Hello,

I have been trying for several days (and hundreds of hours) to burn a CD that will boot my Dell Laptop running XP SP3 so I can run Recovery Console and chkdsk on my disabled machine.

Maybe this is quixotic, but now I have put so much time and effort in, I feel an overwhelming need to follow this goal to its completion.

I am getting a blue screen on my PC with an UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME message and a STOP: 0x000000ED Error Message.

When I try to start in Safe Mode, it stalls on agp440.sys file.

I ran Diagnostics through BIOS and it found several errors in the IDE DISK S/N 55H 77115T test. The error code for these errors was 0F00:0244

I downloaded the Recovery Console disk image and finally was able to create a bootable disk (I think) using cdrecord...it gets me to the Windows Startup screen, but when I press r, it loads Windows files and then gives me the same UBV blue screen.

Of course I have changed the BIOS settings to boot from the CD-ROM drive.

I have downloaded UBCD and have been trying to burn the .iso to cd with no luck. I downloaded the GUI Firestarter, which also uses cdrecord, and it gives me error messages as well.

If anyone knows the mkisofs or cdrecord terminal command lines to correctly burn UBCD to a CD, I would be so dang grateful to you. At least all this has gotten me familiar with Terminal in Mac OS Unix.

Thanks!

Please confirm you have an exact copy of the UBCD ISO you downloaded by using the link in my signature. You may have a bad download.


It does seem you may have a error on the disk and running the correct manufacturers HDD software provided on the UBCD, may fix the problem. Ofcourse after you get it to boot that is.

_________________
~Just StopSpazzing~

Visit the UBCD Wiki: http://wiki.ultimatebootcd.com
Please check your UBCD ISO MD5 Hash Sum; May prevent issues later on by not having an exact copy.

Currently Working on Common Issues and Repair Tips on the Wiki.

Since you are experiencing problems with other CDs already burned, maybe the problem (of your burning procedure) is not the program's parameters, but the installed program version, or some other problem in the OS, or some hardware problem in your Mac (RAM, HDD, burning drive...).

Besides checking the downloaded ISO image against the published MD5/SHA1 checksums, you may try using a "standard" burning speed of 4x or 8x, and you may want to re-check or verify the burned CD against your ISO image after the burning procedure finishes.

In general, I would recommend using CD-RW or CD+RW (instead of using either DVDs or read-only CD media).


Mkisofs is for building the ISO. CDrecord is used for burning the ISO image to CD/DVD/BD.

A step-by-step for MacOS using Apple's Disk Utility:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto#Mac%20OS%20X

How to Burn an ISO Image (scroll down to "How to Burn an ISO under MacOS") :
http://www.tech-faq.com/how-to-burn-an-iso-image.html

CDRecord on Mac OS X :
http://cdrecord.berlios.de/test/documentation/macosx_index.php

But again, since you are experiencing burning problems with other CDs, I would suggest:

A_ Test if those already-burned CDs are at least booting (and working) under other systems (desktop/laptop).

B_ Try (re)burning using a third system. The problem could be your Mac itself, or the specific version of CDRecord.


Finally, please consider that you are doing all these procedures to try to rescue a Laptop, not a generic desktop, which means special features (drivers, encryption, specific tools...) are involved. So use UBCD "carefully", and always use the Windows Rescue Environment specific for your Laptops model and OS (there might be also a special "recovery" partition or some similar method already included in your Laptop's HDD/BIOS). If you can boot with UBCD, try making a backup of your (damaged?) HDD to another device (UFD for example).

Thanks for your help. I hope we can get this to work.

I verified the checksum; thank you for the info on how to do so.

I think running chkdsk on my PC will solve the problem...I was defragging the hard drive and the power cord got disconnected. I didn't notice, so the system went down while the defragger was re-writing system files. Ugh.

DiskUtil, hdi, Firestarter: all return errors with no specifics when trying to burn.

I'm assuming I don't need to convert the downloaded ubcd503.iso to an .iso using mkisofs??

cdrecord: When trying to burn the .iso file, i get the following (cdrecord set to verbose):

<:/private/var/root/Desktop root# cdrecord -v speed=4 ubcd503.iso
cdrecord: No write mode specified.
cdrecord: Assuming -sao mode.
cdrecord: If your drive does not accept -sao, try -tao.
cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.
Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 2.01.01a77 (powerpc-apple-macosx8.11.0) Copyright (C) 1995-2010 J?rg Schilling
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'.
SCSI buffer size: 32768
atapi: 0
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'MATSHITA'
Identifikation : 'CD-RW CW-8124 '
Revision : 'DB0D'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-ROM.
Current: CD-R
Profile: DVD-ROM
Profile: CD-ROM
Profile: CD-R (current)
Profile: CD-RW
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags : MMC-2 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R16 RAW/R96P RAW/R96R
cdrecord: Warning: Cannot read drive buffer.
cdrecord: Warning: The DMA speed test has been skipped.
FIFO size : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: data 301 MB
Total size: 346 MB (34:17.25) = 154294 sectors
Lout start: 346 MB (34:19/19) = 154294 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
Indicated writing power: 5
Disk Is not unrestricted
Disk Is not erasable
Disk sub type: Medium Type B, low Beta category (B-) (4)
ATIP start of lead in: -11933 (97:22/67)
ATIP start of lead out: 359849 (79:59/74)
Disk type: Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 43
Manufacturer: Acer Media Technology, Inc.

Capacity Blklen/Sparesz. Format-type Type
359848 2048 0x00 Unformated or Blank Media
Blocks total: 359849 Blocks current: 359849 Blocks remaining: 205555
Starting to write CD/DVD/BD at speed 8 in real SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write 0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
BURN-Free is OFF.
Performing OPC...
cdrecord: Input/output error. send opc: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB: 54 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 03 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 73 03 00 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x3 Medium Error, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x73 Qual 0x03 (power calibration area error) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
cmd finished after 8.723s timeout 200s
cdrecord: OPC failed.
Writing time: 8.741s
cdrecord: fifo had 128 puts and 0 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 0 times full, min fill was 100%.

A fail defrag as described shouldn't make so many problems, unless some very serious system files were damaged. If you were only using a defrag program, and if it is compatible with XP, then in theory only some few bytes/files could be compromised. XP doesn't allow defragging system files except for some special situations, so maybe the (boot) problems and blue screens are originated from a sum of situations. You will have to get to the correct recovery/repair mode to check it. (FIRST of all, BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP, just in case your HDD is "dying".)

Since you are having problems with several different methods, I again suggest that maybe you should try to burn UBCD using some other third (friend's) system.

Correct. You don't need mkisofs. You need some optical-media-burning tool, like CDRecord (or ImgBurn as one example under Windows).


Did that result in a working UBCD? If it didn't, I still think your best (more effective) path to burn both, UBCD and your Recovery Environment XP w/SP3 console, should be trying to find some other system where you could be almost sure that the burning software and hardware are working, instead of having to resolve an additional problem.

Let us know how it goes.

[EDIT]
In your XP system, you should check the connection to your HDD. Check that the cable is correctly plugged in to both your motherboard and you HDD. You may read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555302 and/or http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185. Also, when troubleshooting you laptop, use AC power (not only your laptop's battery).
[/EDIT]

@lovelychihuahua, is there a reason why you aren't using Disk Utility to burn the cd? I use Disk Utility for all my disc burning needs and it works flawlessly every single time. The only difference is I'm currently running Snow Leopard, but Tiger isn't too terribly old and the disk utility hasn't changed much as far as I know.

@Bandit: Disk Utility, as I mentioned in my original post, returns an error.

If burning with cdrecord, should the .iso file and the CDR be unmounted or mounted?

I will backup as soon as I can get this UBCD burned!!

I bought new CDR's of a higher quality, but they are still not working.

it might be a shell problem, as I am being told in diskutil that permissions are not enabled on this device. I tried to repair permissions and was denied.

Help!

Here is the latest coaster error report from cdrecord:

natalie-stevensons-ibook-g4:/private/var/root/Desktop root# sudo cdrecord -v -pad speed=1 dev=1,0,0 ubcd503.iso
cdrecord: No write mode specified.
cdrecord: Assuming -sao mode.
cdrecord: If your drive does not accept -sao, try -tao.
cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.
Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 2.01.01a77 (powerpc-apple-macosx8.11.0) Copyright (C) 1995-2010 J?rg Schilling
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: '1,0,0'
scsibus: 1 target: 0 lun: 0
Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'.
SCSI buffer size: 32768
atapi: 0
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'MATSHITA'
Identifikation : 'CD-RW CW-8124 '
Revision : 'DB0D'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-ROM.
Current: CD-R
Profile: DVD-ROM
Profile: CD-ROM
Profile: CD-R (current)
Profile: CD-RW
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags : MMC-2 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R16 RAW/R96P RAW/R96R
cdrecord: Warning: Cannot read drive buffer.
cdrecord: Warning: The DMA speed test has been skipped.
FIFO size : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: data 301 MB padsize: 30 KB
Total size: 346 MB (34:17.45) = 154309 sectors
Lout start: 346 MB (34:19/34) = 154309 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
Indicated writing power: 5
Disk Is not unrestricted
Disk Is not erasable
Disk sub type: Medium Type B, low Beta category (B-) (4)
ATIP start of lead in: -11834 (97:24/16)
ATIP start of lead out: 359849 (79:59/74)
Disk type: Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 24
Manufacturer: SONY Corporation

Capacity Blklen/Sparesz. Format-type Type
359848 2048 0x00 Unformated or Blank Media
Blocks total: 359849 Blocks current: 359849 Blocks remaining: 205540
Starting to write CD/DVD/BD at speed 8 in real SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write 0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
BURN-Free is ON.
Turning BURN-Free off
Performing OPC...
cdrecord: Input/output error. send opc: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB: 54 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 03 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 73 03 00 00 00 00
Sense Key: 0x3 Medium Error, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x73 Qual 0x03 (power calibration area error) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
cmd finished after 21.003s timeout 200s
cdrecord: OPC failed.
Writing time: 21.021s
cdrecord: fifo had 128 puts and 0 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 0 times full, min fill was 100%.

@lovelychihuahua
I don't mean to be rude, but, are you reading the links I posted? If you didn't, please do it. Here is another one, which I don't expect you to actually read, but just to take a look: http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/cdrecord1.html.

That page includes CDRecord parameters. Too many for you to solve your problem in an effective manner.

There are MANY reasons for you to produce coasters with CDRecord. To mention only one (and there are many others), you should use a STANDARD speed. Look at your optical media. If the minimum is 4x, use that. If the minimum is 8x, use that.

As more general recommendations:
_ to reduce "coaster creation", use rewritable optical media.
_ for UBCD, try CD-RW or CD+RW, instead of DVD+-RW.
_ use 4x or 8x, not less, no more, whichever speed is compatible with your optical media.
_ if you are making coasters with several different tools under the same system, YOU SHOULD TRY USING A DIFFERENT SYSTEM.

There are other additional recommendations, but I won't get into them now. I am trying to be EFFECTIVE.

If you want more help specific to CDRecord (which is perfectly valid), then you should look for some specialized forum (BTW, CDRecord is not the best option to burn ISO images).

If you want help with UBCD, or even with burning it, and you are willing to try a functional, trustworthy system AS ALREADY SUGGESTED, then I am willing to help, and probably other users too. As with almost anything, you just need the adequate tool for the job and for you.

I agree with ady about trying a different system... However, if you are willing to give Disk Utility another shot... try this:

Verify the MD5 of your iso (open terminal -> type: md5sum ubcd503.iso) should match 6cf0f4ff7f11ad2d78058541831c4bcc

Open Disk Utility and open ubcd503.iso

Click "Convert" and change the Image Format to DVD/CD master. The "Save As" box should say something like ubcd503.iso.cdr... I would probably change it to ubcd503.cdr to be safe.

Now open ubcd503.cdr and burn it to one of your CDR's at the slowest possible speed and have it verify the burn.

Now try that copy and see if it works... You may have to adapt the steps (slightly) to fit your system, but it SHOULD work if your system is actually capable of burning CD's. Old versions of OS X had some problems with iso files if I recall correctly. Let me know if it works.