Null Pointers

Hi Tom,

Thanks to your post I have just managed to delete the $TxfLog but it did not solve the problem with the BSOD ;-(

Is there any other work around to safe the system?

Can you advice?

Regards

Piotr

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It Works!!! ;-) Thank you

Actually, this bloody laptop had two partitions and I had deleted the wrong $TxfLog from wrong partion ;-(

Beside that your advice worked on my when I realized that I need to get to sda2 ;-)

Still have some problems but now can get the Vist DVD working

thanks a lot

and all the best Tom

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Thanks, it works! ;D

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Very nicely done worked like a charm Hp wanted me to send them my notebook thinking it was a motherboard issue I showed them your fix and Im sure they will be going this route vs rma and a new drive thanks very much Doug Sacramento, ca

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Thanks Doug... you owe me a pair of Kings tickets. (Only kidding of course, but I am a big-time Kings fan!)

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I'm sure I'm over looking something here but I can't find the $Extended hidden folder that you are talking about. I am using SystemRescue-CD 1.1.2

Sorry I went too fast and thought it was $Extened...I see now that it is $Extend and I'm in it now. Thanks

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I have the same problem. Im trying your method but I can't seem to boot the cd correctly it keeps saying it cant find the cd and it says Media Not found. Does anyone know a solution for this problem? thnx in advance

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@DJ: If you're getting "Media not found" or your system "can't find the CD", the most likely cause is a bogus CD. Try burning the disc again, or downloading the SystemRescueCD image again and then burning a new copy.

If you have a guaranteed-good CD and the system STILL won't boot it, make sure your BIOS is configured so as to let you boot CDs before the hard drive.

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Thanks for your quick response. The problem is I can let it boot be4 my harddrive and I do get the first screen of the system rescuecd but when I press enter to boot it it loads all stuff and at the end it gives a message that it is trying to load /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb and then it says cant find device. Media not found. Sorry for my terrible english .

@DJ: First of all, please do not apologize for your English... it is excellent. And I'm sure it's a thousand times better that the butcher job I would do on whatever is your native language...

So it sounds as if you can successfully boot from CD... but the errors you are seeing could still be attributed to a bad CD burn (or a good burn of a bad/incomplete download). Did you try burning another copy of the SystemRescueCD, or try booting a friend's computer with your current CD?

Thanks for the tip. This got around the BSOD and Vista 32-bit Premium is back in the land of the living WITHOUT a full format and reinstall.


S.

Fuck Yea! Dude your shit worked for me. i found these same steps on another site but step 4 was wrong on that site.
--> here's the site: http://bsods.com/content/windows-vista-and-stop-0x0000c1f5-linux-anyone

i had to do this on my hp pavillion 6700 win64 home ultimate notebook.
once i made it to this page and saw step 4 i knew it was going to work.. i feel kinda bad now for not making a youtube vid to help others on going through the process of fixing this problem.

thanks a ton man.

Hi, If we do not have linux, can we use the HDD of affected system as a second hard disk in a running vista computer, and delete this $TxfLog file? Will this solve the problem? Please advise.

@Vaibhav: You *might* be able to mount the bad disk on a Vista system *which has already had Microsoft's KB fix for this BSOD installed* and then manipulate it that way. If the Vista system has NOT had the fix installed, it will simply bluescreen just like your system.

However, I can't imagine how not "having Linux" is a problem... the SystemRescueCD image is a LiveCD (no installation required, just boot the disc and use it), it's free, and it's readily available at the link I provide above. All you have to do is download the ISO image, burn it to CD, boot it, and follow my instructions.

Hi Tom. I'm just about to launch my laptop out the window, so I'm really hoping you can help. I followed all the steps to burn the cd you suggested, & I triple checked to make sure it's booting from cd, but it still goes to the repairing windows screen & then the bsod. this is the first time I've ever had to mess with this end & it's confusing. It was the ISO I was supposed to burn correct? I'm running Vista on a Compact Presario F700. I never had a bit of trouble with it until the update. I HAVE to fix this somehow as I refuse to send them my laptop. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Toni

@Toni: don't launch that laptop just yet.

Yes, the correct thing to do was burn the ISO to a CD. Assuming you got a complete, uncorrupted download from their web site and had a successful burn to a good piece of media, you should be all set.

Of course, if the download, burn, and/or media were bad, your CD won't boot. So my first suggestion is to try to boot the disk in a friend's computer. If it boots successfully, you can safely eliminate the disc as a problem. If it fails, re-download and/or re-burn and try again.

If the disc is good, it WILL boot, so if you are still getting the "repairing Windows" screen you are NOT booting from the CD, despite what you may think. Double-check the manufacturer's procedure: make sure the CD comes before the hard drive in the boot order settings in the BIOS, sometimes there is a function key you can hit at the BIOS screen to pick/override the boot order, sometimes even if the CD is chosen first you have to hit a key within three seconds to get the system to boot off the CD, etc etc etc.

I found this on the M$ site, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084/en-us

I've asked for a fix & will report back. Good info Tom but I couldn't get past putting in a backslash to access the $Extend... :'(

I'd been a muppet earlier as I'd left the disk to load & it loaded US keyboard when I needed UK (so be warned to watch the boot sequence).
I can't seem to get past the "cd /", "umount /mnt/windows" after successfully removing the $TxfLog file? is there a space after the comma and/or before?

Their hotfix is downloadable & I can run it but not on the corrupt HDD as I can't access it, LOL There's also issues with opening their MSU files too so this seems our best option for now until they fix their handy work >

Markus you need to put the backslash in like this /mnt/windows/$Extend dir sorry if you knew that but you typed with it missing in your post so maybe thats your problem? good luck!

oops it seems the forum takes the backslash out (php) ;D

@Andy: Thanks for jumping in and sharing with others!

I recently migrated this blog to a new system, so I'll have to look into the (potential) issue of backslashes being removed from comment posts...

In the meantime, to answer YOUR question: In step 9, the "cd" and "umount" commands are TWO SEPARATE COMMANDS. So enter them on two different lines. (That wasn't so clever on my part, so I will update the original post/instructions to clarify.)

@Andy: BTW, the problem with KB946084 (which I link to in my article above) is that the hotfix only PREVENTS this problem from occurring in the first place; it can only be applied to a currently-running system. If your system is already experiencing the BSOD (and I doubt you would've found this article if it weren't) the hotfix is worthless to you.

yeah I did take a step back & realize Tom, LOL I would make them steps 9, 10 & 11 maybe:

9. cd /
10. unmount /mnt/windows
11. init 6
12. remove cd upon reboot & quickly boot to VISTA DVD (which I missed).

I don't think you realize just how important this blog post is right now as it's the ONLY fix I could find on the net including M$ :o

Here's a list that I noted for future reference for myself, I hope it helps others

STOP ERROR: 0X0000C1F5 QUICK LIST


1. Press ENTER to load the program

2. Choose your keyboard layout within 20 seconds or it defaults to 'US' to load.

3a. ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 mnt/windows

3b. use: ls /dev/hd* or ls dev/sd* to list hard drives if the above doesn't work

4.use: mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows -o force (use letter o, not zero) this is required if it says the NTFS system is in use.

5. ls /mnt/windows

6. cd /mnt/windows/$Extend

7. cd $RmMetadata

8. ls (should now show the $TxfLog file (note capital L)

9. rm -rf $TxfLog

10. cd /

11. unmount/mnt/windows

12. init 6

13. replace CD with Vista DVD & boot to repair tools


Tom maybe you could edit & add to that? I'm tired now.

As for me...
I removed the offending file but rebooted b4 the Vista disk could kick in so I think the file loaded in again I'll get back to it tomorrow.

note: step 11 should say "umount" not "unmount" :-*

this fix isn't working for me sadly does anyone know where to locate the file to replace it via HHD reader?

ps:thanks for the heads up tom

I can get tostep 6 but it will not let me remove the |$TxfLog file. Any thoughts?

Also the microsoft Hotfix is useless, how are you supposed to be able to apply it if your computer is getting the blue screen. It will not initiate on boot up USB.
Cheers
CraigE

@CraigE: Yes, as I wrote above, the hotfix is useless for this situation. It is preventative only and will not fix a system once it has this problem.

I realize that right now this comment system is not allowing us to enter backslashes in our comments, but are you really trying to remove [backslash]$TxfLog and not |$TxfLog? When you "ls" in step 6, do you see $TxfLog listed there? If not, you have the wrong partition/disk...

If yes, check your typing carefully to be sure you have spaces, $, backslashes, etc all correct and try again.

Tom,
You are a genius Got it sorted, with 4 computers in the house did not realise mine was a 64bit, stupid me.restored it beautifully. You and the Linus utility are A1. Microsoft have had some nasty emails from me, not that it wil make them fix this problem, but hey they need to know.
Once again thanks mat
Craig from Australia

I have the same problem. Only it is on the company computer. People are accusing me with putting a virus on it as I was the last person to use it. We got the files from a service that gets lost data for you but when they tried to connect the HD to their Vista PC they got the same error or so I am told so they say it is a virus.

If I say nothing then they will format the PC and evidence will be destroyed and I may very well be stuck with the service fee. I can't see how I did anything wrong as I am not stupid and never installed or downloaded anything on that PC. In fact I rarely use it.

@AzureD: This BSOD has nothing to do with any virus/malware, nor is it likely due to any action (or inaction) on your part. This BSOD is caused by a KNOWN BUG IN WINDOWS VISTA (that's why Microsoft has issued the hotfix described in KB946084) and MICROSOFT DOES NOT HAVE A FIX FOR THE PROBLEM (the hotfix is preventative only, it will NOT repair a system that is already experiencing the BSOD).

Hooking up such a drive to another Windows system will BSOD that system too, for the same reasons. This is NOT the result of a virus/malware.

To the degree that I (and others) have been able to diagnose, the root cause of this problem is the Vista SP1 upgrade process which fails to complete successfully under certain conditions. One result of such a failed upgrade is this BSOD problem. Since the SP1 installation is a Microsoft-recommended maintenance procedure (and, indeed, in some cases it will be installed automatically on your behalf), I'd be hard pressed to imagine how YOU could be proven to be at fault for any problems resulting from SP1 installation.

Without casting judgement, it sounds as though the "service company" is taking the same approach to this problem as, say, Dell, HP, and Microsoft support: I don't have a fix for this problem on my "fix list", so "obviously" the "right" thing to do is format/reinstall. If you've bothered to read this post, however, you know that there ARE ways to fix this problem that DO work in MOST cases and DO NOT require as Draconian a "fix" as a format/reinstall.

Feel free to share this blog post, and this comment in particular, with your IT staff. They can contact me directly through this site if they have further questions on this issue.

@Tom: Alright thanks you have been very helpful.

Just wanted to add a note from my own experience using this method:
If you delete $TxfLog and are still getting the BSoD, make sure you're mounting the actual Windows partition.

I fixed my friend's Dell notebook from this BSoD, but wasn't paying attention to the partitions. I mounted sda2 and deleted the file, but as it turns out, sda2 is the "RECOVERY" partition! It still contained a $TxfLog file and appeared as a Windows partition, so I didn't realize it wasn't the active Windows partition, which turned out to be sda3 ("OS").

Once I figured out my error, the fix worked like a charm. Thank you.

This works!! You're awesome. Thank you very much.

I also found multiple copies of the $TxfLog file on different partitions. Deleting the one on sda3 did the trick.

If you were here I'd be buying you a beer or ten.

Have done everything and checked that the file as been deleted. But I still get the BSoD. Have checked to see if there are other partitions but it appears that I only have the one. Is there anything else I can try

@keith: Please post the output from "fdisk -1". Also: is your system disk a RAID array built from multiple physical drives, or just a single drive?

Which drive/partition did you actually try to repair?

What is "fdisk-1". It is a single drive. sda1

@keith: at the shell prompt, type "fdisk -l" ("eff disk space dash ell"). fdisk is a partition management utility in Linux; "fdisk -l" will list all of the partition(s) on all of the disk(s) on your system.

Run the command and type/paste the results in a reply here.

device boot start end blocks id system
/dev/sda1 1 1256 10088788+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 1257 30402 234108740 7 HPFS/NTFS

@keith: Based on the "fdisk -l" output, your Windows partition is sda2, not sda1. In all likelihood sda1 is a "repair partition" (I'll bet a dollar that this is a Dell machine...?).

Perform the repair procedure using sda2 and you should be good to go.

BTW, this has happened enough times that I think I will update the instructions to make "fdisk -l" a standard part of the process.

I have got to step 14 and am now being asked if I want to use system restore. Should I restore or click cancel

@keith: First try *without* System Restore; let it do "normal" system repair (which, as noted in the instructions, may take 2-3 tries). If that fails, try the System Restore route.

"Startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically". So I clicked restart and got
!! 0xc0000034 !! 248/89317 (_0000000000000000.cdf-ms).
Do I try and reboot from disc again.

NOTE: This "fix" for your problem is just a THEORY. I have NOT tested it on a live system, as I do not have a system which is experiencing the 0xC00000034 problem. If you are desperate to get your machine running again with the existing Vista installation, you can try this... but I cannot guarantee that it will work. It *probably* won't make the situation any worse, but it *might*...

There is some speculation that the 0xC00000034 errors are due to botched multi-stage Windows Updates. Unfortunately, once corrupted, the system is impossible to fix. So the theory is that if we can get past the partially-completed Windows Update(s), the system will heal itself, and you can then reapply any missing Windows Updates manually.

With all of that in mind, if you are willing to be a lab rat, try this... For the purposes of these instructions I will assume Vista is installed on your C: drive at /dev/sda1... if not, adjust appropriately. Please pay attention to upper/lower case etc.



1) Boot your system using the latest SystemRescueCD (v1.04)

2) "ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows" or "ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows -o force" as required

3) "cd /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config"

4) "ls" -- this is where your Registry hives are stored... you should see "COMPONENTS" among the files listed there

5) "chntpw -e COMPONENTS" -- this puts you in a command-line interactive Registry editor with a ">" prompt

6) "ls" -- you will see a list of keys like < CanonicalData >, < Configuration >, etc

7) *IF* that list of keys includes < PendingXmidentifier >, < NextQueueEntryIndex >, and/or < AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving >, we're going to delete those keys... if not, this fix is not applicable and you should try to find a better solution and you should go to step 9.

Assuming you DO have one or more of the offending keys, type "rdel PendingXmidentifier", "rdel NextQueueEntryIndex", and/or "rdel AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving" as appropriate to recursively remove the offending key(s)

9) "q" to quit chntpw... say yes when asked if the changed hives should be saved

10) "cd /" and "umount /mnt/windows" to unmount the C: filesystem

11) "init 6" to reboot -- remove the CD when appropriate

Hopefully this results in a bootable, useable system. After it finishes booting, I'd restart it cleanly, then use Windows Update or Microsoft Update to look for and apply any missing updates.



If you try this, PLEASE let me know detailed results. If it is successful, I will post it in my blog. If any of my instructions are unclear, I missed steps, misspelled anything, etc PLEASE correct me, 'cuz if I DO post this I want it to be error-free.

Good luck, and let me know how you make out.

What does use "rdel PendingX midentifier" etc mean. Or can I just system restore to before I installed SP1

Sorry about the above post -- still working out glitches in JomComment.

After steps 5 and 6, if you see the Xmidentifier, NextQueueEntryIndex, and/or AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving keys listed, you need to delete them. For each key, you type "rdel KEYNAME" at the prompt, e.g. "rdel Xmidentifier", "rdel NextQueueEntryIndex", and/or "rdel AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving", to remove the offending keys. Then do steps 9-11.

If this procedure fails, you can try System Restore and going to an earlier point in time... but I'd recommend you try this procedure first and let me/us know how you make out.

Have found AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving typed in
rdel AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving but it says not found. Have I done this right?

I assume you did this after steps 1-7? If so, and if it shows up using "ls" from within chntpw, I can't imagine why you can't rdel if, assuming you are spelling correctly and have upper/lower case exactly right...

The line of text reads 4 REG_SZ . Do I need to put Also there is4 REG_SZ first.
I presume I leave this alone?

For some reason AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving vanished from my post. This is after 4 REG_SZ

Yes, the "4 REG_SZ" is extra data about the key, kinda like the size and time-last-modified if you do a detailed listing of files in a folder.

The only part of the display that is relevant here is the key name, which is AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving. So if you "rdel AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving" (with correct spacing, spelling, and capitalization) it SHOULD work...

Have tried several times now but it still says "not found". Thanks for your help it looks like I'll have do a restore as it looks like I cannot delete file.

One last try if you don't mind: try "dv AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving" instead of "rdel AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving"...

have done this and rebooted. But still get
!! 0xcooooo34 !!

Thanks for all your help. I am doing a system restore at the moment

system restore is still running 12 hours later. Do I leave it to carry on, or start again

System Restore should almost certainly not be taking that long. Suggest that you forcibly restart (power-cycle if necessary), then let the system try to auto-repair... if it doesn't, try the System Restore again.

I have tried system restore again, but it gets stuck at "Finalizing file restore...". I tried the repair option before this, but that just gets stuck as well.

Is there anything else I can try please. Sorry if i'm being a nuisance

i have the c1f5 on my laptop what can i do to fix it please help

@Keith: Afraid I can only be of limited additional help here... if I had your system, I would try automatic repair two or three more times... I've seen it take multiple cycles (even incomplete ones) before it was ultimately successful. Besides, if you CAN'T get the system restored, your next step is to reinstall Vista, so you've got nothing to lose by trying...

Also, if you haven't already, try using System Restore and go to an "earlier point in time".

If all else fails, be grateful that at least now you can boot the Vista DVD without the BSOD! So if nothing works and you have to reinstall, at least you can proceed that by booting SystemRescueCD and use it and its tools, along with a network-mounted share or external USB drive/stick, to back up your valuable data before you reinstall.

Good luck!

How can I back up my data using SystemRescueCD, as I don't know what tools there are on the disc or how to use them. Many thanks for all your help.

@lady1951: um, what you can do to try to fix your laptop is follow the steps I wrote in this blog post. If it happens to be a Dell laptop, at step 2 in the process start by typing "fdisk -l" and look carefully at the sizes of the partitions... Dells include a Restore partition which has Windows files on it but is typically much smaller than your actual C: drive partition. The partition you want is almost always the largest one, and it typically has a "*" next to it in the "fdisk -l" output indicating that it is bootable.

@Keith: The easiest thing to do is get yourself an external hard drive (USB/Firewire/eSATA, whatever you have and whatever ports your computer has). Plug it into a working computer and verify that the disk is formatted in some PC-friendly format (e.g. FAT or NTFS). Then plug it into your damaged PC and boot SystemRescueCD. Make yourself a new mount point: "mkdir /mnt/external". The external drive should be recognized by and useable by the system automatically at boot, so you can mount it (using mount or ntfs-3g depending on if the drive's format is FAT or NTFS) on /mnt/external. Next, mount your Vista partition on /mnt/windows as you have done previously. Now you can either start the GUI (by typing "startx") to use the graphical file explorer or you can use the "cp" (copy) command at the command line to copy files from /mnt/windows/whateverthepathis to /mnt/external... in effect, copying files from your Vista partition to the external drive. When you're done, "umount /mnt/external" and plug the drive into a working computer... you should be able to browse/access your valuable files on it.

If you don't use an external drive, you can boot SystemRescueCD, mount your Vista partition, and then mount a network share and copy files to it, use FTP to copy files to the network, use BackUpPC... there are lots of options... and I honestly have neither the time nor the space to describe all of them here. Fortunately, Google is your friend. The SystemRescueCD web site has a list of all tools included on the CD.

Thankyou for all your time and patience. I will try this.

Hi! Ok, I've been working on this for a while.. and I had the same problem Keith had with the !! 0xc0000034 !! 251/89317 (_0000000000000000.cdf-ms). It occurred to me that maybe I rebooted wrong, so I ran the SystemRescueCD again only to find that the $TxfLog file was still there, even after it had been deleted... Any suggestions? After I delete the file, umounnt, init 6, should I let the CD finish, the computer reboot and then take the CD out or what? Thank you very much for your help. This site has been extremely helpful! ;D

Okay, so a follow up to my last post. I've tried a number of different things and every time that I go back to the SystemRescueCD, the $TxfLog file is there. It's as if it deletes it, but the second my computer turns back on, it loads it again... hmmmm...

I have the same probleme, if deleted it ($TxfLog)on sda1 & sda2 comes allways back on sda1 ... no blue screen instead of that i have a black screen now, DVD is loading but also a black screen and if i try to start normal i have an other fault, like Elyse, 0xc0000034 251/67498 ... f***

any suggestions ?!?

Trying to keep $TxfLog off your system once it's past the 0x0000C1F5 BSOD is like trying to keep the sun from coming up in the morning... won't happen. $TxfLog is a standard file used by the NTFS transactional file system and you should expect to find it on every properly-working Vista system. The reason you had to delete it to solve the BSOD that initially lead you to this blog (I assume) is that it was corrupted. Once you get past the 0x0000C1F5 BSOD you should not try to delete $TxfLog any more.

If you are experiencing the !!0xc00000034 !! "black screen of death", that is a completely separate issue and is unrelated to $TxfLog. If you go back about 12 comment postings or so you will see a discussion thread I had with Keith wherein I described this problem and a *POSSIBLE* solution. If any of you are willing to try that procedure and share your results here that'd be keen.

I tried it, didn't work because the only key i found was "PendingXmidentifer"
rdel it / didn't work to delete it , sry ...

I saved the files like you explained to @Keith

but with the "Midnight Commander" and F6 (move to) external,it took a while till i found out ... but it worked !! Thx a lot

I had to reinstall but i could rescue the files ;) Its working now ;)

Thank you so much, you are the man!

First I would like to say that you did a wonderful job figuring this all out. It took me a couple of tries but I finally got through all the code and put in my Vista disk. I just have one simple question. At least I hole its simple. I am working with the Startup Repair. I know you said it could take 5 - 23 or more tries to get this to work. When I run it, I get "Startup Repair could not detect a problem". I click on finish and I got back to the System Recovery Options. Its not asking me to reboot. So do I have to reboot between each try of the Startup Repair? I just need to know that I am doing this right. I have read about 80% of the posts here. So if I just havent gotten to a post where someone asks this, I am sorry. I just have been working on this laptop for almost a month now. I am so close to fixing it, and I hit another wall. I would like to finally get it working again. Thank you again for all your help.

SDream

@SDream: Well, first an obvious question: if Startup Repair couldn't find any problem, did you try booting the system normally (from the hard drive) to see if the system is already fixed?

I'm presuming that you HAVE successfully eliminated the 0x0000C1F5 BSOD at this point, so if your system won't boot from the hard drive it must be failing for another reason... so try booting from the hard drive and describe the results here.

You are amazing! It just fixed my Dell laptop. I called Dell support and they suggested replacing mobo, HDD and RAM which I knew was wrong. No wonder they could not make money off that much revenue.

Thanks very much for this info, Tom. This is easily the nastiest Vista-related issue I've had yet. Actually, I didn't have any Vista issues to speak of prior to installing SP1 and it's been a nightmare ever since. The steps and info you provided above helped me get back into my system!

I'm currently on the 4th attempt to get Vista to restore through the Vista DVD. It keeps hanging at the "Attempting repairs..." screen. I let it run overnight, but it's still just hanging there. I'll attempt it a few more times to see if I can finally convince it to do what I want it to do, but I still appreciate the assistance with being able to even get back to this point in the first place.

Issue resolved! Huzzah! When I tried to restore the system from the repair screen (the Vista DVD reported that a problem had been found, was unable to repair it, and asked if I wanted to restore from a previous time) I simply got looped into a repair cycle that kept hanging on “finalizing restore” (or something to that effect). The next time I hit cancel when asked if I wanted to restore and I was brought to the main system repair/restore screen. I selected the “Complete PC backup restore” option and the first time through I also got stuck on the “finalizing restore” dialogue box. The second time through I had to check the box that said something to the effect of “format disk and copy backup partition” – I forget exactly how it was worded, but it sounds like that in the process of restoring from the backup, the restore process also reformatted the HDD. Worked like a charm. Got through that with no issues and my machine was back up and running in no time. Thanks again for this great post, Tom. I couldn’t have done it without your assistance! (And, yes, I put a copy of the SystemRescue CD in a safe place!)

Hi, I booted my rescue cd but I got this error
INIT: cannot execute "/sbin/agetty"
INIT: Id "c1" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "c2" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "c3" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "c4" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "c5" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "c6" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes
Help please! And Merry Christmas!

@EB: the only possible explanation I'd have for those kinds of errors is an issue with the CD itself, i.e. either a good burn of a bad download or a bad burn of a good download. Try re-downloading the SystemRescueCD image, burning on another piece of media, testing your burned disc in another computer, etc.

I tried the disc in another computer, it boots with no errors. So what is the problem?

@EB: Sorry, but then I have no other brilliant ideas for you, other than you may have faulty hardware. I have never seen that type of error returned when booting SystemRescueCD.

Best of luck getting this fixed, and Happy Holidays regardless. (I'm off to midnight mass.)

Thanks anyway. Happy holiday!:'(:'(

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

It works for me....whoohoo!!!

Happy New Year

Greetz from Holland

Don't know if you're still watching this thread Tom ,but anyway.
I do what u say and what Andy says up to step 5 (in his list). However, in the list I can't seem to find the $Extend folder? It's definitly the right partition because its the only one thats ntfs and hat i can mount.Please reply soon! This is my Aunt's PC and she'll kill me if I don't get it fixed!

@Amer: There is a flaw in Andy's post... the $Extend folder is a hidden folder, and will not show up when you use "ls" to list the contents! But if you have the correct partition mounted, it WILL be there -- trust me.

Follow my directions from step 4. Notice that the $Extend folder has a backslash in front of it in the file path -- MAKE SURE YOU TYPE THIS. The $ is part of the file name, and if you don't escape it from the shell using the backslash, it will get dropped, "$Extend" will be interpreted as just "Extend", and it will NOT be found.

Ahh it as the backslashes i was forgetting. But I ended up getting that 0xc000034 thing. I'm trying to copy all my files to my memory stick before I format, but I can't mount it properly, and I don't know how to use the GUI to copy files, and I can't remember the file paths of my stuff.

OK forget that. Do you know what I have to put in to transfer everything in documents and settings to my memory stick?

@Amer: Insert your USB stick into a port and then boot SystemRescueCD. During the boot process, you should see the USB stick detected as a hard disk (like /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1 or whatever)... if you miss that, once you get a shell prompt you can type "dmesg | less" and page through the boot messages (hit spacebar to see the next screenfull) until you see the detection of the USB stick and its assignment to a name. Make note of the name.

Next, mount your NTFS Windows partition on /mnt/windows as you did previously.

Next, make a new mount point on which to mount your USB stick: "mkdir /mnt/usb".

Then mount the USB stick at that mount point. If, for example, the boot dialog showed the stick at /dev/sdb1, you would type "mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb".

Now
cd "/mnt/windows/Documents and Settings"

(quotes are required because Documents and Settings has spaces in it)

Now, for user Fred, you can "cp -r Fred /mnt/usb". This will recursively copy the Fred folder and all of its contents to /mnt/usb (i.e. your USB stick). Use cp (for single files) and "cp -r" (for folder hierarchies) to copy whatever you want to save to /mnt/usb.

When finished, "cd /mnt/usb" and "ls" to verify that the stuff you want to save has been copied to the USB stick.

Next, "cd /", then "umount /mnt/windows", then "umount /mnt/usb" to cleanly unmount the Windows partition and USB stick.

Next, "init 0" to shut down the computer.

Finally, take the USB stick to another computer and verify that it has all of the files you wanted to save on it. If not, repeat this procedure and add additional files as necessary.

Thank you very much Tom!! Following your instructions with no real Linux experience or understanding, I was able to get my in-laws' HP Pavilion Slimline back up and running from the C1F5 error. However, I too kept getting the !! 0xc0000034 !! 248/89317 (_0000000000000000.cdf-ms)error that Keith and others had. Seeing that Keith and another poster were not able to get past that BSOD with your theoretical try, I decided not to even try that myself, especially since very little would be lost with a full reformat. I copied the User documents to a USB device and then went through the system recovery steps. At that point, I was given the option to go to a restore point just prior to the failed SP1 update and low and behold, that worked!! The question I have is do I need to install the hotfix from Microsoft now, prior to Vista wanting to install SP1 again? Thanks again for all your help.

Now that you have a working system (and a backup of the crucial files on USB stick), apply the hotfix, then apply SP1, and you SHOULD be good to go.

I tried this workaround only to have run into a dead end. When I went to remove the $TxfLog folder, it tells me that "cannot remove.. Read only file system. Any ideas?

@Jeremy: First, I assume that you mounted the partition using "ntfs-3g" and not the standard Linux "mount" command... "mount"ing an NTFS filesystem will result in a read-only mount, you MUST use ntfs-3g to do read-write.

If you were using ntfs-3g, make sure you have "-o force" at the end of the mount command in step 2.

If you still end up with a read-only mount, post the output from "fdisk -l" here and we'll check a few more things.

Thanks, your tip worked very well. The only problem I have now is that Vista is stuck in the endless loop of trying to installed part 3 of 3 of service pack 1. Blah, I hate Vista!

Thanks a lot. Your solution worked just fine. Deleted $TxfLog from both partitions then Vista fixed automatically this boot problem by choosing this choice at startup and bypassing system restore when asked. After that Vista tried to finish installation of SP but it couldn't because of an error but it reverted all files and system setting to previous state. Problem solved without formatting.

I have a laptop Dell Inspiron 1526, with a D: partition for recovery.
I tried to mount sda1 and hda1 but none of them worked, then I tried sda2 and apparently it mounted it as I was able to change directories and delete $TxfLog file per your instructions. However I'm still getting the BSOD with same error 0x0000C1F5. Any ideas?

@Miguel: Most Dells I have seen recently have a recovery partition on partition 2 (e.g. sda2) and the actual Windows partition on partition 3 (e.g. sda3).

Once you boot to the command prompt, type "fdisk -l" and look at the list of partitions. One of the NTFS partitions should be significantly larger than the others and should be marked with a "*" indicating that it is the boot partition. THAT is the partition you want to fix using this procedure.

Thanks a lot for this very very helpful article. I was pointed out to the original version which had some typos but nevertheless it solved this problem straight away! Where would I be w/o the Internet...

BTW, as you already may have discovered some systems (including mine) do not need step 2 (repair).

Well I got as far as running sysreccd and getting into the 2nd hidden file, but when i try and delete the txflog file, it gives me an error saying that i am unable to do that because its read only. Can you tell me the commands in linux so i can mount the partition as r/w? is that even posssible? I am a complete noob to linux so any advice would be awesome thanks.

nevermind just read your laast reply sorry

Wow- a fix that really works! I put SysRescue on a memory stick and booted up right away. After several tries I got the fix to stick. One comment for you- in my case Sony used partition 0 for a recovery partition. I originally mounted that partition and deleted the $TxfLog dir. Of course it dodn't work right... Then I mounted partition 1, getting a warning about scrambled NTFS, and then I found that I had the right partition (/dev/sda2) and the fix was right...

How good it is- backups are running again...

Tom i'm having the same problem as Keith was/is having. I was also installing SP1 when the error ocurred. Everithing worked like a charm but after the rapair i got again that 0xc0000034. Do you think i should try that thing about deleting AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving or should i advance for a Vista new install?
Btw my main prio is to save my photos.

@Morssa: First things first: use a USB stick or external hard drive to back up your photos (and other valuable files). You can never be too careful...

Next, I'd try the fix I outlined above for the 0xc0000034 "black screen"... in step 8, if "rdel" doesn't work, try "dk" instead.

If that repair doesn't work you will at least be able to reinstall Vista at this point...

If you try the 0xc0000034 fix (especially if you try both "rdel" and "dk" to delete the offending keys) please post your results here.

Hi Tom,

When I try to mount my windows partition I get an error msg saying:
$MFTMirr does not match $MFT (record 0).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or you have hardware faults, or you have a SoftRAID/FakeRaid hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows TWICE. The usage of the /f parameter is very important! If you have SoftRaid/FakeRAID then first you must activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documantation
for the details.

First off I know I'm not using RAID, it's a single HDD, heck I even tried using dmraid for fun, it wouldn't work. I also can't run chkdsk /f because with this BSoD error, I can't get to a command prompt. Any suggestions to what caused this and how can I resolve this so I can continue onto the next step.

@Wayne: as noted in several comments above, use "fdisk -l" at the shell prompt to ensure that you are actually mounting the correct partition. Also, if you're not already, use the "-o force" option at the end of your mount command as described in Step 2.

Tom,

I have used the "fdisk -l" cmd and I know it's 'sda1' because that's the boot partition and it has the most blocks. Their is a /dev/sda3 but I believe that's the HP Recovery partition. I also did try the ntfs-3g cmd with the "-o force" option. Neither one worked. I did some research with Google and found the "ntfsfix" command and typed in "ntfsfix /dev/sda1" and it seems to work.

Tom,

Just an update for you. The ntfsfix command worked out, I was able to continue with your fix. No more BSoD, however, Vista would always start up in "Startup Repair" I would continue this startup repair process to only have it fail. Once I checked out why the repair failed, due to "The operating system version is incompatible with startup repair" I forgot to mention I do not have a Vista DVD, and the Recovery Console started up off the boot hdd. I was able to try some advanced options like System Restore. I ran into more problems when trying the restore, it said I had disk errors (could they be due to ntfsfixer?) I would run the Disk checking utility, only to have it stop half way and go back to the previous menu like nothing happened. After some reboots, and performing the System Restore with the error msg of my disk had errors, I tried several times before the disk checking would follow through and finish it's task. I have been able to now restore to BEFORE this OS decided to install SP1.

Thank you very much Tom for being able to solve this problem withOUT a full system reformat. Cheers!;D

Hi Tom, ty for your help! i did try that 0xc0000034 fix but by mistake deleted all content of COMPONENTS. Didn't work. Tried many times System Restore and Repair. Never worked, always said it failed to repair or restore. I gave up and installed Vista again. Lot's of work installing all drivers and programs again but at least i didn't lose data. You saved my photos and mp3 Thank you once again.

Morssa

By the way, is it safe to install SP1 after instaling KB946084 or should I just forget SP1? (I need it to play GTA4). Thank you.

@Morssa: I'm pretty confident that you can safely install SP1 after installing KB946084... that's the whole reason for existence of that hotfix.

If you install KB946084 and your system STILL gets hosed when installing SP1, you should scream very loudly at Microsoft.

i will try one of this days when i'm felling lucky then ;D

I have BSOD 0X0000C1F5 too. I've followed above to step 4 but do not see a $Extend directory. I mounted /dev/sda1 and it very much looks like my C: root. What to do?

Wait a minute. I did not follow instructions closely enough. It's working now...you're a genius!!

I have a computer here that has Vista Home on it...but the only DVD I have is Vista Business 32Bit SP1....Can I use this to repair in the second part? Or do I have to have a Home DVD? I really don't want to do anything unless I know that I can even do the second part.

Thanks,
George

@George: Yes, you can use any Vista DVD to accomplish this repair.

Hey man,
I just wanted to give you a sincere thank you for having the courtesy of informing others of the problem and more importantly how to fix it. I followed your links and advice with no problems at all. Everything worked fine after the first repair. Thank you again sir, and if you ever need out of a ticket in Kentucky let me know. Semper Fi. Mark.

I would like to thank you for the help. Just finished and everything seems to working great. Thank you for taking the time to post this and then answer questions.

-George

Hi there,

at first i would like to say THX for this great workaround. i successfully deleted the **** txflog.dll and try now to repair vista with "Startup Repair" -but the system stuck in the process for 10 times now. i reboot and reboot again...but no change occours.

you write: "You may have to repeat steps 12-16 up to five times to "convince" the system to rebuild itself. If the system gets "stuck" during the rebuild process for more than an hour or so, force it to reboot (hit the reset switch or power-cycle the system) and try again."

what should i do if any repair-attempt isn´t successful? is there any other possibility/tool to repair windows - ´cuz i got data on my c: partition i don´t want to loose - and there is no backup :/

@Matze: when using Startup Repair, have you tried using the System Restore option to "rewind to a previous point in time"? It may or may not work, but it's worth a shot...

If all else fails, at least you can now boot your system using SystemRescueCD and back up your files to a USB stick, USB drive, or network share as described several times in the comments thread of this post. Scroll back and have a look.

@Tom

thx for your fast reply - but there are no restore options. Then i choose to repair vista i got no menu. Vista immidiately starts to repair "disk errors" - so there is no way to "rewind to a previous point in time". Am i doing anything wrong?

Backing up my files to an external drive is an option - but as far as i can see - there are no files in my vista profiles e.g. "my pictures" is completely empty...

@Matze: It's been awhile since I've actually used the Startup Repair dialog, but I *thought* there was a way to interrupt or bypass the automatic repair... by hitting Esc? Ctrl-C? Something else? Of course I might be mistaken...

As for your files, directly manipulating the "XP backward compatibility folder links" (My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc) may not show you what you expect. Look in C:\Users\< yourusername >\Pictures -- that's where your pictures should be.

Hey

I just wanted to say than you so much for posting this guide, I was asked to look at a laptop as they had been to two local shops who said the hard drive had failed.

Step by step this worked perfectly, although I couldnt run a repair, ntoskrnl was reporting as corrupt, but I ran the recovery CD and chose a system restore point from December and that fixed it completely.

Thanks again.

Craig

Another satisfied customer! I initially suspected a hardware problem on a Medion laptop, then found the Microsoft Hotfix but couldn't use it because the system wouldn't boot from Vista disk in any mode.

I connected the disk to a USB interface on Windows PC, Partition Magic corrected some problems, ran CHKDSK, but still no good when returned to faulty system.

Perhaps if I had found the workaround at that point I could have deleted the $TxfLog file while connected to a USB interface, but I suspect it isn't visible in Windows? At least I couldn't find it once the disk was back in laptop and the fault was fixed.

I was going to follow the other Microsoft solution, namely formatting the hard disk, after copying user documents using USB interface to a backup device, then I would have used the recovery disk and reloaded the user documents. However I discovered your solution and saved all that bother!

I created the useful SystemRescueCD disc using ImgBurn (couldn't do it with Nero), and was grateful for your detailed instructions as my Unix knowledge is extremely rusty and Linux knowledge sadly lacking. Deleted the $TxfLog, and hey presto! It works!

Thanks enormously. Now I've installed the hotfix.

Tom: Thanks so much for all your help, patience and expertise. I too tried all of the things you recommended and learned a great deal along the way. The SystemRescueCD is going to prove invaluable! After continuing to get the BSOD and the 0xc0000034 error I got off on another thread shown above in the social.technet.microsoft.com forum. One of the listings there recommended that we call Microsoft, because they are offering free tech support on the SP1 error through March of 2009.

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=11274&gprid=500921

So I thought I would give it a try and called 1-866-234-6020. The first agent is just a call screener who will assign you a Case ID and then refer you to a Tech Support Agent.

Using the Recovery Options that were available on my Recovery CDs, I was able to get to a DOS prompt. I'm not sure everyone else can get to a dot prompt, but that was key for me in this case.

It starts up in X:windowssystem32 and MS Tech had me run:

cd C:windowssystem32config

We then ran the following commands at the C:windowssystem32config> prompt

ren default default.old
ren sam sam.old
ren software software.old
ren system system.old
ren security security.old

After this we ran:

cd RegBack to move into:

C:windowssystem32configRegBack>

We then copied the above files back into the config directory (if you use the up arrow key, it will save you some typing because you can just change the appropriate file... just a tip some know and some don't)

copy default c:windowssystem32config
copy sam c:windowssystem32config
copy software c:windowssystem32config
copy system c:windowssystem32config
copy security c:windowssystem32config

We then closed the DOS window and hit Restart under the Recovery Options panel and the computer rebooted into Vista.

Now I am still under SP1 and Microsoft recommended to:

1)Download the SP1 entire service pack to my desktop
2)Reboot into Safe Mode and install SP1
3)Change my Settings on Windows Update to "Notify me to download and install new updates" to insure that I'm in Safe Mode before applying any updates.

I just thought this might help some others facing the same issue! Hope it does help someone, it will be worth all our efforts!

That's just great... I noticed it doesn't display my back-slashes.. Maybe you can edit Tom??? Sorry about that...

Hi,

First of all thanks a lot for this post.

I've got this C1F5 problem and followed the steps to locate and delete the $TxfLog file. My computer is a Dell with Vista Business and so used the sda2 partition to umount (dell uses sda1 right?).

Then I found it and deleted it. But the Vista installation CD restart the computer after loading some files and the blue screen comes back...

I check and the TxfLog file is still absent from where I erased it... Should I find it somewhere else?

Any other idea for me?

Windows made a hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084/en-us/
but how can I use it? It's an .exe file so how to run it?

I thank you in advance for your help.

See you!

@Dale Gorham: Thanks for taking the time to provide the detailed feedback! While the solution that Microsoft provided to you will usually result in a working machine, unfortunately what it does is "rewind" all of your Registry settings to the backup copy that was made upon system installation... which, depending on how long you've had your system, could be a loooooong time ago. So I consider that sort of a last-resort fix, and only incrementally better than a full wipe/reinstall.

I do apologize for the "dropped backslashes". As you can see a few comments up, I've been bitten by it myself. Poor backslash and angle bracket handling is currently a limitation in JomComment, which I am using as the comment package for this blog. I have been in contact with the component authors about this but no resolution yet.

@Teddy: If you're still getting the 0x0000C1F5 after deleting the #TxfLog file, you deleted it from the wrong partition. Go back and delete it from the other one.

As for the hotfix, I've commented on this several times already above... it can be used on a running system to PREVENT a BSOD, but it CANNOT be used to REPAIR a system that is currently experiencing the BSOD.

Thanks a lot Tom. You were right, no more blue screen, but like many others I end up having the !! 0xc0000034 !! error...

I didn't totally understand what Dale Gorham (on January 19) did with windows support...

Did it work, could you explain a bit more?

I thank you in advance for your time.

@Teddy: What MS suggested to Dale was that he manually "rewind" to an older version of the Registry... which is basically what System Restore does.

So first try using Startup Repair and choose System Restore to try to "rewind" your system to an earlier point in time. If that doesn't work, you can use the manual process Dale outlined in his comments (sorry about the missing backslashes, but I'll bet you can figure out where they go).

Or you can call Microsoft per Dale's suggestion and I'm sure they will walk you through the fix.

Worst case, you are now in a position to back up your valuable data and format/reinstall.

Hello, I'm trying to do this through knoppix...except for the life of me I can't find the $Extend directory....sda1 is mounted at /media/ and I want to confirm to a friend that this is not the same file as txflog.dll which is in system 32. I am correct right? My friend keeps telling me to delete that one instead. I'm on an Hp pavillion dv6000

@Zach: You definitely do NOT want to delete txflog.dll in System32.

Follow my instructions carefully, double-check capitalization, spacing, escaping of dollar signs using backslash, etc. Also note that the $Extend folder is hidden. If you simply "ls" YOU WILL NOT SEE IT. Change directory into $Extend and it should work... if it's really not there, you have not mounted the right partition or have something wrong in your command syntax.

Ok I found it, it was just trying to figure out what the equivilant of your mnt/windows was....thank you very much

One other question before I do this, do you believe that the recovery disks that they make you make when you get vista computers will work the same way the vista cd would, and if not does the vista cd have to be your vista cd for that computer or can it just be any vista cd.

@Zach: I believe (but cannot confirm) that most OEM-supplied "recovery discs" do boot into the "normal" Vista recovery console, so you SHOULD be able to use one (but I cannot guarantee that).

As for "real" Vista DVDs: you can use any one you like, any SKU. The recovery console functionality is the same on all of them.

ok, then i'll just use my brother's vista cd that he got when he installed his vista thank you very much Tom...this almost makes me want to just change to linux and learn all this as it seems more reliable than windows

Ok, I also got that second error code, I presume that noone got your fix for it to work yet, how do you run system restore to go back beforehand

from the cd i mean, obviously i know how to run system restore normally

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! It workded with the help of a Gparted Live cd.
Yianis

Man - you are the best - your instructions worked like a charm and the SystemRescueCD is now a part of my life forever. Thanks for your help!!

YAY, it works! Thanks a lot
I had to figure out which sda to load (it was sda2 for me), but it worked out in the end. Also, after I started the Vista boot, it took a long time to repair, just to let those know who would be a bit unnerved by the long wait and apparent inactivity.

@Zach: if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm referring to the system restore which is one of the options of the Startup Repair feature. When you boot the Vista disc and select the recovery console, it will automatically try to fix things... if that isn't successful for you, you can interrupt that process and get a menu of options, one of which is system restore.

I've got the same BSOD C1F5 issue, I think ... there's some other parameters given in parentheses after the main STOP: error. But I have a different problem... the boot partition will not mount.

I have a Dell system with dual RAID HDs. I used "fdisk -l" (without the parentheses) to identify "/dev/sda3" as my system boot partition, I ran "dmraid -ay" to mount all the raid file systems, and ran "ls /dev/mapper" which spits out "control" with 4 ARRAY names like "isw_bbbhcacjcc_ARRAY" with three others with suffixs 1,2,3 tacked on. I tried the mount command "ntfs-3g /dev/sda3 /mnt/windows -o force" and get the following error:

NTFS Signature is Missing
Failed to mount '/dev/sda3': Invalid argument
The device /dev/sda3 doesn't have a valid NTFS
Maybe you selected the wrond device? Or whole disk?

I also tried that mount command using the longer ARRAY names identified by the mapper command, but that wasn't recognized as a valid device.

I've looked at the syntax over and over and can see no errors. I even tried the system restore disk on my other working PC with RAID drives to see if I could mount the system partition on it, but got the same error. Can anyone see if I have an error in the command, or can it be something tied to the DELL RAID sytem?

If I can just get to the system c: directory I can complete this. HELP!

I see my message had the key mount command split so you can't tell where the spaces are. Here it is again:

ntfs-3g /dev/sda3 /mnt/windows -o force

And I meant "without the quotes" in my second paragraph, not "parentheses", but you already knew that! :-)

@Tom Frank: you were on the right track but then got derailed.

For RAID disks the fdisk command is not directly useful. Running "dmraid -ay" was key to getting your RAID arrays mounted... now the stuff in /dev/mapper *is* the right place to focus.

Under /dev/mapper you should see some entries, one of which has no numerical suffix (like /dev/mapper/nvidia_foobar) and one or more that have numbers corresponding to the partition(s) on the RAID disk (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_foobarp1, /dev/mapper/nvidia_foobarp2, etc). The correct partition to mount is going to be one of those /dev/mapper partitions that ends with a numerical suffix, and you give that device name to ntfs-3g as in the other examples, e.g. you might need something like "ntfs-3g /dev/mapper/nvidia_foobarp3 /mnt/windows -o force" or some such.

After getting the correct RAID partition to mount in this way you should be able to follow the rest of the instructions verbatim.

I had tried that with all four devices, but I had only used the following names identifie with the /mapper command:
isw_bbbhcacjcc_ARRAY
isw_bbbhcacjcc_ARRAY1
isw_bbbhcacjcc_ARRAY2
isw_bbbhcacjcc_ARRAY3

I had tried all of these with the ntfs-3g command, but did not include the "/mapper" as part of the syntax. I'll give it another shot...

20 minutes later....

Tom... once again, you ARE THE MAN!

With the "/mapper" included in the command string, I was able to mount the "sda3" boot partition idebtified above with the "3" suffix, delete the nasty hidden file, and when I exited and rebooted selecting "normal windows boot, my system back to normal... didn't even have to use the system restore repair process, At least not yet!

If this will help others, here's the full command string that goes with the RAID info from above:

ntfs-3g /dev/mapper/isw_bbbhcacjcc_ARRAY3 /mnt/windows -o force

It might help if your instructions gave an example command string like this since it was not clear to me the "/mapper" was part of the mount string... I thought it was just part of the command to identify the names of the RAID devices.

Interestingly, I did not see the particular hidden folder displayed where the file is stored when I finally got to the HD directory, but when I changed to the directory with your original instruction command string, it was there as was the offending file. The rest was easy.

Many Thanks for your excellent help with this! I posted for help on the MS site a day ago, and so far have not heard back other than an automated reply!

Thanks for the prompt help!

Hey tom when you say vista dvd do you mean like a vista dvd (cd)?:'(

@Elvis: "Vista DVD" means a Vista DVD. In other words, a real honest-to-goodness Microsoft Vista disc. In *most* cases you can also use a computer-vendor-supplied "system restore disc" because at least the restoration part of the disk will use the "real" Vista code for the boot and restore.

ok i'll just use the cd that came with the computer then thanks

also do you think that restoring the computer with a cd system restore will work?

I finally managed to down load & burn the systemrescuecd-x86-1.1.4.iso on CD now need all your prays, I have a HP m8040n is there anything out of ordinary that i need to do other then following the Tom's Instruction ????

Last Night I successfully deleted $TxfLog file from Sd2 unfortunately after many long waiting system recovery attempts to restore with no result when I booted got the black screen with !! 0xc0000034 !! 248/89317 (_0000000000000000.cdf-ms). ? Now the blue screen is gone and it allows me with hp system recovery (Vista ultimate) disk and then asks for (supplement recovery disk) to go into advance option and choice either back up my files before restoring to factory setting or restore to previous date...the problem is restoring to previous date only gives me the option to restore with SP-1 update and not anytime before that and if i try backing up my files so then I can restore to factory settings it only allows to backup in D drive not E or any external drive...my question is once it backs up to D drive and then I select restore to factory setting would I be able to retrieve the back up files from D ??? I am pleased that finally managed to get rid of blue screen and C1F5 error thanks to you Tom but I am stuck...what should I do??? I was having dreams that system was up and running ..that's how much this stupid computer is taking my time and mind

@Sean: once you start using OEM-supplied tools (such as the HP-provided system recovery disc) you are venturing into areas where I can no longer help you... those discs are OEM and product specific and I have no way of knowning what they can/will do.

It couldn't hurt to try to restore to the SP1 point... who knows, maybe it will work? Worst case, you can go through my procedure again and be back at your current state.

If you do decide to "restore to factory settings" there is an excellent chance that YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL FILES. So if you go that route, I'd suggest that you look further up this comment thread for posts regarding backing up your personal files to an external drive or USB stick. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks Tom for reply, I tried really hard to get only Vista reinstalation DVD from HP but as might know they refuse to fact that there is such a stand alone thing and HP system recovery disk has the OS in it...One question I have is if I disconnect my Internet connection and try to restore to SP1 Point would that prevent to download the update and I might get a restore point without SP1? the other question is the only way i can force the system to give me a external drive option is to mount it using Linux ISO or if I stick a USB stick in the tower it could recognize and give me the option....Thanks again I understand your situation trying to answer everybody but you are only given true help out there and I am sure you get a great satisfaction being able to help so many people....

when i do ntfs-3g/dev/sda#/mnt/windows its says no such file or directory

ok then i think i found the hd but when i entered ntfs-3g etc its says $LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
warning forced mount, reset $Logfile

ok ok i finally got past all the steps but now i get black screen with a flashing error with this at the end cdf.ms and im still tring to use startup repairer a few more times but it sometimes say i need to restart and other times it says that it cannot repair it so what do i do now Tom?

Ty Ken

hi again i tried everything now and the startup repair say its repaired but when i start i get a black screen with !! 0xc0000034 291/91389 (_0000000000000000.cdf-ms)

@Sean: disconnecting your Internet connection will not give you access to other (non-SP1) restore points. System Restore should present a list of all of the restore points it finds on your hard drive... so if none of those are suitable, you can't go that route.

I won't speak 100% authoritatively because I haven't tried this one exhaustively, but I don't believe you can simply insert an external device while running the Vista installer and back up files... it MIGHT be possible using the command shell, but I don't think so. The surefire way to back up your stuff is to boot SystemRescueCD and follow the advice posted in this comment thread.

@Ken: Congratulations on getting past the BSOD, but now you are facing the equally-dreaded "black screen". As noted previously in this comment thread, I don't have a guaranteed fix for that one. If you read this whole thread you will see some ideas that MIGHT work for resolving the black screen, but I don't think too many folks have had success with them. Your best bet at this point is to back up your personal data to an external USB device and then format/reinstall.

Just had to express my thanks for that article, I assumed a hardware issue, then stumbled across your article!! that program is a good little bit of kit, definately added to my arsenal!! cheers
James

Thank You Tom For All That You Have Done. I Cannot Use System Restore Because When I Go There It Says I Don't Have Any And I Have Read Through The Theoretical Fix And Decided Not To Attempt It Thank You I'm Now Going In Search For A Fix For 0xc0000034 Bye

Ken

THANK YOU! I just wanted to say thank you for this blog. My computer was giving me the BSOD with the stop code explained above and me knowing nothing about computers brought it the Geek Squad because it was still under warranty. The had it for over a month and sent it to Gateway 2 separate times where they replace the motherboard and the cpu. The called me 3 separate times to tell me it was fixed and once I arrived they would plug it in and the same thing would happen. The last time we went they told us we would have to pay $200 for ADNR to remove a virus. I knew it wasn’t a virus so I told them to shove it and came home and Google searched the stop code. That is when I found your documentation on the workaround. I had issues downloading the system rescue cd but I probably wasn’t doing it right. My brother-in-law had a Linux Ubuntu operating system disk so we installed that then re installed Vista and it worked! Your are my knight in shining amour! Thank you so much for your post! And I did make sure to send a nasty e-mail to Microsoft specifying how ridiculous it is that they acknowledge that there is a problem but do not give any viable way to fix it! ;D

This just SAVED MY LIFE!! I had just installed an Optional update for Vista HP x64, rebooted and WHAM, BSOD. After running through this everything came up the first time, no problems at all...
Thanks a million!

Tom,
Just to follow up on my end and for whoever that might have been tru same path as me, Inserting external memory while reinstalling Visa did work, it did give me the option to back up my files to it and the system completely formatted and I disabled all updates for future to avoid the dreadful blue or black screens the system is ruining fine again without loosing any personal files. Thanks again for all your help and patients

Tom, what if you don't have a "vista dvd"? My vista was preinstalled, that is why I'm asking.

@LV: If you're lucky, removing the $TxfLog file and simply rebooting normally will cause Vista's automatic startup repair to fix any lingering problems and you are good to go.

However, if the system will NOT boot after Part 1, you DO need a Vista disc to try to use the System Repair tools (automated and/or manual) to try to fix things. If you don't have a Vista DVD, see if you can borrow one from someone (any Vista version will work). Or, if your system came with a "Recovery Disc", that usually can be used for the same purpose if Vista was preinstalled when you bought the system.

I can't remove the "$Txflog file"! Is it because I have TWO drivers under the mount "sda1" and "sda2"?

Nevermind, I got it!!! Thank you SO MUCH. I surprised myself because I've never done anything like this before. I just want to give you the world, but I can't! LOL

Just wanted to say thank you for fixing the bsod problem, but now I too am one of the ones receiving the black screen 0xc0000034 error. I am unable to use my Vista cd to do a system repair because it is not a SP1 disc, and so I am currently pursuing to different methods of obtaining a SP1 disc (via torrents, and also following a guide to creating a slipstreamed disc http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151606-vista-sp1-slipstream-installation-dvd.html). Both of these methods require me downloading quite a few GB of data so if there's any other ideas in the mean time please let me know.

I should also note that I am using a dv6408nr HP Pavilion laptop with Vista Home Premium x86 installed. I do not know exactly what happened when this error occured because it is one of my coworker's laptops.

after not being able to use my PC for a month ur link to m$'s support link worked like a charm the hotfix they released allowed me to when connected the hd to my PC it prompts me with a scan and fix with disk check option ( similar to when i connect my psp to my PC o.O) and after scanning it fixed all errors and i can now use my pc after 3 months of inactivity ;D

I wouldn't touch Vista with a barge pole myself, but unfortunately a friend did and they got this BSOD - so I had to fix it. Your solution worked a treat and saved me having to remove the drive and sort it out with XP. I used /dev/sda2/. Thanks a lot!

Awsome procedure. Once I got the right rescue CD, it worked like a charm. CHKDSK and I was back and running.

Thanks a log.

Thanks a lot for your solution. It's working again!

Can follow all the steps through until I go to entere the $extend folder, but it is missing. Am I missing something or is this the problem in this instance.

Thanks for your help, I am sure it would have worked if the folder had been there. Sods Law

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watch replica,hope you like it .

@Bob: If it is an NTFS filesystem, $Extend is there. Trust me.

Be absolutely sure you have spaces, upper/lower case, etc correct, and don't forget the backslash immediately preceding the $ -- that is crucial because the folder name is actually $Extend and not Extend.

Also, remember that $Extend is a hidden folder. If you navigate to /mnt/windows and do "ls", YOU WILL NOT SEE $Extend BUT IT *IS* THERE. Trust me. Try step 4 exactly as written and it should work.

Process removed BSOD but now it is stuck on the Splash Screen. The bar keeps scrolling but won't go any further. I've let it run for almost an hour! Won't load into Safe Mode either. Any idea?

@Shawn: The fact that you are getting this far means that the system is doing SOMETHING...

If it were my system, I'd boot the Vista disc and use the automated and/or manual System Repair tools to check/fix the system, as described in other places in this comment thread.

Thank you for putting so much work into this. It helped me only so far, but that's not your fault. Like many others experienced, my 0x0000c1f5 error turned into a 0xc0000034 error once the $TxfLog was removed.

I followed your steps for going through the registry, but rdel is not a valid command. Neither was rm, rm -rf, or del -r.. which are all variations I tried on my own. The only command that worked was simply del, which deleted everything in the "directory", but not "subdirectories" (even though the command string I gave it specifically told it to delete PendingXmlIndentifier). After that, Vista was unable to repair itself with or without a disc. I had to resort to formatting. That's not quite acceptable in my book, but it was all I could do with this machine.

I'm now onto the step of installing updates after applying the hotfix, with great fear that it will commit suicide yet again. Here's to hoping it works.

One thing I have noticed, though... I think the incomplete updates could have something to do with ActiveX filter settings in a firewall/router. It would just not go through until I turned that off.

Well, I'll let you know how the rest turns out. Thank you very much for all of your help!

I'm having the same issue as Jane. :'(

@Ray: "Jane"? I scrolled back through all of these comments and didn't see a "Jane"... can you be more specific?

Hi Tom, on my BSOD I get STOP: 0x0000050...

Is this a completely different error to what is being discussed on here or should I try your solution?

Probably a stupid question but I am clueless when it comes to computer problems!

Thanks for any help!

@Lek: all Windows STOP codes are different and have different causes. See http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm for a list of STOP codes and some discussion.

0x00000050 is for PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, which is almost always due to bad/failed RAM. Boot your Vista/restore disc and use the memory test in the advanced repair options to check your memory, or download, burn, and boot the MemTest86 disc from http://www.memtest86.com and run it. If you do discover you have bad RAM, the obvious course of action is to replace it.

This problem also exists with Server 2008. Got rid of the BSOD using the described steps. The system is now hanging with a black screen during boot. When I've found my 2008 media I'll try the recovery. I guess I basically only need to get the system to do a chkdsk on the boot partition.

Hi there..soo some time has passed since your orginal post about the blue screen of death coming up with code 0xc1f5..has windows come up with an update or anything yet? I am not computer savvy enough to even understand your guidelines to diagnose this problem..haha..so I was just curious if there is an easier way..or any quick fixes..etc...thanks.

@Stephanie: Yes, plenty of time has passed since my original posting and no, no fix has been released.

As noted throughout this thread, the hotfix released by Microsoft for this BSOD is PREVENTATIVE, i.e. it will keep a working system from experiencing this problem. But if you are ALREADY EXPERIENCING the problem (as I'm sure you are, or you wouldn't be reading this) the hotfix does NOTHING for you, as it has to be applied to a WORKING system. Catch-22.

Unfortunately there is no quick fix or magic bullet. Further, trying to get support for this issue from a system OEM like HP or Dell (or Microsoft, for that matter) yields even worse results (great advice like "replace your motherboard" or "just reinstall everything, and too bad about losing all of your personal files".

Your best bet is to follow the procedure I've outlined here. If you're REALLY too squeamish about doing it yourself, beg a friend or relative to do it for you.

I'am trying fix for oxooooc1f5, and I typed ever command you listed. Ikeep gettimg the same thing "no such file or dictory" any suggestion.

@Dan: That's a tough question to answer without more details...

First, make sure you are typing each command accurately. Linux is very picky about upper/lower case, forward slash / backslash, etc.

If you're doing all of that correctly and you're still getting "no such file or directory", I presume it's because you have the wrong partition mounted. Use "fdisk -l" to ensure that you are operating on the correct partition... it should be the largest one on the disk and will almost certainly be flagged with a "*" to indicate it is bootable.

Thankyou so very much. My dual boot Vista/Ubuntu 8.10 system experienced this so i booted into ubuntu and followed your directions but did not require the vista dvd boot disk. Instead the scan disk started so i let it complete. Then vista loaded as per normal.

I rarely use vista as it is so slow but need it for some applications.

You are a champio of a million internets.

Thank-you kind Sir!!.


Ivana

Hi Tom

Thanks for that you were absolutely right, it was merely no capital E. Fix worked great didnt even have to run the vista DVD.

Fantastic work. What a star

Bob

I was able to remove the offending file, but everytime I return to the start up repair tool, it immediately goes into checking my disk for errors and never stops, at least it didn't stop for ~14 hours. Has anyone encountered this? Thanks.

Hi Tom
Hate to be a pest.I turneg my HP DV6000 laptop on again to try to fix it again. So when I got to the root i typed in "fdisl -l". It came back with this. Disk /dev/sda:120.0 gb,then a big long number,255 heads, 63 sectors, tracks, 14593 cylinders. units=cylinders and a bunch of numbers. Then below that it listed some more info,at device boot it listed /dev/sda1 * and below that /dev/sda, and system it said HPFS/NTFS. Is this any help to what device to mount. Have go now got to go to work.

@Dan: based on that info it sounds like the partition you need to fix is /dev/sda1.

Sorry Tom, I appreciate your time and efforts here but I just don't understand instructions 2 and 3. Anyway you can adapt abit more on this? Thanks

@Luke: in step 2 you need to identify the partition on your hard drive which contains your Windows C: drive stuff. You either have to "just know" which disk/partition this is, or run "fdisk -l" at the shell prompt to see a list of all partitions on all disks and then infer which is the "correct" one based on size and whether it is marked as bootable.

Since the partition in questions is an NTFS partition (if it wasn't you wouldn't be seeing this BSOD) under Linux you use the "ntfs-3g" command to mount the correct NTFS partition. Then you can navigate your way to the appropriate file and delete the offending file.

Without sounding rude, if this thread doesn't give you enough information and confidence to try the fix, you really ought to get someone else to do this for you. Even if I were so inclined, no amount of additional tutorial would be helpful -- trust me.

Thanks Tom. Just wasn't familar with some of the commands within SystemRescue, the fdisk -l command was what I was after, my partition was slightly different. Thanks Tom. Your a legend ;D

great walkaround worked for me until the vista cd part as i'm using a compaq presario a900 notebook which has its own recovery part on the HDD. would i need to download vista and burn iso ?

@panic: The main goal of this exercise was to remove the BSOD so you can try to repair your system (or, worst case, back up and reinstall) using "normal" tools. So at this point you *SHOULD* be able to at least *TRY* the manufacturer-supplied procedure for recovery/repair using the recovery partition. If that doesn't work, I suggest that you borrow a Vista DVD from a friend and use it to try to repair your system.

Hi Tom
I sat and tried this again. So I typed in "ntfs-3g -o force /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows", and I got back ntfs-3gmount:mountfailedevice or resource busy. DO you any suggestion.

@Dan: First, move the "-o force" to the END of the line... this may or may not make any difference.

If you've already had failed attempts to mount the correct filesystem during a given boot of SystemRescueCD, you may actually have something mounted on /mnt/windows, in which case you cannot mount anything else at that mount point (folder) because the "resource" is "busy". So you can try "umount /dev/windows" to clear that up before trying your "good" mount, or you can simply reboot the SystemRescueCD again, which is sure to clear things.

Hi Tom
I move the o -force to the end of line.I got back "ntfs3g:you must specify and exacty one device and exactly one mount point.Please type 'ntfs-3g --help' for more information. So I tried your suggestion to umont/dev/windows.I got back "no such file or dictory".Could it be mounting something when it loads up.Is there a command to list anything that is mounted.

@Dan: by simply typing "mount" with no arguments you can see a list of what is mounted and on what mount points.

Check your command syntax VERY carefully, paying particular attention to upper/lower case, spacing, backslashes versus slashes, etc. Linux is even more picky than Windows in this regard. I'd suggest that you reboot SystemRescueCD so you are working from a "fresh boot" and type your commands VERY carefully.

Hi Tom
I rebooted SystemRescueCD. Then I typed in all in lower case "ntfs-3g(space)/dev/sda1(space)mnt/windows(space)-o(space)force. I got back ntfs-3g-mount: bad mount point mnt/windows: No such file or directory. I must being some wrong.

@Dan: you need a forward slash before the mnt in your command above, e.g. "ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows -o force".

Hi Tom
I retyped the command in, and I got back ntfs-3g-mount: mount failed: Device or resource busy.

@Dan: Sorry, but I couldn't make my instructions much more clear, and it's not very practical to debug each individual's installation problems via a comment trail in my blog.

If you're still having difficulties, I'd suggest that you find a friend who is at least a little Linux/Unix savvy and ask them to help you.

Nice one dude,
It worked, after I made all the mistakes that everyone else made in the posts above!

I found that the Linux rescue CD didn't load properly every time, but if I switched the PC off and then tried again it would eventually load - anyone else who's having this problem, just try booting from the CD a few times and you might find it loads.
I also had a problem getting the backslash symbol on my keyboard - it came up as < instead, but I eventually found backslash on the # key.

Hi Tom
I must have got it right. I got in and removed the file. It's rebuliding it's self right now. Thanks a lot.

;D Nice post. I don't think I've ever seen a more directly applicable solution to a really nasty problem. I was headed for my trusty copy of the SystemRescusecd and found this blog - clearly saved a couple of sleepless nights! My son thanks you profusely - he's a special needs guy, just got 2 Gold medals at the special olympic winter games in Maryland, and wanted me to put the photos on the computer ... well ... now I can do that. Thanks for that.

I did want to pass along some thngs that may help others with the "blind faith" that the windows special files are actually present and that this command language we call the shell is not mispelled - it's not hell! Look, unix is saving windows and not the other way around. But, I admit, knowing Unix helps in this solution - there is no doubt about it. Here are a couple of notes to helpfully make this easier or give someone that "aha!" moment and have them do this without problems.

First, find the right device name. We can use the "label" to help us. From helping neighbors, I'm 100% positive not knowing computers combined with not knowing Unix would be a show stopper for many readers, but you're here, so here's some help:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-label

will show you whatever disk partitions are visible and they should immediately make some sense. Mine were DELLUtils, Recovery, and Windows or something very similar. That will also show you the sda name but you can mount directly via the /dev/disk/by-label/ My personal advice is this is far safer and easier than fdisk - you can only get hurt in fdisk and if you don't know what you're looking for, it won't help anyway. Avoid it like a cheap cologne and you and those around you will be happier. Back to the point here ...


Now you found it, mount it. But make sure you use -o rw and -o show_sys_files ...

On the mount itself, you may get read only filesystem errors when trying to rm -rf the $TxfLog directory. To fix this, I had to change mount options. Mount options also allow the "invisible" files to become visible to the "ls" command.

/sbin/ntfs-3g mount /dev/sda3 [or /dev/disk/by-label/] /mnt/windows -o rw -o show_sys_files

the -o rw allows write access (can be read only depending what linux sees when it mounts it) and the -o show_sys_files does what it tells you it will do - shows you system files!

Now it's time to see the fruits of your (and Tom's) labor. Backslashes? We need no stikin' backslashes. We have single quotes on our keyboard. '$TxfLog' is the same as $TxfLog - just easier if you're not used to unix.

So with the label directory, we can find the disk, mount it so we can see what's on it, and use single quotes around the file name to make it a bit easier to delete it. rm -rf '$TxfLog' ... and AMF BSOD. AMF? don't ask.

Tom did an amazing job just finding this rat bast*rd of a bug. I'm grateful to be sure.

- jl -

ps - Tom - try facebook though it's for "kids" I just ran into my college roomate and other friends I haven't seen in over 20 years ... uncanny how random the universe is yet that web site has a knack for connecting people. That's not a plug for them - it's what happens.

Tom, you are a true star. I thought I was gonna need to format the disk but your solution worked like a dream - many thanks for sharing it!

Thank you Tom, as many before me have stated, your guide saved me much hassle and pain.

Dude you are the man!!!!!!! i was going nuts with this damn error and this did it! What a nasty BUG! > Thanks a lot!

Thank you SO much! My girlfriend's laptop died on her, and your tutorial did the trick! We both owe you one! ;D

You saved another one!! THANKS!! This was above and beyond what Dell tech support was able to do for me! Excellent job!!

You're the man. Outstanding job, worked like a charm! You've got quite a talent.

i followed this, deleted file, got out and loaded vista dvd, and right back to BSOD, just like i hadn't done anything. Now i'm really stumped...

@frank: If you are continuing to get the 0x0000C1F5 BSOD (and not a different one), you almost certainly deleted the offending file from the wrong partition -- most likely a "restore partition" preinstalled at the factory.

Use "fdisk -l" to identify the correct partition as noted elsewhere in this comment thread.

Hello, thks for the instructions but they seem not to be working here.
I tried some different ways and none of them gives me a good result.
I have (or used to have..) a 64Vista in my RAID0 (2x 250GB). I followed the instructions, even the dmraid -ay to mount my raid but when i type the ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows -o force (after i type dmraid- ay or not, tried both), i get always the same message : "NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to moutn '/dev/sda1':Invalid argument. The device '/dev/sda1' doesn´t seem to have a valid NTFS."
But when i tyo fdisk -l i get this:

device boot start end Blocks Id system
/dev/sda1 * 1 60802 488389632 7 HPFS/NTFS

I am a complete noob in linux, and i´m completely stucked here. Could someone give me a hand? Thanks

@PedroL: you are on the right track. Since you know that you have a RAID-0 config, using "dmraid -ay" is critical to ensuring that the RAID partitions get detected.

However, since you have a RAID config, the name of the partition you are going to mount isn't going to be a "simple one-disk partition name" like /dev/sda1. Rather, it will be the name of the partition on the RAID pseudo-device which has your stuff on it.

The partition you will need to mount should be named /dev/mapper/some-ugly-looking-installation-specific-name. Go back through this comment thread and look for a discussion I had with another poster on January 27th... this should give you the info you need to identify and mount the correct partition for your setup. After that, you can follow the procedure outlined in my original post.

Hi Tom,

Honestly, I am a newbie when it comes to attempting the steps you've outlined and it won't hurt me much to get a formatted/new hard drive since I didn't have any critical data in my Inspiron 1525. What I need to know is whether it is even possible to format the hard drive or getting a new one (in which case, I'll have to ship my laptop to the Dell guys)is the only resort?

Dell Users,

Has Dell acknowledged this problem in their Vista OEM rather than advising to replace motherboard, HDD etc...

Thanks!

Tom:
you were right, i attempted to delete the wrong file. found the correct one, deleted it, and finally got into the system to follow the repair directions. However, even after following the restore direction many times, i cannot get the machine to function. Decided to just attempt a full Dell factory default restore, but machine will not recognize me as having administrator authority (although I am only one set up on laptop). any idea how to force vista to recognize me as adminstrator, thus freeing up the factory default restore command?

@Naresh: There is nothing about the BSOD that would have damaged your hard drive, so if you really want to wipe/reinstall that should work fine. The issue is that if you are trying to manipulate/backup/wipe/reinstall the disk using an NTFS-friendly Windows OS (e.g. XP or Vista), the system will BSOD if the disk is connected, even when booting off the Windows install DVD.

You can use any DOS tool, Linux tool, Win95/98 tool, etc that can wipe/format a disk to clear the existing drive, then you can reinstall. Or you can pull the drive out, connect it to a DOS/Linux/Win9x system and do the same.

Or you can just ask someone who DOES understand my instructions to try to fix the system for you.

@Frank: that's one I can't answer for you. You're asking a very Dell-specific question, and this is an example of a question where your best source of information IS to call Dell.

Thank you, Tom!
I used the information given by Tom Frank and it worked! My Vista is up again. Thank you very much!!!

Absolutely the best work around for
Vista YET. You rock thanks for posting this. ;D

Tom, I tried the rescueCD, was able to remove the txlog files successfully from the correct partition. The issue i'm still trying to resolve is when i boot into windows vista ultimate, it automatically keeps trying to do the repair, and every time it cannot find anything and just gives me the option to either restart, shutdown, or launch advanced repair tools (ie, command prompt, system restore) this partition doesn't have any restore points, so having read this whole post, i'm stumped for a way out of the repair loop.
The message i get from the Startup Repair is "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically"

When i click on details it lists: (i shortened it up a bit)
Problem Even Name: StartupRepairv2
Problem Signature 1 :Externalmedia
Ps2: 6.0.600.16386.6.0.6001.18000
ps3: 6
ps4: 1245203
ps5: corruptfile
ps6: norootcause
ps7: 0
ps8: 2
ps9: wrprepair
ps10: 1168
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1


Any ideas?

BTW: Amazing work on this guide, very helpful. Even for a linux noob like myself this was easy to follow. keep up the great work!!

im having almost the exact same message appear. how did you fix it?

@RobZ: the good news is, you're getting close...

Since the automatic repair isn't working for you, you're going to have to take matters into your own hands. Using the Command Prompt available through the Advanced Tools, I'd try using CHKDSK.EXE (more than once if necessary) to ensure that the disk is consistent, and/or use BOOTREC.EXE to repair the BCD and MBR. You can Google for help using these tools if necessary.

Hi there!
Thanks for your good article! I'm Linux-User and just sometimes use the Vista on my ASUS-notebook. I have the described problem, followed your steps, but I cannot find the files you mentioned! Could that be a problem of the ASUS-modified Vista..? I cannot imageine... What can I do now?

cya
baerentoeter

Oh, I'm sorry. I just tried it with openSUSE, but this didn't work...
Now I made it with the software you described. Thank you!!

At http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084/ THERE IS the downloadable hotfix now... This should prevent relapses...

@hexaae: You are correct that the hotfix is now "official" and downloadable. However, I will point out again that it is prescriptive and not curative, i.e. it WILL prevent this BSOD from happening, but it WILL NOT repair a broken system that is already experiencing the BSOD... which was the original reason for posting this blog entry.

I am frankly aghast that, in nearly a YEAR since I originally posted this, Microsoft has STILL not provided a workaround (even a marginal or risky one!) to address this problem, despite the obvious fact that people continue to experience it.

I'm having issues with getting the SystemRescue CD to load on bootup. I burned the CD using Nero. Before anyone asks, I have burned .iso CDs before in the past so it's not that part of the process. I even went as far as pressing F2 on bootup to change the boot order to CD 1st, USB 2nd and HDD 3rd along. Didnt work. Then I tried pressing F12 at bootup to manually boot the CD drive but that also didn't work. What am I doing wrong and how do I get SystemRescue CD to work?

@Brandon: Not sure what the problem is with your system boot, but I can *guarantee* you that the SystemRescueCD boots.

This almost certainly points to a bad burn, bad media, or a bad download: Some simple diagnostics:

- Try booting your system with a different CD that supposedly is bootable (e.g. a Windows installation disc or recovery disc). If THOSE boot, your system is configured reasonably to allow you to boot from CD in the first place... if those fail, that's the problem you have to fix before you go any further.

- If booting other discs works OK, try booting your SystemRescueCD in another computer. If it fails, you've either got bad media, a bad burn, or a bad download. Download the image again, burn it to another piece of media, and see what happens.

You sir are a genius. It seems the CDs I was burning was not burning the image correctly. Next problem I am having now is when I use fdisk -l I get the following: 1) /dev/sda1 Start 1 End 192 Blocks 1536000 Id 27 System Unknown and 2) /dev/sda2 * Start 192 End 14593 Blocks 115680256 Id 7 System HPFS/NTFS. So I'm guessing my mount command should be ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows but when I do that I get a message saying "The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0). The file system wasn;t safely closed by Windows. Fixing". I have already tried /sda1 prior to that and even when i use the -o force command I am told the mount failed evice or resource busy. What am I doing wrong now? Years ago I was a computer genius but geez I feel like I slacked off for too long now that I can't figure out something this simple.

Disregard my last post Tom. I got a little impatient. It finally mounted and now Startup Restore is working correctly. Sure that fixed the prob. Then again anything is better than the BSOD lol. Thnx a bunch ;D

Well looks like I traded the BSOD for the new black screen of frozen death. Startup restore said it fixed everything but after the reboot i received the same 0x00000034 black frozen screen as Keith did back in December's comment. I ordered a system recovery CD made for my computer so hopefully that will work when I get it. If you have any new info Tom on fixing this plz feel free to share it with me so hopefully I can get this fixed. Oh and BTW I called Microsoft and mentioned the BSOD and pointed out the KB on their website to some moron named Rahul but he insisted it could NEVER be a Microsoft problem and the internet is wrong for blaming it on Microsoft. I pointed out the KB that HIS company put out and of course I received no intellectual help at all. Thanks for at least getting me this far. Honestly if I had the money in this horrible economy I would probably replace my laptop with an Apple brand seeing how this is the second SP that has messed my computer up (SP2 sound issues in the past) but beggers cant be choosers.

Finally after a day and a half got Vista back up...Tom's instructions to get rid of blue SOD worked perfectly (my HP Pavilion didn't show the sda1 device during the device listing in instruction 2, but i went with sda1 anyway and it worked fine) I tried SOOOOOO hard to get rid of the 0xc0000034 problem but got nowhere. Also, had trouble backing up my files using the SystemRescueCD and Linux commands but managed to backup using the DOS-prompt.....Then had to go for full-system restore and re-install all programs again...Øv!....just glad it's all over!!

Thanks Mate! This worked an absolute treat!!

this was awesome info and thanks for it ;D

Had both these problems recently and fixed them both without having to do a full reinstall of vista!!!!

I used the fix from the very beginning to get rid of the STOP 0x0000C1F5 BSOD. This was great as now the HDD could be accessed through the vista repair and I was one step closer to repairing this problem. SYStem restore didnt work in the Vista repair console as it just hung on finalizing.

So i took another route. As now when booting into vista i got the !! 0xc0000034 !! error and could not go any further.

So this is what i did to get around this. I booted into my Windows based PE and went to the directory c:Windowssystem32config

once there i removed the files
DEFAULT
SAM
SECURITY
SOFTWARE
SYSTEM

I then went into c:Windowssystem32configackup and copied these files back into the c:Windowssystem32config directory::
DEFAULT.OLD
SAM.OLD
SECURITY.OLD
SOFTWARE.OLD
SYSTEM.OLD

once they were in the directory i renamed them by removing the .old form each.

I then rebooted and Presto.... im in vista but services and programs will give you huge problems as its a slightly corrupt install after SP1.

Once in vista load up the system restore and roll back to before the SP1 update. This will take several minutes so be patient.

Vista will then reboot and you will be back to the point you were at before you tried your upgrade!!!!!

However if you want to try doing the SP1 update again you will problaly have the same problem as It seems to be a hardware or driver ralated error causing this!!

Hope this helps and if anyone has any insight as to what is causing this problem please let us know.

Thanks and good luck

sorry that DIrectory above is c:WindowsSystem32Config

Thank you so much for this!!! You just saved everything on my laptop from being deleted. Your instructions were so easy to follow! ;D ThankS!!!

I have succuessfully deleted the TxfLog file and no BSOD appears when I try to boot, it works perfect til i get to the "configuarating windows update", it always stays on 0 % and after a minute or two it just disappears and my computer begins shutting down.

@AntonGronvall: Not sure what might be causing this. Suggest that you take this opportunity to make a backup copy of your valuable files to an external device and then use System Restore to try to "rewind" your system to a previous restore point.

I have done that, still get the same thing occuring.

Like so many others, I migrated from C1F5 to 0034! I am working on a Dell Vostro Desktop. Before I found your site I had used the UBCD 4 Windows to save my data files, moving them to a usb drive. I was able to delete the corrupted file using your systemrestoreCD but got the 0034 error. I tried system repair and it tried repairing and then said it couldn't find anything to repair, yet I still get the 0034 screen. So I tried booting to Safe Mode and got the startup repair window. It is attempting repairs now for about 30 minutes and when I tried to cancel it said "The current repair operation cannot be canceled." I'll just let it run, unless you have a better solution, and see where it is tomorrow.

I got nothing valueble on my computer, would you recommend a full system reinstall... If yes, could you please link me a tutorial or something because I am a beginner.

Hi Tom,
thanks to your guide, I have just saved a friend's Pavilion dv6000 from being formatted. No more BSOD at the first attenpt.
Great job.

THANK YOU!!!

WS

Hey, just inserted my disc and I'm stuck. Everything went so quickly that i don't know where I am now! I'm new to this kind of thing! anyway it stopped by
"root@sysresccd /root % _" does anyone has got any idea what to type in? Besides it says "WARNING: Never mount anything on /mnt! It would freeze the system. Use mkdir /mnt/mydir and mount on /mnt/mydir instead". I don't really get it as instructions above say to mount on mnt. What am I suppose to do??

Dude, you are a number one rockstar.

I woke up this morning to my computer beeping every 20 seconds as it tried to restart, and experienced incurable BSOD for the first time since the Commodore 64 days.

A short Google later, a hunt to create the boot disk, and 30 minutes of following your instructions and am back to normal.

Very many gracious thanks

Paul from Singapore

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

sda1, sda2 and sda3

I was not sure which one was correct, so I vaporized $TxfLog on all three.

Worked like a charm. ;D

I cant do second step.

If I use ls/dev/hd* the answer is /dev/hda
If I use ls/dev/sd* the answer is /dev/sda

So when I try
ntfs-3g 7dev/hda /mnt/windows -o force the answer is Read-only file system

And when I try
ntfs-3g 7dev/sda /mnt/windows -o force the answer is no medium found

Anyone can help me? (sorry for my english)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

@ezio: Please don't apologize for your English -- it is great!

Reboot using the SystemRescueCD. When you get to the shell prompt type "fdisk -l". This will give you a list of all of the partitions on all of the disk(s) found on your system. They you'll know which partition to pick... it's probably the largest one, it's type will be NTFS, and it will probably be marked with a "*" to indicate it is bootable.

@Pawel: don't worry about the "mounting on /mnt" warning.

As for what to do next: The system is waiting for you to type a command, similar to seeing the "C:>" prompt on a DOS or Windows system. The "root@sysresccd /root % " is called the shell prompt. So continue with step 2 and type the commands very carefully.

Thank for your answer Tom, but any answer when I tried "fdisk -l"
root@sysresccd /root % fdisk -l
root@sysresccd /root %

Any Ideas?

Looking around I find this:
fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda and the answer is:
Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)
Disk /dev/hda: 125 MB, 125300736 Bytes
...
Disk /dev/hda doesn't contain a valid partition table

I relize hda is my cdrom, so I tried with device hda1, hda2,... and hdb, hdc,... but I still receiving any answer...

@ezio: based on some of what you've written, I'll bet your hard drive is an "sd", and most likely "/dev/sda". Try "fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda" and see if you get a list of partitions...

Tried the same possibilities with "sda" as made before with the hd deveices, and in all cases the root still blank...

Everithing is working now ;D
When I downloaded the SystemRescueCd I used a mirror and I received a old version of the software. Now I download the last version (1.1.7) and everithing is working properly.
Tom THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for your help.

Followed you guild for my vista laptop and it worked a treat.
My machine is running great again.
Nice one ;D;D

Thanks for the guide.. Worked great, even though it took me a little while to realize I was doing the fix on the wrong partition.. Once I realized the mistake I actually read what to do and got the SystemRescueCd and your Guide to fix my issue.. ;D;D

Your the man Tom, your the man. Your fix worked to restore my daughters Pavilion laptop. It was my first time with Linux too. I printed out your instructions on another computer, but because of the font, it was hard to tell where I needed the spaces! So each time I hit on the right combination I would write down the line commands like so: ntfs-3g[space]/dev/sda1[space]/mnt/windows. I'll be saving these instructions in my book of tricks! Also, after step 11 while the computer was re-booting I hit 'F10' to send it to the Bios screen. This gave me time to swap the Rescue CD with the Vista DVD. After that I hit 'escape' and Lo and Behold there was a Vista screen! Thanks again Tom.

Tom, you are an absolute genius: it worked like a dream! In a weird way, solving this infuriating problem has been really satisfying (dare I say it, even 'enjoyable') thanks to your truly excellent instructions. I wish everyone gave instructions as detailed as yours! (I'm also mightily impressed that you're still helping people over a year later!). I've used a BartPE cd before, but never anything as alien as the RescueCD's Linux! I must admit though, I found all that command-line stuff fascinating and am eager to delve deeper into it now. Anyway, MANY MANY THANKS for your help: you are a top dude!!

I encountered this error today on Windows 7, this writeup saved me a couple of hours!. Windows 7 got at least a bit better: steps 12 and further are not necessary in WIndows 7, startup repair kicks in automatically and after a while windows is able to start normally again.

This fix saved my behind.
The one thing different that I encountered, was that once I deleted the corrupt $TxfLog file, and rebooted... the machine came alive as advertised. No repair to the OS needed. I was nicely surprised

when I am in the /mnt/windows/$Extend/$RmMetadata folder it shows three files

$Repair
$Txf
$TxfLog

the last two files are highlighted Green with blue text (don't know if it is something different or special.) when I try to delete the $TxfLog file using "rm -rf$TxfLog" it gives me

"rm: invalid option -- '$'
Try 'rm --help' for more information

I feel like I am so close, yet so far. This is on a Dell Studio 1535 using Vista

@Michael: you *are* close. You need a space between the "-rf" and the "$TxfLog".

I THINK I got it working. It's currently on the Login Screen (it's not my computer). Thank You for the the well typed directions to get it working.

I fixed this problem by booting from a disc called deldisk.iso..on startup delete partition and slow format by choosing option 08 , then re-install recovery disk and hey presto!!...fixed
If any1 would like deldisk ?
e-mail me and il send it with instructions

brianoconnor23@gmail.com

I used Knoppix version 5.1 for this and thought some additional information might be helpful. Knoppix will likely mount the drive when it loads. Mine was mounted as "/media/sda1". By default the drive is mounted in read-only mode. You need to change it to read-write, so right click on the drive and select 'Change read/write mode' and answer appropriately. Right click again and choose "Properties", and then select the 'Device' tab. Make sure 'Read Only' is not checked. Click 'OK'. Now left click the drive and the contents of the drive will be displayed. Click 'Tools', then select 'Open Terminal'. Type 'cd $Extend' and pick up with Tom's directions at step 5.

Thansk Tom!

OK - I have SAME problem, but for me it happened after Vista 64 SP2 (Service Patch TWO) was installed yesterday.

I found a microsoft workaround about "Windows 7" disc (self healing code, i.e., related to hotfix 958069) and I happened to have a DVD with Windows 7 RC that I was going to (at some point in the future) install on a seperate HD (quad boot). Any way, I booted with Window's 7 and sure enough it got all the way to the installation dialog this time (as apposed to Vista DVD which BSOD's). So, I ejected disk and rebooted w/Vista 64bit DVD in drive.

No luck :-(, same BSOD with 0x0000c1f5 message :-(

So, since I can still boot into and run RH Linux on this same box (showing me it's NOT a hardware problem, only my Vista32 and Vista64 partitions refuse to cooperate) - I downloaded SystemRestoreCD 1.2 and attempted the solution about deleting the $TxfLog directory and all of it's contents...

Rebooted and Vista just "hung" there for an hour with the "Windows..." screen just prior to showing the logon screen.

So, I hit reset button and had Vista 64bit install DVD in drive and booted into that and still have BSOD with 0x000c1f5 error message.

:-(

I'm ready to jump off tall building now :-(, I haven't run a backup in many months (don't say a word :-( and my 5TB of disk have lot's of data for my job I could loose, woo is me (let this be a leason to you boys and girls about BACKING UP YOUR HD's)

Help, any one, any one...

@David Artz: If you've got RH installed on the box too I'm assuming that you're comfortable with Linux, which should at least make it easy for you to salvage your data even if your Vista installations prove to be irreparable. If you can mount the NTFS partitions under Linux, you can grab whatever files you need and copy them somewhere else.

As for the Vista problem at hand, am I inferring correctly that you have both Vista 32 and Vista 64 installed on this disk (on separate partitions)? If so, I don't have repair experience with that particular configuration, but there's a possibility that you may have to remove $TxfLog from *both* Vista partitions (even though you're only booting from one or the other) -- the bootloader may be scanning all of the partitions at boot time for file systems to mount and BSODing on the "other" one.

Another clue: usually when people tell me "I deleted the file successfully and it STILL BSODs" it's because they actually deleted the file from the wrong partition (e.g. a "repair" partition). Is there any chance that you mistakenly removed the file from the 32-bit Vista partition and are trying to boot from the 64-bit partition, or vice-versa?

Wouldn't be it easier just replace clfs.sys in system32 with the corresponding one from this fix? There is only 4 possible versions of this file (x86 & amd64, with SP1 and without one).

Oh My God.
This is such a painful ordeal to go thru. I installed SP2 on Tuesday nite. Come Yesterday I got the screen of death when I started the PC. IT took a while to get this going but I have to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. After much research Microsoft suggest formatting the HD and reinstalling all the stuff. I'd like to say to Tom Karpowitz take a bow for saving my ass. My wife has been looking at me and asking when is this thing going to get ready. Nevertheless I say that it works and Microsoft should just sent you a check for USD 1,000,000 for their screw up
Cheers
Steve;D

@Alex: it is possible/likely that using Linux to inject the appropriate unpacked CLFS.SYS into the Windows partition and rebooting may/will fix the problem. The original post is now well over a year old, and at the time I (1) posted the exact steps that I used to fix the problem because it worked for me and (2) realized that many readers/users would be unfamiliar with Linux and tried to describe what I thought was the easiest path for Linux newbies.

@Charles: please don't apologize for your English -- it is INFINITELY better than my French. In my experience, booting to a "blue screen with no other activity" situation has been due to booting off a hard drive that had a filesystem in an inconsistent state. I am guessing that, despite your best efforts, your system is still trying to boot off the hard drive instead of the CD/DVD. Please double-check your BIOS settings and be sure that your media is not damaged. One simple test is to temporarily remove the cable from your hard drive and try booting the system to see if you can successfully boot from CD/DVD.

@Steve: thanks for the kind words. Anything you can do to prod Microsoft into sending that check would be much appreciated.

u made my day dude , thx it worked for me >

Tom, i have to tell u that u r great man! This is basically the best thing out there to help us with the so much feared BSOD!
I followed all ur instructions and everything worked great, was able to remove the corrupted file and all, but now the only problem is that whenever im trying to repair the computer, after booting it and all, i get stuck forever on the Startup Repair screen, it just scans and scans and never happens after that! even if i try to reinstall vista nothing happens, it just stays stuck forever trying to load files, but nothing happens!
Any help please...?

@Maggie: boot the Vista DVD and, using the Command Prompt available through the Advanced Tools, try using CHKDSK.EXE (more than once if necessary) to ensure that the disk is consistent, and/or use BOOTREC.EXE to repair the BCD and MBR. You can Google for help using these tools if necessary.

If you still can't get your system running, now that you've removed the BSOD you *should* at the very least be able to reinstall Vista from scratch. If you can't do THAT, something else is wrong...

Thanks a heck of a lot Tom i was able to get rid of the blue screening but then i got this error that has been mentioned before so i decided that i might as well factory restore it since my files werent that important anyways and this was a nagging problem. Thanks for helping in this long painful process.

Hi Tom

You did a great job with this manual but i have problem with step 2.
If i write ntfs- 3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows the system says: command not found: ntfs-
Then i tried the next one: ls /dev/hd and ls /dev/sd it says ;s"cannot acces /dev/sd: no such file or dircetory.
If i put in the words fdsik -l i get "
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads. 63sectors/track , 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16-65 x 512 = 8225280
Disk identifier: 0x68000000

Devbice Boot Start End Blocks ID Systen
/dev/sda1 * 30075 30402 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 17 1322 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 * 1322 30075 230961148 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 30075 30402 2621440 f W95 Exr`d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 30075 30402 2620416 0 Empty.

Now i think i have to take /dev/sda3 because that is the biggest one.
But... what do i have to put in now to get to step 3?
Sorry for my bad english and i hope you understand some of the things i wrote. Keep up the good work and i hope you can help me.

@Shadow91: Don't apologize for your English -- it is excellent!

Based on the fdisk output, it looks like you have a dual-boot system... and it looks like /dev/sda3 is the correct partition to use (it's marked as bootable, large, and NTFS).

I'm guessing that the problem you hit in step 2 is just a typo... "ntfs-3g" is all one "word", with no spaces in it. Try again and type very carefully. If you are unfamiliar with Linux, one suggestion is to copy the text from my blog posting, paste it into a word processor, and then "zoom in" as required to be sure you get the spaces, upper/lower case, etc exactly correct when you type in the commands.

Just wanted to say thanks for this. Helped a lot

Hi Tom,

I`m now on my laptop which had the blue screen problem.
I solved the problem thanks to your tutorial.
You`re a great man that your helping people with the same problem.
Keep up the good work and i hope other people will also succeed repairing the problem.
Now i have one last question for you: Were can i find the hotfix so i can prevent a blue screen in the future?

Many thanks and greetings,

Shadow

@Shadow: the fix is described in and downloadable from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084.

Congratulations on getting your system working again!

You're my hero, Tom.

In my case I think I was getting this BSOD because one of the 3 HDs in my Raid 0 setup died. So I took it out and restored my machine using Acronis True Image. But because I was going from a Raid of 3 HDs to 2, Those files you had us delete didn't jive with what Windows was seeing... so BSOD.

I followed your instructions and it worked like a charm, saved me from totally reinstalling everything and/or sending my whole machine in for a needless repair. One weird thing though, the windows repair said it couldn't fix the problem so I tried a normal boot, and I was back up and running.

Thanks. System Recovery is going into my tookbox.

PS Acronis True Image worked very well, I highly recommend it for backing up your system. A $40 invenstment saved me literally $1000s in downtime.

Couldn't agree more -- I have been using Acronis True Image for many years and I am a huge fan. The best tool of its kind -- period.

After I installed SP2 I got the same error Dale Gorham posted about on January 19, 2009 - the 0xC0000034 error. After googling it and finding other sources giving the same steps, I looked on this forum and saw it confirmed by Dale that it was actually what MS was recommending.

After attempting to fix it using the command prompt Vista's DVD gives you during a recovery, it said the files were in use and I wasn't able to rename them.

So again, booting up with System Recovery I mounted the HD again the same way Tom has described for fixing the C1F5 error and this time did the commands the MS tech guy had Dale do just with the Linux equivalent.

My system is a Raid 0 setup so I won't put how I mounted in my instructions because it will muddy the waters for a lot of people. If you're having troubles with mounting your Raid array, search this page for the 3 posts by Tom Frank on January 27, 2009.

1) cd /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config
Again because it's Linux, it's case sensitive, also the System32 and config are hidden folders so the command ls wouldn't list them. I'm sure you can make ls show hidden files, but with my limited Linux experience I'm not sure how.

2) mv DEFAULT DEFAULT.OLD
3) mv SAM SAM.OLD
4) mv SOFTWARE SOFTWARE.OLD
5) mv SYSTEM SYSTEM.OLD
6) mv SECURITY SECURITY.OLD
7) cd RegBack

cp DEFAULT ../
Since you're already in /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config/RegBack, using ../ simply copies it to /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config/ without having to type all that in. ../ means go up one folder.

9) cp SAM ../
10) cp SOFTWARE ../
11) cp SYSTEM ../
12) cp SECURITY ../

Then unmount and reboot as normal...
13) cd /
14) umount /mnt/windows
15) init 6

I then followed the instructions to download SP2 first and reboot and only then install SP2 in safe mode. I could not get SP2 to install even in safe mode with my virus software (Norton) turned off. But at least this fix got me backup and running.

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this up. My brother's laptop exhibited this 0xC1F5 error and your instructions allowed me to fix the problem in a matter of minutes.

wow it worked for me perfectly without any hassle;D got the laptop fixed

Hi Tom,
I booted the system rescue cd and followed your instructions. Im sure i did everything correctly because i did manage to delete the $TxfLog file. I even did the start up repair from the Vista CD. However, my system still blue screens after about a minute after i log in!

Pleasee tell me you know whats going on with my system and that you have some advice for me.. this blue screen is making me crazyy!

Many thanks,
Nipun

@Nipun: Are you still getting the 0xC1F5 BSOD or a different one?

If still 0xC1F5, it's possible that your system has more than one partition that has the offending file on it (e.g. your system may have a "restore" or "emergency backup" partition), and you may have removed the file from that partition instead of your "real" C: drive. Please use "fdisk -l" to verify that you have selected the correct partition to repair (it will likely be the largest one and have a "*" indicating that it is bootable).

Hey Tom, thanks for getting back to me..
Yeah im getting the same one, "*** STOP: 0x0000C1FS (0x00000000,..."

I've been using "fdisk -l" and the one with the "*" next to it is the "sda3" one of which i've been using.

Also, when i did complete the process and found that my system was still blue-screening; i repeated the process again and the $TxfLog file was still there to be deleted. (I did this a couple of times)

However, during step 8, when i type in "ls" to verify that i have deleted the $TxfLog file, it has been removed.

So my guess is that maybe i am not saving all the work done from resuce disk correctly? Or could the $TxfLog file be recovering itself somehow?

Cheers

Tom,

I can't thank you enough. This worked like a charm for me! I was faced with backing up 15 GBs of data for a client and then a reinstall. This fix took 5 minutes and worked right away.

Have a great 4th!

-Eric

This is known issue, however you can try download Windows 7 and make it bootable DVD and try boot in winRE and replace the file from the DVD and start the computer.

I want to say thank you to the person who figured this out. I was not sure if this was going to work but it did. THANK YOU

3 weeks of worry and frustration, then I found this site. Now I'm typing on the laptop I thought I'd killed. Thanks.

Hi Tom,

u are so f.c.ing cool. F.c. $Microsoft. I had the some problem and did it
with your solution even with my truecrypt encrypted system partition. The
trick was not to mount the partition in truecrypt (from linux ;-)) but do manuelly later as described in the truecrypt warning (with -o force) after mounting it in truecrypt to /dev/mapper/truecrypt1.

John

Hi Tom

I'm a real beginner at this but struggling to have a go. I am at the very first stage, when I try to mount windows, I keep getting a response saying "ntfs-3g-mount: mount failed: device or resource busy" I have tried both the ntfs-3g dev/sda1 /mnt/windows and adding the "-o force" but I still get the same response.

Can you help?

@Karen: Although this comment thread is now extremely long, it's worth your time to read through it... most people who are new to Linux struggle with the same types of issues and I/we have helped others get through this.

First important safety tip is that Linux is fussier than Windows when it comes to upper/lower case, spaces, etc. Please double-check your typing and be sure that you are entering each command correctly.

One of the biggest problems people have with this fix is determining the correct disk/partition to repair. Unfortunately I can't just predict that, as the number and type of hard drives and the way they are partitioned varies from system to system. I use /dev/sda1 (first "found" SATA or SCSI disk, first partition) as an EXAMPLE in my instructions, but you need to determine the correct device for your specific case. Once you boot the SystemRescueCD and get to the shell prompt, type "fdisk -1" (fdisk space dash little-ell) and hit Enter... you should see a list of all of the disks and partitions found on your system. One of them should be much larger in size (as evidenced by number of blocks) than the others... it should also be of type NTFS and should be marked with a "*" indicating that it is bootable. THAT is the correct device to repair.

Other than that, I encourage you to work carefully, don't get frustrated, and drop a note here if you still need help. In particular, send the output from "fdisk -l" to help in debugging.

Hi Tom

I am making progress! I created another copy of the rescue cd and this time, things started to work for me. After a bit of trial and error, I managed to get right through to step 11 and felt quite pleased with myself.

Now I am struggling again. I have booted the pc from my vista DVD and it takes me to Recovery Manager. As I am hoping to get this working without losing data, I am selecting Advanced Options and selecting Startup Repair Tool. It attempts to repair but fails and I get an error message of 'startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically' When I look at the problem detail, there is a lot of data that I don't understand, 'problem signature 1 - unknown, problem signature 2 6.0.6000.16386.0.0.0.0, sig 3 - 0, sig 4 - 65537, sig 5 unknown, sig 6 - NoOsInstalled, sig 7 - 0, sig 8 - 1, sig 9 - FixPartitionTable, sig 10 - 1168, OS Version 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1 Locale ID 1033.

Any ideas what this is all about?

I had a look at system restore but it is only giving me a choice of one back-up date and that is the date of the SP1 download so naturally I want to avoid that.

Is my only option to do a System recovery?

Appreciate any advice again

thanks, Karen

Tom

to add to my last comment, I clicked on 'view diagnostic and repair details' it lists all the tests were completed successfully but one root cause found: No OS files found on disk.

My computer is an HP Pavilion M8180 - it has recovery on drive D so I purchased the recovery disc from HP and it came as a 2 disc set. For the hell of it, I inserted the 2nd disc and tried startup repair again. It failed, this time the problem signature 01 was Autofailover, sig 6 BadDriver, sig 8 - 3, sig 9 WrpRepair, sig 10 - 10. All the other problem signatures were the same as for the previous failure. Looking at diagnosis and repair details again, it performed many different tests but root cause found was 'a recent driver installation or upgrade may be preventing the system from restarting. Repair Action: System Restore Result: Failed. Error code - 0x1aa7, then Repair Action: System files integrity check and repair Result: Failed. Error code = 0xa

Sorry for such a long message. Just not sure what it all means and where to go from here.

thanks, Karen

@Karen: First things first... back up your valuable data to an external device! You can boot the SystemRescueCD and use an external USB hard drive or thumb drive, network share, etc to stash a copy of your valuable data. Take the time to do this "just in case". Look back through this comment thread for some hints on how to do this.

Boot the Vista DVD and, using the Command Prompt available through the Advanced Tools, try using CHKDSK.EXE (more than once if necessary) to ensure that the disk is consistent, and/or use BOOTREC.EXE to repair the BCD and MBR. You can Google for help using these tools if necessary.

If that doesn't work it's worth at least TRYING to do System Restore, even if it's to the SP1 date. The alternative is a system reinstall (or reinstall using your HP recovery discs) so it's worth a crack. The good news is that at least now you can get to your data, so if you DO have to wipe/reinstall at least you can salvage your valuable files first.

Tom, you are a saint! Thank you for for all your help. This kind of thing isn't easy for me but I got through it eventually with your instructions. I had a hard time at first with where to keep a space and "I" vs "l" but after reading carefully I finally got it. I'm still kind of livid that just updating Vista would cause so much damage but I'll get over it...

Thanks again!

Hi Tom, now that I have everything back to normal what do you recomend I do? Do I never install Vista SP1 again? I found a preventive hotfix but I also found comments that say it does nothing. What has your experience been?

Thank you in advance.

@Mark: Now that your system is restored, you should IMMEDIATELY back up all of your personal files. DO IT NOW.

Now that that's done, you should next install the BSOD hotfix described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946084 "just in case".

Now you should install Vista SP1. Once that has been installed, all reboots have completed, etc and the system comes up cleanly, you should shut it down cleanly, start it up, and install Vista SP2. Note that installing these two service packs may take a rather long time (i.e. hours).

Hopefully you'll have a smoother experience than last time!

I also had this problem, but I found another way past it. Instead of getting the SystemRescueCD disk, I just got the windows 7 ISO and burned it to a CD using Nero, which fixed the blue screen, then I just put in the hard drive that BSOD any computer it is put into.vista DVD and did the start up repair, just like part 2 of this guide, I have also read that this problem was caused by an anti virus system such as McAfee, saw the Service packs install as an active virus attack and delete some key files and corrupt the clfs.sys file thus the BSOD and the corrupt Just thought I put my experience with this problem down somewhere ;).

Thnx, it worked!

Step 2 worked a little differently at my computer, but then i just followed your steps and now i have a computer with all my data rescued!

I was a little confused with shell prompt... i was waiting voor C:

Having just started a new job and needing files from my not very recently backed HP Pavillion I am please to say that I fixed this problem.
I used a Ubuntu install CD I had kicking around and installed Ubuntu alongside Windows. I also imported all documents from Windows.
I then followed the instructions above in Teminal and deleted the file.
It worked perfectly.

Thanks so much for a ray of light.

Thanks so much for posting this and helping people.
I have a friend's computer with the problem and I'm having trouble actually deleting $Txflog

* Dell Vista computer (sda3 is the boot partition with the users files)
* Using a SystemRescueCD from ISO file downloaded yesterday - default boot
* when I "ls $RmMetadata" I see three listings: $Repair, $Txf and $Txflog (the latter two are in blue text highlighted with green)
* "ls -la" shows
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 2008-04-15 23:44 $txflog

'rm -rf $Txflog' seems to have no effect - if I do an "ls" afterward, it still shows up.

'rm -rv $Txflog' displays:
rm: cannot remove '$Txflog': no such file or directory

( I tried 'sudo rm -rf $Txflog' and got a 'zsh' prompt to correct sudo to _sudo. I answered 'y' but it failed.)

I'm stuck -- any suggestions?