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My pc just turned automatically while working. As it turned there was a blue screen error after few time when I started it again. There error code on the screen was some stop:c0000a21a. It is a fatal system error. I had seen that blue screen errors are associated with some serious hardware failure in the system. Can anyone tell me how to fix the same. I had tried to disable many startup stuff but nothing worked. I am using Windows XP SP2 here.
Boot your system first in safe mode. When you boot in safe mode ample of things like startup files and drivers are not loaded due to which there are few chances of facing blue screen on start. Go in Event Viewer and look for the error description. I am sure you will be able to find more detail on the error inside that. Do you remember any recent changes you had done in your pc. Like windows update or any new installations. Just try to get rid of of any recent installation and then check back.
Okay, I've looked everywhere on the Web for the answer, and all I've found is typical Windows "trouble-shooting" (that term now means rubbish documents, thank you Microsoft).
Here is the way you do it.
Take the hard drive out.
Put it in a different PC.
Make this drive the slave.
It helps if the two PC's have similar settings etc.
There will now be 2 drives in the new PC.
The crappy drive that won't boot (blue screen of death drive) is now the slave in a different computer (just another storage drive).
If it doesn't want to be the slave, only connect it's power cord (the big one) when the PC is already on. You won't be sucked through a portal, don't worry. You might need to reboot though.
Download SyncToy 2.1 or whichever version they bring out next.
Install it.
Run it.
You'll need to "pair"/"sync"/"compare" 2 folders with SyncToy.
These 2 folders are... Windows\System32 (on good drive) and Windows\System32 (on bad drive). Run the synchronising thing so it puts in any dll's that are missing on the bad drive.
Once it is done, put the bad drive back in the original PC.
It should start ok, and at least you won't get the blue screen reboot.
There might be a few graphics drivers and printer drivers or whatever that fail or give errors, but at least you have access to the PC and the mighty Google search. So fix up the little bugs and you'll be fine.
Oh, and one final stab.
Dr Watson Post Mortem DeBugger is an expert way to do nothing at all about any problem ever.
Dr Watson is an old geyser that helped Sherlock Holmes to fight crime etc. He likes to feel important, but actually is like a virus made by Windows, for Windows. It is crap. Listening Microsoft? Nope. Not your style.
"I'm not a PC, and Windows 7 was Windows' answer to a huge mistake called Vista."
Mate, where I belong is for me to decide.
I was offering the best advice on this issue that is available on the web.
It is also the most thorough and practical advice.
All this other stuff I've seen doesn't get you around the problem.
You say it will come back to haunt me and that is true, I am well aware of that. But what my method has done, however, is to get around the problem in a way that doesn't involve 10 years of expert specialisation in programming.
The key thing that my method does, for anyone wanting to use it, is this:
Gets you back into your PC, which has been locked by an error. From there, you can salvage what you need from your computer, put it on discs etc, and kiss your hard drive goodbye. Drives are cheap, but the content is priceless.
and as for this post originating in 2004, it's irrelevant. If the post is relevant to your issue, the date is insignificant. I was just indulging in some light humor. Its quite therapeutic, you should give it a go some day.