Alcohol 120% - Avoid this programme

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

So, finally worked out what's wrong with my computer, totally wasn't what i it thought it was.

In summary, what it's been doing is:

1] Start up normally= gets as far as the windows loading screen and goes into a boot cycle

2] Last known good configuration= as above

3] Safe mode/Safe mode with networking/Safe mode with command prompt= fails while loading a347bus.sys (driver for Alcohol 120% virtual device) and goes into a boot cycle.

4] Boot from WinXP disk and attempt system recovery= BSOD and boot cycle

5] Boot from WinXP disk and attempt reinstall= BSOD

6] Installing hardrive on new system as secondary= goto 1


So, as you can imagine, i'm mildly irritated by all this. Gotta a couple of more things i'm gonna try but the commentary on the interweb kinda suggests there isnt a solution. If i can find a fault with the drive i might try sending it to Maxtor for a recovery (cost me £60 to send it the last time, without recovery, same computer). If i can't i might try sending it to a recovery service, not costed that so far [Edit: looks like it'd be around £300]. Some of the other people who have been having this issue have said that even formatting doesnt get rid of it.

I'd recomend staying away from this programme. I know some of you have been using it without problems, but even so...

[LastChanceHotel]

Bring it with you to the LAN, I'll chuck it in my machine (and not boot off of it), we can grab the files you want (assuming they're less than 500gb), and we can format and start again.

Dealt with this before, Alcohol isn't that PC-friendly.

Jan

[YegaDoyai]

Fyndir, are you using alcohol? Sounds very familiar to the problems you were facing.

On a lighter note, SOME people that have had this issue say that simply disabling the virtual drives is enough to sort the problem, others have needed to uninstall the program. A few needed to reinstall windows. A full reinstall WILL fix the problem.

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

I'm gonna try hot-swapping it tonight, but if that fails i'll try bringing it to the LAN on saturday (im not LANing, cos my parents are down and im going to a wedding).

Yega: Some people are lucky.

If you mean, by full reinstall, formatting and starting again i was hoping to recover some stuff before trying that, but some of the posts i saw online suggested it didnt always work (which i dont really understand, but there you go).

[YegaDoyai]

I don't think it is luck, from what I read it depended on the hardware you were using. Certain drives were particularly prone to this kind of problem (CD/DVD drive not HDD)

And I seriously doubt you mean hot swap.

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

It's a SATA, apparently you can do that.

[YegaDoyai]

Indeed you can, but not if it's your system drive (obv)

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

So if ive got a different system set up on my one motherboard that supports SATA and i install it hot as a secondary (as above, 6, kinda), then that would work? maybe?

[YegaDoyai]

if windows is installed on your sata drive you cannot hot swap that drive. What you said above made no sense to me.

[Fyndir]

Fyndir, are you using alcohol? Sounds very familiar to the problems you were facing.

I used to use it, but couldn't get it working again after the first reinstall of Windows, I now use Daemon Tools instead.

[YegaDoyai]

did you try to install it on your latest reinstall?

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

if windows is installed on your sata drive you cannot hot swap that drive. What you said above made no sense to me.

Ive got a new windows installation on an IDE drive on my sata-supporting motherboard and plan to try hot-swapping the sata drive into it. Or i will if i get the time, which doesnt seem too likely just now (parents).

[YegaDoyai]

while machine is off, plug in sata drive. no need for hot swap.

IDE does NOT support hot swap so the 'swapping' portion cannot be completed. As for the 'hot' portion it could be done but there is no reason to do so. Better to do it while it is off.

[Fyndir]

did you try to install it on your latest reinstall?

I honestly can't remember, I might have. =S

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

while machine is off, plug in sata drive. no need for hot swap.

IDE does NOT support hot swap so the 'swapping' portion cannot be completed. As for the 'hot' portion it could be done but there is no reason to do so. Better to do it while it is off.

See 6

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Attempting to reformat using the WinXp disk bluescreened. Trying to run hardware manufacturers diagnostic at the moment.

[YegaDoyai]

What was the blue screen message

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

same as before: ntfs.sys

I <3 PowerMax. My computer now works without problems.

C Us @ teh LAN, m8s