Q: So I uninstalled my NVIDIA ForceWare graphics drivers and my nForce chipset. I then rebooted and ran Driver Cleaner in safe mode. I ran the filters to display and chipset / RAID / ATA drivers. Then I CAB CLEANER (thats what I think it was ruining my system). Now, everytime I tried to boot into Windows for the new drivers just will not come to install! I mean the screen with the “Windwos XP Professional” and the little bar with the loading of the three green bars running across it will not come. The PC will boot normally and then just before that screen is supposed to bring the monitor is blank (the green light is yellow) and will reboot itself. Then it will say “Windows XP did not start well the options . blah blah blah” So I choose the last good boot configuration of Windows and no luck there the same problem. I try to boot in Safe Mode and the same problem. Someone help me.
Best Answer: Oooo, bad noises. If it was a problem with the circuit board I could give a suggestion, but those noises mean that the "heads" that read the data off the platters were hitting something inside the dirve, and from your description of the sounds, I'd say what they were hitting was the platters, where data is stored in a hdd
Bad news, that. Some of your data would probably still be recoverable, but not at home, not without a clean room. There are companies who specialize in this, but it's expensive, and they usually charge by the megabyte. Google "data recovery specialists" if you want to find one near you.Re:There are ways to fix this in a surgical manner. The files you need to boot are going to be located in either your system volume information folder or dll cache. The changes to your registry can be undone with hives from system volume information or (as a temporary boot workaround) your repair folder.
Thing is you're going to need to really know what you are doing to go down this path.
The easier path is to do a repair install. It has a pretty high chance of success when you have only hosed things with driver removal. Repairs start failing when you have third party apps and services set to boot or system start types and they have missing files.
Just do a repair. If you are IDE the inbox drivers will work fine. If you are SATA, be sure to F6 when you boot from your CD to start the repair. Be sure the repair goes like this: F6 your drivers as needed, hit enter at the first screen to install windows, hit R at the next screen when it detects your existing OS.
Re:Another possible way would be to disable the driver from being needed by windows from the recovery console, but I don't know if that driver would be listed amongst the MS system ones.
I believe you type "listservices", look for nvatabus.sys. If it's there take the name it provides for it and use the disable command.
I am probally wrong on the exact commands, but you can always type HELP or DISABLE /?
Re:Problem is, once you install the nvidia drivers, MS completely forgets about theirs and there is no way to boot to tell XP to use them.
If you have a system backup, that would work but you would have to be able to activate it without XP whatsoever (can't boot to use systemrestore (don't know if that's required, since I never used it)). Booting into the LAST GOOD CONFIG won't work because the last time it worked was with the Nvidia drivers, which were removed by Driver Cleaner.
Reinstalling XP over itself would work, but I never advise installing OS's on top of eachother. And a format would take long enough you might as well do the method a described before, just to save on setup time.
Re:Boomerangs point is well taken. Im sure skipping that file prompt will not bother the install at all. It will get installed when you install the Nvidia platform drivers.
Re:I look at it from this perspective. If I was doing a clean install of XP, I would not need those drivers to get a functional system. The IDE drivers built into XP will allow the system to boot.
I would install these drivers afterwards, from either the CD, or the latest off the net to get full functionality.
This is why I said to skip it.
Now, if you're running a SATA drive with a chipset does that does not natively support SATA, well that is another story.
Re:Man that sounds hard. I repair install won't work you think?
Re:As I said… the hardest thing is transferring the file if you use NTFS. Be sure to check out several NTFS boot discs on google. I d/led a bootable CD on that worked great., but I don't remember the name of it.
Re:I have the solution right here… (I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that did this, hehe). Basically, XP no longer knows to use the default mobo driver and can't find the original to init the ATA bus.
If you're on FAT32 it's as simple as booting into dos, finding the NVIDIA install directory, and copying nvatabus.sys back to WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS.
NTFS was a LOT harder. In the recover console, you only have access to the windows directory unless you configured it before to allow access to drives. Since NTFS permissions are usually all screwy for user made folders, I couldn't even get into c:\NVIDIA to get the driver (so close but so far) using a NTFS boot disk. I had to download the drivers on another pc along with a NTFS boot disk and file manager utility. After a lot of dicking around with the boot disks I got it to work.
There ya go (I didn't say it would be easy, btw). Might as well upgrade to the remix drivers (I love 'em), and I also recommend staying with the XP ide driver. Every system I tested it on the MS was better.
Re:That file is a part of the Nvidia platform drivers and is the IDE sys file. If you have a second machine..download the platform drivers…extract the file….then copy the Natabus.sys file to a floppy or cd and then retry..or…skip it and if the system will start ok…it will get installed when you install the nvidia platform drivers.
Re:Download it and put it on a floppy or something you can point to and access.
Nvidia (http://www.nforcershq.com/article637.html)
Re:it has to do with nvidia drivers. i googled it.
should i still skip over it?
Re:Skip over it. Google that file name to find what it is.
Re:Ok i'm in the middle of it but a new problem has sprung up.
While it was reinstalling I got a message:
"The File 'nvatabus.sys' on SRCDATA is needed
Type the path where the file is located and then click OK"
What is this file, where is it, and how should I proceed?
Thanks.
Re:No, no not the recovery console.
Here's a link (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm) with the procedure. It's not the best tutorial, but it'll do.
It will seem like you are doing a clean install of XP. You are not. It will take as long as a fresh install.
I suggested slipstreaming SP2, because all your system files will be restored as they exist on the XP CD. You will have to download all Windows updates including SP2 unless you slipstream. Your choice, but for security reasons, it's a good thing to do.
Slipstream link. (http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm)
Your data, programs, desktop, etc. will not be affected as mentioned earlier.
Re:now how exactly do I repair the installation using the recovery console?
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
boot into safe mode.
reinstall the drivers
reboot.
on another note:
for f*cks why would you reload the mbr, it doesn't do s*it for driver problems.
Next time you decide to open up your mouth and use profanity, read the original post..He can't get into his OS. Fixing the MBR does work in some instances!
Only works when you can't get past the MBR. He stated that he could get into the Advanced OS options menu with safe mode and the like displayed, meaning that he could get past the MBR.
Re:Nope…repair install will not effect installed programs or saved data…go for it
Re:I uninstalled all the drivers so i could update them. its worked before. i think CAB cleaner messed my OS up.
I could format but I would lose all my data in the process. If I do a repair install would i still lose all my data?
Re:Originally posted by: guy
I second the motion to do a Repair Install of your OS.
I third that motion :beer: why did you uninstall everything anyway?
Re:I second the motion to do a Repair Install of your OS.
Re:If it was mine, I'd do a repair install.
If your XP CD is not at SP2, I'd recommend you slipstream SP2 into it before doing the repair. This is assuming you were at SP2.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
boot into safe mode.
reinstall the drivers
reboot.
on another note:
for f*cks why would you reload the mbr, it doesn't do s*it for driver problems.
Next time you decide to open up your mouth and use profanity, read the original post..He can't get into his OS. Fixing the MBR does work in some instances!
Re:Originally posted by: guy
i already said that I can't get into safe mode either. it does the same thing, right before its gonne go into safe mode it reboots.
what other modes have you tried and did you try to reinstall windows.
Re:i already said that I can't get into safe mode either. it does the same thing, right before its gonne go into safe mode it reboots.
Re:boot into safe mode.
reinstall the drivers
reboot.
on another note:
for f*cks why would you reload the mbr, it doesn't do s*it for driver problems.
Re:"Master Boot Record has been successfully written"
It didn't fix my problem. Thanks for the suggestion though.
HELP!
Re:Try to fix the MBR?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu…/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_ldau.asp (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_ldau.asp)