Up Repair did find somehing but this made no difference. System Restore did on one occasion find a restore point, the time earlier in the day I had used it and showed a windows update had been made, which I tried. It now does not show any available restore point.

I created a boot disk on my laptop from Neosmart / torrent and started computer with this but only got as far as the Repair Your Computer screen which I had already been able to access.

 

I have tried chkdsk from the dos command but this appears to do nothing.

 

The current situation is the screen shows "Windows Vista Home Premium" flashing on and off at the bottom of the screen, the cursor and blue circle are also showing with the screen flashing a white band at the top as if it is trying to start.

 

I have made no changes, added or removed anything between the PC working and it failing to start.

 

It is an Acer Aspire T180

AMD Athon 64 Dual Core Processor

Ram 1024 mb

Hard Disk 160 GB

Optical Drive - Multi-Format Dual Layer

Graphics - nVidia GeForce6100

Sound Card Realtek ALC 880

 

I have Microsoft Security Essentials installed and have automatic updates activated.

 

I have been searching the internet for answers for two days but am at a loss as to what to try next. I would like to avoid a complete re-install if possible.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

[Jelly Bean]

I noticed you use torrents......Is your Vista legal?

 

This could be a virus.

 

As you have already used a torrent file download to try and fix this error then my advice is to contact the computer manufacturers and buy a legal recovery disk from them....

 

I am afraid as you have used torrented software we are unable to help or figure out what the issue is due to the useage of torrented software.

[Salinger]

I got to torrent from Neosmart after goggling how to fix the crc.sys problem. I downloaded the Vista recovery file but as previously stated this did no more than I had already done using the F8 control.

Can you please explain the "unable to help because of useage of torrented software".

My Vista was pre-installed on the PC when I bought it from PC World so I assume it is legal.

 

Cheers

[Plastic Nev]

A tremendous amount of software downloaded via torrent sites is illegal pirated stuff.

 

In these circumstances, considering there is no way for us, or even you, to verify that any software you acquired by this method is legal, or come to that illegal and of a pirated nature, we have to refuse help with it.

 

We can be open to all sorts of problems if seen to be doing so.

 

Sorry and hope you understand.

 

However, too much is pointing to a failing hard drive at this moment, as the system is refusing to access the operating system.

 

Is there a possibility that you can remove the drive, and by using an adapter connect it via USB to a different computer?

 

If you can do that, let us know as we can at least help you find out if the hard drive has failed, if indeed a virus is present on the drive, or at the very least hopefully recover any valuable files.

Nev.

[RandyL]

Hi everyone. Just to let you know the Vista Recovery Environment bootdisk download from Neosmart is a legit download. Using torrent software is unavoidable as there is no other download option for the file. I don't believe there is a problem here in this case.

 

I think Nev may be right about the hard drive. In a previous thread I noticed that you had recently reinstalled Windows via the Acer E-Recovery. A year ago I believe. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/windows-vista/10041-more-memory.html

 

Although your RAM is extremely low a slow computer could also be a sign of a failing drive. As I said I'm inclined to go with Nev.

[Salinger]

I will try to connect HD to another PC and then get back to you.

 

Many thanks for your help

[Synapse]

Find out the make of hard drive you have and download the utiliities CD from the manufacturers website.

 

Burn and boot from it, then run the drive test, that normally tells you the health of the drive.

[Salinger]

It would appear it was a software problem. Had to engage services of a professional in order to save a small amount of un-backed up data. Other than that I believe it was fixed by completing a re-installation of the O/S.

RandyL - I will be investing in a memory upgrade in near future.

 

Many thanks for all your help and advice.

[RandyL]

I was afraid you might have to reinstall Windows. Keep in mind that the drive may have developed some bad sectors which Windows may have ignored on the re-installation. I'm hoping that is not the issue or things could go bad again. Keep backing up just in case.

 

In the future as Nev was saying there are ways to save files from a corrupted drive sometimes.

Is there a possibility that you can remove the drive, and by using an adapter connect it via USB to a different computer?