My computer will not boot since every time I boot it up, a blue screen appears right after the boot screen appears for about half a second. I have no idea what the blue screen says as it only stays up for a few moments, but I cannot boot in safe mode as well as it hangs on the d346bus.sys file and then restarts itself. Every time I boot up it restarts itself needless to say no matter which type of boot I am doing whether it is a normal boot or a safe mode boot. Someone please help me.

Hi RiceHoshi,

d346bus.sys is the Daemon Tools driver. Although version 346 is very stable, it can cause trouble sometimes.

The file shouldn't be loading in XP SafeMode, though! Can you startup in a commandprompt mode? If you can, then just rename the file(s) by typing this into the commandprompt:

ren C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\d346bus.sys C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\old_d346bus.old_sys

ren C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\d346prt.sys C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\old_d346prt.old_sys

Note: mind the correct driveletter, and the spaces inbetween the old and new paths and the ren command, so in short this is what you should type in:
ren PathWithOldName PathWithNewName

After renaming both files, your computer should be starting normally again. If problems persist, though, check the Daemon Tools website for any info.
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I can run in MS-DOS mode, but I can't seem to access my hard drive. The Drive is formatted in NTFS, but I don't think that should be an issue. All I have access to is the floppy drive and the CD drive. I type C:\ and it says that it was invalid. I am almost positive that I could rename it and it would solve all my problems since it may be the root of my hardware problems. But even if I change the file name, won't Safe Mode still try to load the file? It asks if I want to load it or not and whether I say 'yes' or 'no' it just reboots my computer.

I think the problem is simple: you say you typed in C:\ and it returns an error. Well, try typing
C: or cd\ or
cd c:\windows\system32\drivers\

If you really have an "access denied" error for the C drive, then look into the CACLS command at the Microsoft website for setting permissions from the command prompt. Or type
cacls /?
to see the command line options. In short, this should be how the command looks:
cacls [filename] /g [username:accessright]
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Wow, I didn't even know you could do that. But it's not the fact that I can't access the hard drive because I do not have permission. I simply can't get to the hard drive in MS-DOS mode since I don't think it has a drive letter thought it should be a default C:. It's odd because it boots to the Windows XP boot screen so I know that the computer recognizes the drive, but it says invalid drive or something along those lines so that I can't access it.

How did you get into the CommandPrompt? Via a Windows98 bootdisk? Windows98 can't recognize an NTFS partition, so that's why your getting an "invalid disk" message.

From the XP bootmenu (via F8 - the one where you choose SafeMode), choose "SafeMode with CommandPrompt". That should get you into a prompt-mode that has access to the drive. Then just rename the files.

There's a program floating around, that can force access to an NTFS disk from a Windows98 bootdisk, but try the above first.

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You understand my issues a lot better than DELL technical support. Yes, I tried from a Windows 98 boot disk, but as I said before, I cannot boot in safe mode at all. Command prompt doesn't work and it simply reboots. I haven't heard of this disk and I haven't seen it. I searched Google, but nothing valuable comes up. Thanks for staying with me on this issue svg, I really appreciate it. Hopefully I can fix this problem soon. Any more ideas? Anything would be helpful. Desperate now.

Here's that program - I hope this will get you onto the HardDisk.
▫ [XP 109449] NTFS access via Windows98 bootdisk

I haven't tried it, though, but I expect that to work. Then again, I expected SafeMode to work too, so I'll just wait and see... :)

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...hmmm... it says "read access", and no mention of writing access... Maybe I'll have to think of something else...
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Maybe the recovery console is a better option. You'll need your XP CD for this.

▫ XP Recovery console overview (Microsoft)
▫ XP recovery console (Microsoft)

It also supports the "ren"(rename) command, so it should work.

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To run the Recovery Console from the Windows XP CD-ROM, follow these steps:

1) Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer. Note: your CD drive must be listed as a bootdevice before the harddisk (I'm assuming you know how to make your computer boot from a CD).

2) Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted: usually it will still ask you "do you want to boot from CD"

3) When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

4) If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console.

5) When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

6) At the command prompt, type the appropriate commands to diagnose and repair your Windows XP installation. So, do the rename procedure for those two Daemon Tools drivers.

For a list of commands that are available in Recovery Console, type recovery console commands or help at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

For information about a specific command, type help commandname at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

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...The above is from this page:
▫ [kb 307654] The XP recovery console (Microsoft)
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I tried the recovery console before and I don't remember it being able to rename files the way you are asking me to. I'll try it again, but is there anything else you can think of? I am at work so I won't be able to try it until tomorrow afternoon or Friday evening. Will you still check up on this if I have a one day hiatus of responding?

What about something like this?

http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?ntfs.html

I need something that can write and not just read though.

The second link in my response #9 has a list of all RC commands, and the ren/rename command is in it, so I'm guessing it should work.

The oldest message I'm tracking is from May 15th, so you've got some time to try stuff !:) You can add this post to your 'MyComputing.net' (check the forumlist on the left of this page) by clicking on the "Track this message..." icon just above the subject title of this thread.

The link you gave in your response #13 seems to be for linux, though, and I'm not too sure about it giving full write access. I wouldn't try it.

If you can put your harddisk into another computer(which has an OS that can see NTFS) as a second disk, then it would be easy to give yourself permissions. Here's a guide in case you can try that:
▫ [XP 108468]StepByStep: giving yourself permissions

I'm gonna have a look around the web for other possibilities. Try the Recovery Console first though, even if I happen to find a program.

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Thats a great idea and I would try it, but I am going to save that as my last resort. As of currently I have renamed the files and the last file that is attempting to load when run in Safe Mode is agp440.sys, I believe that is the right file name, but then it restarts the system once again. I really appreciate what you have contributed and I have the solution of installing Windows XP on the other hard drive, but any ideas what is wrong with my hard drive now? I would like to fix the hard drive I am using as of currently. Thanks.

▫ [XP 324764] Problems When Windows XP Tries to Load the Agp440.sys Service (Microsoft)

The link above contains the solution.

Well...fingers crossed anyway !:)
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Oh no. I disabled it, and now it's a black screen that says it had a hardware error, and now I turned it to service_auto_start it still gives me that black screen with the hardware error. No idea what I did different.Granted it's better than a blue screen I guess. At least I am getting somewhere.

Thank you, Microsoft !:(

What happens when you do:
enable agp440
in the recovery console? Or does service_auto_start mean you've already tried that, and you're still getting an error?

Can you start up in VGA mode (from the bootmenu)?

Did you install a graphics card before this happened? If so, did you disable the onboard graphics card in the BIOS?

Try unplugging as much as possible - even the mouse, and then try booting again.

There must be either a hardware(-detection) conflict at the base of this, or a general XP corruption in which case a repair install should help, but there's always a danger of losing data that's stored in the MyDocuments section.

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Yeah, there seems to be a hardware installation error and I am not sure what since I really unplugged everything that was unnescessary for boot. As for repairing an installation, it doesn't even list my C: drive as one of the installations possible for repair. I have installed Windows XP on the D: drive and I can see all my old documents, but it is going to take a while to let me access all the files. I have to manually add myself as a user allowed to access those files doing it one aifle at a time. Not impossible, but tedious. There seems to be a lot of missing drivers and such on the new installation which is okay, but I checked the Windows XP installation files on the old C: drive and they all seem to be alright so I don't know why it won't boot up. I have tried everything to get it boot, but it always shows up with wierd installation errors. Forinstance, when I try to repair it, the C: drive isn't listed, and when I choose to do a clean install, which I was just testing, it said that another OS was already on the drive. Awkward, considering they just told me that there wasn't an installtion to repair and now they are saying that there is already an installtion on the drive. Any ideas?

You can set permissions for yourself on whole folders at a time (subfolders will be included). So, you don't need to do that for each file individually.

I would backup all the important data, and just install a fresh XP. It'll take a bit of time getting the system back to how you had it, but it will be easier than trying to guess what the actual problem is.
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Thanks svg. If it is alright with you, I think I'm going to play with it a little bit more so I'll probably post a little later about how it is going. For now, could you tell me how to set it for an entire folder including sub-folders and files? So far I have been having to do it manually. I figured I'd just copy it all to CD and then just do a fresh isntall. Probably the best. But I work as a technical support guy for the college and I try to solve all my problems without a clean install. This forum has been really helpful, but check back in a couple days because I'll probably have an update as to how it is working out after playing with it some more after I backup my files.

The step-by-step guide in my response #14 works on folders too - not just files.

You're brave enough to take on hardware<->XP problems, eh ?:) Well, if the computer isn't needed, then have fun playing around with it! I hope you win !:)

I did find a program that can write to NTFS from DOS, but I think it's about 300$ (check the utilities at the fantastic SysInternals). It's part of their "Winternals" pro tools. Snoop around the free tools listing - lots of excellent goodies there.

There's also a project for NTFS reading & writing on SourceForge.net, but that one hasn't produced any results yet.

When I went looking for agp.sys problems, I found lots & lots of similar problems posted, and many seemed to have Dell or HP computers, so I can't believe Dell didn't have a solution - maybe try them again (if you contacted them about d346bus.sys only).
I think most people on Computing.net are here because of poor customer care by so-called help-desks, though !:)

I'll post too if I find anything interesting about it... Good Luck!!
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I tried to give myself permission to the my documents folder, but it only gave permission to access the folder and not its sub-folders. Odd?

I just tested it on a new folder with subfolder, and access permissions given to the parentfolder also appear on the subfolder.

Whether it's odd or not, I don't really know. I guess there must be settings for that either in the permissions, or in Security Policies.

This could be a source for all the problems you were seeing. If some system files/folders had their permissions restricted somehow, then it would certainly cause mayhem on the next restart.

It's not unthinkable that a virus (like the sasser worm) which attacks the authentication system could have messed up something but it could also be just a random occurance.
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I tested something though. On the new installation, I copied the DRIVERS folder from the old hard drive to the new one and it started giving me errors. At least now I know that it has something to do with that folder, because if I copied everything else that I copied over, excluding the DRIVERS folder, I received no errors. I ran a virus scan on it and it didn't pick up anything. Trend Micro Housecall, the free online scanner. Unless you suggest something else. Somehow, I think it still has to do with Daemon tools. Apparently it used to be on my computer, but I don't ever remember installing it.

▫ [xp 109682] exact same problem

I don't think anyone could install Daemon Tools without remembering. Version 346 is only out a couple of months or less, I think, and your memory can't be that bad !:)

I'm beginning to suspect foul play more and more. Daemon Tools is a program that creates virtual CD/DVD drives, which can be used to mount CD images. You don't simply install it and then forget about it.

Check the access permissions on your Windows\System32\Drivers folder. Any strange entries in the list? I've got these in there:

Administrators
CREATOR OWNER
Power Users
SYSTEM
Users
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All I have there are my user account, the administrator account, and an account with some random characters. The one with random characters is probably my old account. I am accessing it from my new installation so the administrator should be on there and I have added myself as a user with permission. So these al check out. I might have installed it, but perhaps it was used once which is why I don't remember. I do remember installing a program to run .cue and .bin files from my hard drive if that is what you are referring to. Actually, I probably did install that. Either way, error occurs when I copy the DRIVERS folder over.

Some German forum site linked the problem with Daemon Tools to the new XP ServicePack2. If both you and 'korkanu' in the other thread have installed XP SP2, then I'd say that's the cause of the problem.
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How do we fix it then? Remove Daemon tools correct? Or do we remove the second service pack? Actually, what is the problem between the two running on the same harddrive?

Yes - remove Daemon Tools. Try the Recovery Console procedure that you tried on agp440.sys to disable both d346xxx.sys drivers. As far as I can tell, those two are all that DT puts into the system folders. The rest of the DT files are in the Program Files\D-Tools folder by default, and there will be registry entries to go along with that.

It may not be a direct conflict between the two (DT & SP2), but just a matter of uninstalling DT before installing SP2, and then reinstalling DT to avoid problems.
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I'll try that when I get back home. Can't do much at work right now.

Before I do anything I would like to back up my files, but I cannot access them because of my previous user account which locks them out from the new user on my new installation. The method you showed me off adding myself only grants me to see the folders inside a folder after I have given myself permission and then I hav eto repeat the steps for every folder within the folder as well as its files. There must be an easier way. Is there not?

Selecting multiple files/folders at once in Explorer, should also show the security page, so you can add yourself to all of them at once.
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I still have to do it folders at a time and a lot of these folders have folders in them so it takes a long time.

▫ System Restore from Recovery Console

Check this out (one of the responses) - I didn't know the RC allowed this!
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Sort of late for it now since I am already using the new installation. In any case, I would still like to know if there is a way to allow one user to access all the files of another user. I do not have enough permission yet and I am not even a quarter of the way through changing the file permissions from the old harddrive.

Try this on the parent folder of the ones you want to change the permissions for:
On the "Sharing" page of the folder's properties, select "Share this folder" and press apply.

Then try selecting all of the folders together again in the right pane of Explorer, and try adding your UserAccount again with the wanted permissions.
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I actually tried that, it only allows me access to the highlighted folders and I am still restricted from the files and folders within the folder.

Sorry svg. I forgot to try that CACLS command, but I am sure it will work since it is supposed to work on entire drives and folders. Anyhow, I would like to apologize for the trunaround time since I am often at work and not by my computer which I am fixing. Thanks for staying with me on this. I have one other request. I have programs on my other drive which no longer run off that drive since it is not on the same installation anymore and was wondering if there was a way to migrate programs from my old hard drive to the new one. I do not have an installation CD for most since a few were handy tools borrowed from friends whom I no longer keep in touch with. Thanks for all the help so far.

On a second note, DELL stopped contacting me completely and I wrote them a nasty e-mail that I am sure they won't read anyway.

As long as it takes !:)

I once suggested a similar manual System Restore from within a CommandPrompt. I wish I had known the trick with the Recovery Console a bit sooner :) I didn't know it was possible.

For people who read this and want to learn the trick: I posted a step-by-step guide in another thread:
▫ [XP 109729] SystemRestore from Recovery Console
Of course, it only works if SystemRestore was enabled before the trouble started.

There may be some tools around that can 'migrate' installed programs, but I'm not sure they work 100%, and I'm not optimistic about them working on an 'off-line' registry. Here's the only one I have - but I wouldn't use it:
▫ MoveIt (WoundedMoon.org)

E-mail me for those 'handy tools' (click on my name in the heading of this response). I might find a 'replacement' for them :)
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Sadly, I think WoundedMoon just moves the programs folder and that doesn't do much in terms of its usability. As for "handy tools", I was referring to programs such as the full versions of WinZip and QuickTime and RealPlayer and Pivot Pro as well as IconPackager. But it's okay, those tools are necessary, but they're nice to have.

CACLS doesn't work for all folders either. I have about a hundred folders with like eight or nine subfolders and files galore. So I really don't want to do this by hand.

On the Security page of the ParentFolder, press the "Advanced" button and checkmark both checkboxes for
Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here."
and
"Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects"

On the "Owner" page, checkmark this:
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects"
And then change the owner to your UserAccount. If your UserAccount isn't listed, then switch to the "Effective Permissions" page first, select your UserAccount, and then checkmark "Take Ownership" (or all of them :) )

Apply, and then set the permissions on the parentfolder as you want them. If this doesn't make it apply on subfolders, then I really have no idea what will...
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Success! Thanks svg. Everything seems to be working great now and I have all my old files back. Now I just need a good backup program to bacjup all my files to my secondary harddrive every night. I can probably just do that myself. Thanks a lot for sticking with me through about 50 messages. Thanks and I can't possibly emphasize that enough. Thanks.

No Problemo, RiceHoshi !:)
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I was having a similar problem as the OP on my dimension 8300 when i tried an upgrade from xp home to xp pro. I too had daemon tools and I renamed the two d346xxx files. Nothing - I think daemon tools may be getting a bad rap here. Then I tried the microsoft suggestion of replacing kernel32.dll - no good. After hours of research it occured to me that I was using a sata hard drive. I went to dell and downloaded the Promise SATA driver for the 8300, then tried the install over again. This time, when the install started, I specified a 3rd party disk controller. Then I waited through the xp pro install again. This time, however when another 39 minutes that I will never get back had passed, the computer rebooted from the gui portion of the install, and I sat nervously staring at the screen - POST went ok. Windows xp pro logo - check. Fade to black and lo and behold, I was suddenly looking at a windows XP pro login screen! Moral of the story is that microsoft did us a disservice by not allowing us to turn off auto-reboot from the recovery console so we could see where the real problem was and that daemon tools is just getting a bad wrap because of the order in which it loads when the computer boots. Hope it helps someone else. Oh and from now on, I will be backing up the registry ;-)