Boot failure (BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO) after removing USB disk

My workstation works very stable over many days with quite a heavy load. There is one problem though which seems to be inherent to how Windows assigns mass storage

First the facts

  • Windows is installed on a PCIx mass storage device (RevoDrive); C: resides here as well as the Boot sector and recovery volume (eg a standard installation). The disk number
  • A 10Gbyte pagefile was created on a striped volume E:
  • The partition table is such:

DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 E Striped NTFS Stripe 223 GB Healthy Pagefile Volume 1 D 0519202 UDF DVD-ROM 7740 MB Healthy Volume 2 X junk NTFS Partition 179 GB Healthy Volume 3 V VirtualCDs NTFS Partition 100 GB Healthy Volume 4 System Rese NTFS Partition 350 MB Healthy System Volume 5 C System NTFS Partition 111 GB Healthy Boot Volume 6 Removable 0 B No Media Volume 7 SM128MB FAT Removable 124 MB Healthy C:\media\sm\ Volume 8 MS64M exFAT Removable 61 MB Healthy C:\media\ms\ Volume 9 A SD32MB FAT Removable 29 MB Healthy

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          279 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online          119 GB  7631 MB   *
  Disk 2    Online          111 GB      0 B   *
  Disk 3    Online          223 GB   111 GB
  Disk 4    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 5    Online          125 MB      0 B
  Disk 6    Online           61 MB      0 B
  Disk 7    Online           29 MB      0 B

To create the BAD_CONFIG_INFO situation all I have to do is this

  1. Start PC and boot into Windows
  2. Attach a  USB mass storage device
  3. Shutdown windows, and wait until it stops the PC
  4. Remove the USB mass storage device
  5. Start PC: At first the new bluescreen appears (BAD_CONFIG_INFO), boots again attempts a repair, and than goes into Diagnose PC, after which it establishes that it cannot boot and suggests a Restart (which doesn't work).

After I remove the two disks that participate in the striped set, reboot twice, Windows starts again, with a temp pagefile. I than can connect the two disks and reboot.

All disks are working fine, cabling is pristine and no other hardware problems are reported. Like I said the computer runs fine for weeks with various loads. Only removing a USB mass storage device causes BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO.

I assume that Windows is confused when one of the lower Disk numbers is not there or assigns a different disk number to the bootable or OS volume, where it than cannot find either.

Is it true that bootable volume or OS volume should be at exactly the same location (disk # or volume #) for boot?

If so how can I force the disk # or volume # so that a removal of an extern storage device is survived?



  • Edited by theking2 Saturday, June 21, 2014 12:01 PM
May 26th, 2014 7:22pm

Is it true that bootable volume or OS volume should be at exactly the same location (disk # or volume #) for boot?

If so how can I force the disk # or volume # so that a removal of an extern storage device is survived?

Hi,

Insert USB drive won't change system drive volume. Since your system encounter BOSD problem after PC start, please provide the dump file that locate at: C:\Windows\Minidump.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 28th, 2014 11:09am

Thanks,

That is not true, Roger Lue. The driveletters do change. If I boot in to a recovery cmd shell I see that System (where Windows recides) now has letter F, the System Rese gets D and what used to be V (VirtualCDs) now is C:

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   Striped      NTFS   Stripe       223 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1     K                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 2         junk         NTFS   Partition    179 GB  Healthy
  Volume 3     C   VirtualCDs   NTFS   Partition    100 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4     D   System Rese  NTFS   Partition    350 MB  Healthy
  Volume 5     F   System       NTFS   Partition    111 GB  Healthy
  Volume 6     G                       Removable       0 B  No Media
  Volume 7     H                       Removable       0 B  No Media
    F:\media\sm\
  Volume 8     I                       Removable       0 B  No Media
    F:\media\ms\
  Volume 9     J                       Removable       0 B  No Media
  Volume 10    L                NTFS   Removable   3815 MB  Healthy

Also no file are available in minidump under F:\Windows

Q) Would a reassignment of driveletters, specific for C: or the System volume prevent Windows 8.1 from booting?

Q) Has the BIOS Harddrive order an influence on volume assignments? In other words could a BIOS config change help this problem go away?

Another thing. BCEDIT is used to configer the startup environment. Suspiciously here it mentions partitions as a drive letter instead of a complete device paht as in boot.ini. How is this supposed to work if partition letters could get reassigned?

  • Edited by theking2 Tuesday, June 10, 2014 5:04 PM
June 10th, 2014 11:08am

Is it true that bootable volume or OS volume should be at exactly the same location (disk # or volume #) for boot?

If so how can I force the disk # or volume # so that a removal of an extern storage device is survived?

Hi,

Insert USB drive won't change system drive volume. Since your system encounter BOSD problem after PC start, please provide the dump file that locate at: C:\Windows\Min

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 10th, 2014 8:30pm

Hi,

You can upload the minidump file to your OneDrive share folder and provide the sharing link to us.

In addition, could you boot into Advanced Startup? if so, you can boot into Advanced Startup and make startup repair for your system for test.

 

June 11th, 2014 6:06am

Hi,

You can upload the minidump file to your OneDrive share folder and provide the sharing link to us.

In addition, could you boot into Advanced Startup? if so, you can boot into Advanced Startup and make startup repair for your system for test.

Not sure what you mean with advanced setup.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=1500B52BA59A441B!30058&authkey=!AFmcH9zWy7g31ZY&ithint=folder%2c.dmp

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 14th, 2014 10:20pm

Hi,

Advanced startup is a feature in Windows 8.1 for user to repair system problem. You can refer to the screenshot below to find it.

In the menu of Advanced startup, there is a feature called Startup Repair and you can use it to fix your problem for test.

In addition, the dmp file you provided not exist, please check it.

June 16th, 2014 5:39am

Thanks,

No Recovery doesn't work. It is not possible to Recover a Windows 8.1 installation as the required media is missing. MS decided not to publis a Windows 8.1 media so Recovery on Windows 8.1 is a no go.

I had to reinstall Windows 8, do all the updates, Do an upgrade to 8.1 and the machine was running.

Clearly Windows 8.1 cannot deal reliably with a system device that is not with in the first 4 or so of devices.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 16th, 2014 11:14pm

I have send a couple of reports to microsoft. Were you able to diagnose this problem? As it is simply reproducible it should be able to update.

Thanks for taking your customers seriously. 

please check the minidumps at https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=1500B52BA59A441B!30058&authkey=!AFmcH9zWy7g31ZY&ithint=folder%2c.dmp



I mean, how hard can it be?
  • Edited by theking2 14 hours 49 minutes ago
June 23rd, 2014 3:34pm

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