Windows Vista SP1 – C1F5 error solution/workaround

As I consider myself to be an advanced user of computer and M$ Windows (after 19 years experiences I have to be one of them), I sometimes fall into unexpected, advanced computer errors without well-known solution.

The last one is related to Service Pack 1 upgrade of Windows Vista Ultimate x64, installed on Intel ICH9 Matrix Raid. After running standalone installation of SP1, there was a reboot and this was the last reboot of my Windows Vista x64 SP1 installation. I got loved bluescreen with error code STOP 0×0000C1F5. Problems started, when the error was appearing also after running original installation DVD with Vista. Read further for a solution …

The worst is, that there is not possible to repair problem with Vista installation (or repair) DVD or running another Vista installation. The error is appearing always, at the moment of mounting system partition (obviously C:) to be available for read/write operations, by other Windows Vista or by setup running from installation DVD. So what to do, if you can not repair system and even better, you can not install Vista from a scratch with Vista installation DVD?

If you want to don’t loose data at disk, you have to do following (thanks to Tom Karpowitz revealing the solution). Following Linux commands are case sensitive!

1. Boot the SystemRescueCD disc, answering any localization questions as required, until you get to a command prompt. The good is, that this CD includes RAID drivers.
2. Mount your hard drive at /mnt/windows using ntfs-3g, e.g. “ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows”. You may have to look at /dev/hd* and /dev/sd* to figure out the correct device to mount. Also, if the NTFS file system is corrupted (which it probably is if you are reading this post) you may have to add the “-o force” flag to the mount, e.g. “ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows -o force”.
   At my installation, it was worst, because I have Intel Matrix Raid (ICH9 driver) and have 2 RAID arrays. To activate RAID disks, you have to run command “dmraid -ay”. After running it you have new devices available at /dev/mapper/ folder. Find, which one is your system disk and mount it with command published above with force parameter used.
3. Verify that you have the correct file system mounted by “ls /mnt/windows”. You should see the content of “C:\”… if you don’t, repeat (2) until you mount the correct device.
4. Navigate to the hidden folder: “cd /mnt/windows/\$Extend”. Note the backslash before the $; that is important as it keeps the command shell from interpreting the $ (it is really part of the file name).
5. Type “ls”. Among the files/folders listed you should see either “RmMetaData” or “$RmMetaData”.
6. Type “cd RmMetaData” or “cd \$RmMetaData” depending on what you saw in step 5.
7. Type “ls”. Among the files/folders listed you should see “$TxfLog”.
8. Take a deep breath and recursively remove the $TxfLog file: “rm -rf \$TxfLog”. Use “ls” to verify that it has been deleted.
9. “cd /”, “umount /mnt/windows”, and “init 6″ to reboot, removing the CD when appropriate.

For more information, go to Tom’s article.

This error is well known at Microsoft as KB946084, but for now, there is no fix to use at this situation.

I strongly recommend to backup whole system partition before Vista SP1 upgrade! There is a very good tool for backup partitions, Acronis TrueImage software.