Recovering from a Crash Articles | Computer Security

Your Windows Systems can crash due device driver failure, hard drive failure or corruption, buggy applications or application installer, possibly a problematic Registry modification, or a virus attack. We discuss a number of strategies and techniques for troubleshooting and recovering Windows NT, 2000, and XP.

Driver or Service failing to load:

This type of failure is most common in windows after installing some device drivers or large applications which are much oriented to system services. These applications stop some services during their installations and sometimes fail to restore the services which cause this type of failure. In order to recover from this situation, we have to identify which driver installation causes this problem. This can be identified by using event viewer. The system log is written by the system during each critical task is carry on. This is accessed by control panel -> Administrator Tools -> Event viewer. Examine the application and system log for red signs. Then open the red signed and read the error report where, the driver which failed is reported. By knowing this driver uninstall the component associated to the driver which will rectify the problem.

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD):

This is the most common deadly error of windows. It shows a blue screen when the error occurs and automatically restarts the system. If it is the first time of occurrence then the restart may help to get into the system again. But if it occurs at every time of the booting then there are two possibilities to recover. One is fixing the cause and another one is reinstalling the whole OS again.

The main errors for the BSOD are software errors, hardware errors both during windows operation, and installation errors, startup errors and intermittent errors.

Ways to recover from Blue Screen of Death:

If the BSOD error message shows any driver error try to get in to safe mode by pressing F8 during booting of windows. There it shows a menu with the options of safe mode with command prompt. Select it and try to uninstall the driver.

If there is no trace of which driver try to get into the system by pressing F8 during system booting and select Last known good configuration. This may rectify the problem.

Another way is launching system restore wizard in safe mode by pressing F8 during booting and select safe mode. There in Start -> Run type Msconfig.sys. In the system configuration utility select launch system Restore. There a wizard guides to selecting a restoration point. Select a best known date when the system worked fine and restore the system to the selected date. This is the most recommended way to get rid of the BSOD.

If you plugged in any new hardware just before the BSOD occurs means the hardware attached is incompatible with OS. So change the hardware or try to plug-in in alternative slots.

If the BSOD occurs even in the safe mode then just repair the OS using the setup CD.

Sometimes the system in panic and causes boot failure then repairing the windows helps the user to get back the system to working state.

Sometimes windows shows the error report like

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup
using the original Setup CD-ROM.

Select 'R' at the first screen to start repair.

_________________

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart
_________________

Invalid boot.ini
Press any key to restart

To repair the windows put the windows setup CD into the drive and reboot the system. Ensure that the system Boot sequence is set with CD ROM in first priority. After booting it press any key to boot it from CD. Then press F8 to skip ELUA license agreement. Then press R to repair the windows. The windows setup will repair the windows installation and restores all the system files and boot up files.