Sometimes solved: C0000218 Unknown Hard Error
Norman Diamond
relevant than anything else I could find. Cross-posted to
microsoft.public.development.device.drivers because anyone who needs to
solve this thing is going to be tricked into investigating drivers before
they really find the problem.
"Unknown Hard Error" means a software problem, which might be in a driver
but might not be. This is the opposite of "Unknown Soft Error" which means
a hardware problem.
If the "Unknown Hard Error" BSOD names a device driver, then that might be
the driver to try replacing. A few Knowledge Base articles recommend
replacing a device driver for a ZIP drive. Don't believe it. If you get
hit by an "Unknown Hard Error" BSOD, you do not have to go out and buy a ZIP
drive (if you can find one) and you don't have to install a driver for it
(which you can't do anyway since Windows XP BSODs during booting).
If the "Unknown Hard Error" BSOD doesn't name a device driver, then the
Unknown Hard might be your Registry. If it turns out to be your registry,
then you want to read this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/
If you read a foreign language version of that Knowledge Base article then
maybe you can download Guided Help. After downloading, execute the Guided
Help program and it will automatically make some changes to your registry,
which you can undo later if they don't work. Now, how do you execute the
Guided Help program in your Windows XP system when you can't even log in to
your Windows XP system because it BSODs during booting? Oh yeah, Catch-22.
Microsoft Japan must have noticed that, so the Japanese version of this KB
article doesn't offer the unusable Guided Help.
However! Some of the instructions later in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/
just might be right! If you can install a parallel copy of Windows XP into
another partition, boot that one, and take a look at your main non-booting
one, you might be able to fix it. In the new parallel installation, use
Windows Explorer to look at the partition containing your failing one. Give
yourself permission to view the System Volume Information folder. Look for
the latest Restore Point. Copy the five relevant backed-up Registry files
from that Restore Point to the failing system's Config directory. Rename
the existing Registry files in that Config directory in case you might need
them later (in case this procedure doesn't work). Then rename the files
that you copied from the Restore Point so that they'll be used next time.
Reboot and try selecting your main failing system. It might work!
Alexander Grigoriev
that can confuse even the most sofisticated error handling.
At least, I would suggest hitting F8 and boot "Last Known Good"
configuration.
"Norman Diamond" <ndia...@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:uFBs2nYr...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Norman Diamond
reasons:
(1) Booting my main Windows XP SP2 installation on partition C gave BSOD
with "Unknown Hard Error" during booting.
(2) Booting my test version Windows XP SP2 installation on partition D
worked fine.
(3) Booting my main Windows XP SP2 installation on partition C and selecting
"Last Known Good" gave BSOD with "Unknown Hard Error" during booting.
(Sorry I neglected to mention this in my previous posting.)
(4) Booting my test version Windows XP SP2 installation on partition D
worked fine.
(5) Booting my main Windows XP SP2 installation on partition C and selecting
"Safe Mode" gave BSOD with "Unknown Hard Error" during booting. (I
neglected to mention this in my previous posting too.)
(6) Installing a different test version Windows XP SP2 installation on
partition D (including formatting D during installation) worked fine.
(7) Booting my main Windows XP SP2 installation on partition C gave BSOD
with "Unknown
Hard Error" during booting.
(8) Booting the new different test version Windows XP SP2 installation on
partition D worked fine.
(9) The procedure which I described in my initial posting worked fine.
(10) I'm still using my main Windows XP SP2 installation on partition C,
which works fine now after step (9).
If my hardware were giving up the ghost, this would be an incredible set of
coincidences. And how did the ghost get back into my hardware.
In the Knowledge Base article which I cited and partly obeyed, it even says
that a corrupted registry can be the reason for the "Unknown Hard Error".
Even though the BSOD itself didn't say so. So, I'm not the only one who has
received this garbage, and someone who is powerful enough to write a
Knowledge Base article received the same. I think the cause was not our
hardware giving up the ghost.
By the way the reason for step 6 is that the version of Windows involved in
steps 2 and 4 was a language that I couldn't read well enough to do step 9,
but the version of Windows involved in step 8 (and 9) was in a language that
I could handle.
"Alexander Grigoriev" <al...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:OQyadTjr...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Skywing [MVP]
C:\>err c0000218
# for hex 0xc0000218 / decimal -1073741288 :
STATUS_CANNOT_LOAD_REGISTRY_FILE ntstatus.h
# {Registry File Failure}
# The registry cannot load the hive (file):
# %hs
# or its log or alternate.
# It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.
# 1 matches found for "c0000218"
--
Ken Johnson (Skywing)
Windows SDK MVP
http://www.nynaeve.net
"Norman Diamond" <ndia...@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:eM1HO0kr...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Norman Diamond
by copying recently saved registry files from a restore point, as described.
In order to guess what to try, you have to start by understanding the
meaning of "Hard" in "Unknown Hard Error".
"Skywing [MVP]" <skywing_...@valhallalegends.com> wrote in message
news:O7cY9Kqr...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Skywing [MVP]
that is named as it is, however.
--
Ken Johnson (Skywing)
Windows SDK MVP
http://www.nynaeve.net
"Norman Diamond" <ndia...@community.nospam> wrote in message
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