Can't boot - "autochk program not found - skipping autocheck" after XP SP3

Probably you didn't follow all step in kb,
Please try again, make sure that repair was performed with SP3 slipstreamed CD

 

Hi John and Specimen,

Concerning BootCamp - Yes - in fact I removed all BootCamp stuff (as it said in KB 5447) and reinstalled both 2.0 and 2.1. I did a reboot and verified that Windows would boot up with no problem.

Since I don't have access to a native Windows machine to create the SlipStream disc what I did was
1. reinstall XP Pro SP1
2. removed BootCamp stuff
3. Reinstalled BootCamp 2.0/2.1
4. Updated Windows to SP3 and all other recommended patches
5. Verified that I was able to boot up natively in Windows.

Concerning Parallels - I'm running Build 5608. I was no longer able to boot up Windows natively after I completed the rest of the procedures in 5447.

John - with the above exception I did do every step in 5447 - In fact this is my second time redoing the entire procedure and its getting a bit old....


Bob

 

You're not doing it like it says on the kb, there's no point in repeating the procedure if it's not the one that is explained on the kb, it's also bad for us trying to help you that you say that you did according to the said procedure when you didn't, what you think that makes no difference in fact it makes a lot. The 'above exception' makes ALL the difference (you're downgrading XP to sp1 everytime you do a repair install with the xp sp1 cd).

If you don't use a slipstreamed xp with sp3 and you've downgraded to sp1 (also note that bootcamp is supposed to be installed with xp with sp2 not sp1, that's Apple's recommendation), then the procedure in the kb doesn't apply to you. You should do this instead:
Install Bootcamp latest patch, boot into Parallels and install Parallels Tools, boot back into boot camp and upgrade to SP3. You might need to install SP2 before Bootcamp drivers, thou, I don't know what are the exact incompatibilities with SP1, but Apple clearly recommends XP SP2.
So, in this situation you should, prior to SP3, update BootCamp, update Parallels Tools. And if that doesn't work. You probably have to update to SP2 prior to all that.

So, there you have it, there are more than one reason why it's not working, no slipstreamed sp3, you used Windows XP SP1 cd, and you didn't install Parallels Tools 5608 in the Guest prior to upgrade to SP3.

 

Followed instructions to a T, no joy for long.

Mine is the "autochk" problem in Boot Camp, not in Parallels which works fine. I followed the instructions in http://kb.parallels.com/en/5447 exactly (except for #7, which is a contradiction with #1 -- my slipstreamed XP SP3 disc ensured that I already had SP3 installed at that point, and thus the updates available of course did not include SP3).

Afterward, everything was indeed fine in both Boot Camp and Parallels -- but after a day's work in Parallels, Boot Camp gives me the same problem again. I had *not* run any kind of update to the XP install. Clearly, the lengthy process described in 5447 fixes data corruption caused by Parallels, but nothing is preventing Parallels from corrupting the Windows install again later. Applying system updates/patches under Parallels is not necessary to cause the corruption.

With the inconsistencies in this "solution" (#1 vs. #7, inaccurate and confusing title "Virtual machine BSOD after the error 'Autochk not found -- skipping autochk'."), I am beginning to wonder if there's anyone at Parallels really paying attention to this serious problem.

 

Do you have Parallels 5608 (the latest build, including Parallels Tools) installed?

The fact that the updates available do not include SP3 doesn't mean that every file in the system and the registry didn't suffer a regression, I suggest using the downloaded SP3 and reapply it at step 7 instead of ignoring the step.

 

What in the world?

You know, I am a huge supporter of Parallels, but this is ridiculous.

I have read EVERY page of this thread, produced the slipstreamed CD, and held back from going further. It appears that there is something very wrong here. This is a major deal to do. I really don't understand how there can be so many contradicting pieces of info on this matter.

Even worse, who has the time? I am a businessman, and I need to be productive. This is counterproductive! Parallels, you're pushing me to the competition. With all the time that passed in this thread - all of the requests from users - there has to be a better response from you. I have to REINSTALL SP3? Like I don't have enough to do?

You guys could have prepared a bootable script or something for this - surely something easier.

If I can not get this to work on the first try, I am moving to VMWare.

Paul

 

You're just scared, yes, it's tedious, yes it's hard work, but this problem only occurs when you upgrade to SP3 before upgrading to build 5608 (which has been out for some months). Now, you mentioned VMWare, the problem is exactly the same with Fusion, they had to release a new version compatible with SP3, if you were running a previous version and installed SP3 the problem would probably be the same.

 

No - I was with 5608 when I upgraded.

I did the repair installation - now I can't remove Boot Camp! Then when I went into Parallels, I couldn't boot there (figured I would try to add/remove from the control panel there). Nope.

Now what? I followed the repair installation fully.

What I meant by my comment is - this thread started on July 7th - we're more than 2-1/2 months in, and there is still confusion on how to fix this. I'm not at all a novice - I'm been doing this stuff for nearly 30 years - however, this is a arduous path to keep running Windows!

Any suggestions how to get to the next step?

 

"this problem only occurs when you upgrade to SP3 before upgrading to build 5608"? That is simply not so, Specimen. I have only been using build 5608 throughout.

I did not "ignore" step 7, I applied all patches available through Windows Update (whilst in Boot Camp), repeatedly, until no patches were left.

Fix it all over again, using the standalone SP3 installer? Sounds like another "busy work" suggestion, with no real sense of whether or not it will achieve anything other than waste several more hours of my time. I'll repair my XP installation again only when Parallels folks think they've fixed the corruption issue. John, any indication when that might be?

 

One note,
roblem occurs also if you installed Service Pack 3 , from Parallels Desktop not from Boot Camp."
all updates should be installed from Boot Camp

Did you click Clear button in Configuration Editor -Hard Disk 1 - Advanced.
Also, if there is antivirus , if yes you need to disable it during update process - (from Microsoft)

 

When I suggested that you re-install SP3 it's because the fact that the update shows as installed, in your case there is no guarantee that every file and specially, every registry setting didn't suffer a 'regression', and reinstalling it (under Boot Camp of course), would give that guarantee.

The Step 7 exists because Boot Camp 2.1 MUST be installed before SP3, and because in step 5 you installed the original Boot Camp from Leopard DVD which makes the 'regression' in SP3, then in step 6 Boot Camp 2.1 is installed which prepares for SP3, and then finally SP3 is installed and everything should be fine in what concerns Boot Camp drivers specifically. Even thou SP3 is already installed, the downgrade in Boot Camp and then upgrade actually might affect some registry settings, which installing SP3 corrects. That's why there's step 7.

 

Problem is NOT with out-of-order updates

I read the forum first and administered the updates *exactly* as specified. I was running Parallels 5608 with Windows XP SP2 on a MacBook Pro along with BootCamp 2.1 when I started. I booted into BootCamp and ran the SP3 update. I then checked to make sure that the machine would boot into Wndows XP SP3, and everything worked flawlessly.

I then tried to run the BootCamp virtual machine in Parallels. I got the "autochk" problem. So I cleared the Parallels information on the hard drive exactly as recommended, and Voila! Parallels successfully booted and ran the BootCamp virtual machine.

However, when I then tried to reboot into Windows via BootCamp, I got the "autochk" error and the repeated boot loop.

Please STOP telling us that the problem is that we aren't applying the updates in the correct order. It's clear from reading the contributions to this forum that that is NOT the case, as several of us who have applied the updates in exactly the described order are having exactly the same problem. Parallels is somehow damaging the BootCamp partition.

Please try to provide us with some useful method of dealing with the problem. For now I'm OK to just run Parallels, but if the problem persists for much longer without so much as an acknowledgment of the problem from Parallels, I, too, will be forced to abandon Parallels. Ultimately my ONLY purpose in having Parallels and Windows on my machine is to get work done. When the product begins to get in the way of getting stuff done, I'm out.

 

That is simply not true, I've dealt with this issue from when it started and solved it and helped others solve it and I've been following this thread since then, all the cases I followed that people said they had applied everything exactly as it's described, something wasn't, but people felt it was unimportant, turned out it was.

 

I can confirm, that Specimen forced me to raise problem to developers, and kb 5447, is in most part Specimen contribution

 

I'm in the exact same situation as jakoban and Cocoa Beast. I was running Parallels 5608 and Boot Camp 2.1 all the time, therefore also before I installed SP3 within native Boot Camp. The suggested solution from KB does NOT work for me. As soon as I clear the Parallels info from the hard disk I'm able to boot in Parallels but not natively anymore. This is 100 % reproducable, and I won't to the procedure again.

 

Another reason for autochk can be Symantec GoBack

 

There's no Symantec software installed.

 

You won't do the procedure again? Then you'll have to start fresh. There's no other way. Since Repair Install is virtually like reinstalling Windows, and if reinstalling Windows doesn't work the only thing it will work is starting fresh, although that might not work also because there isn't really that much difference between reinstalling and installing (except for losing all the data you had in the Windows partition).

 

Hi All,

Sorry its taken so long to get back to this but I wanted to make sure I could follow the directions step by step with a SP3 Recovery CD.

* So I "Repaired" my XP with a SP3 Recovery Disk
* I removed BootCamp
* I reinstalled BootCamp
* I installed the 2.1 BootCamp
* I rebooted the machine to Mac OS
* I cleared the Parallel tools from my BootCamp Partition
* I started the virtual machine
* I logged into Windows
* I reinstalled the Parallels Tools
* I quit out of Windows
* I reboot the machine into Windows
* I get the same error.

I might be dense (in which case I apologize) - but am I missing a step?

Bob

 

It probably didn't work because you didn't do step 7 from the kb, which is to re-apply SP3 after Boot Camp 2.1.
Even thou it says everywhere that SP3 is already applied, you should run the full install and reinstall it. For good measure, before re-installing SP3, remove Parallels Tools thru the Add Remove Applications in the control panel (this in Boot Camp).

Also, I don't know what you mean by 'recovery disk'. A slipstreamed Windows XP with SP3 CD is not the same as a recovery disk. A 'recovery disk' is usually a cd that comes with a computer with windows pre-installed and it's just an image of the default installation and not a Windows XP installation disk.
In order to do the repair install successfully you need to use a Windows XP installation cd for the slipstreaming.