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Author Topic: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!  (Read 844 times)

ShiffDrgnhrt

Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« on: February 12, 2013, 08:36:37 pm »
Hi folks. Well my laptop decided to  out on me today.  It keeps entering this Start Up Repair thing trying to fix my hard drive. It was working fine this morning. I run windows 7. Anyone know anything about this?
 

cbnicholson

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2013, 08:13:41 am »
Insert your win7 disk and do a repair from it, that usually works.  Odds are your start up files are corrupted and need to be replaced.
"Give a man a mask and he will show you his true face." 

Oscar Wilde
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2013, 09:52:07 am »
I tried that, but it did not give me an option to repair it.  It just started installing Windows as if my hard drive was blank.  Has some cosmic quirk decided to erase my hard drive on a whim?  I was using the laptop that morning and it was working fine.  I ended up coming home and finding a mess.
 

cbnicholson

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2013, 10:01:26 am »
It looks like that's what it is doing, but it should give you the option to repair at some point.  Did you allow the disk to progress?  If this doesn't work, then you'll need to reinstall the os anyway.
"Give a man a mask and he will show you his true face." 

Oscar Wilde
 

Xaltotun

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2013, 04:34:15 am »
I have had that with Windows 7 a few times and there was nothing wrong with my machine and it didn't fix anything either, so who knows what it thinks it's doing.

This may be way off the track here but I got something similar on a Windows XP machine the other day and what had happened was that my account had been deleted (for some reason).

Go into Safe Mode (press F8 on startup) and if Windows opens in Safe Mode then it's not as bad as it seems. Open Control Panel and then open Add or Remove User Accounts from the User Accounts and Family Safety menu and check that your account is still there. If it isn't, add it with the same name you used before and restart and all should be well. If your account is still there, restart and press F8 to get to the start options and see if you can fix the problem from there.
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2013, 11:53:43 am »
Thanks for the idea Xaltotun, but I can't even get safe mode started. My computer thinks my entire hard drive is blank despite knowing there's an OS on it that is not working right. Dunno what happen but it's still not working. Reinstalling Windows has become the last option if my friend can't get any data off it
 

MadHattan

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2013, 12:06:44 pm »
For what it is worth to you...  What I do in these situations:
 (1) remove the 'bad drive '; (2) install windows on a second hard drive I have laying around then (3) reconnect the 'bad drive' as the second drive to perform diagnostics.  Windows has a very hard time performing drive maintenance on the same drive it booted from.  This is a great way to repair boot sectors; repair corrupted file allocation tables; or as a last resort back up data before you scrap the drive.  
 
I actually have a version of windows installed on a thumb drive that I can boot to.  Setting up a thumb drive for booting windows is less trivial but I'll toss it out there for you if you don't have a spare hard drive laying around.
 
 -Madd
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2013, 01:56:38 pm »
Good idea!  Now where is my external HD...
 

Xaltotun

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2013, 02:35:01 pm »
One other thing you can try before loading Windows onto another drive is to see if you can get to a command prompt - try using F8 and going to command prompt.

Then type these commands and press Enter after each line to rebuild the Windows bootloader and may save you some hassle:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

These should restore the system unless the drive really is goosed.
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Computer keeps failing to boot OS. Help!
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2013, 02:37:45 pm »
actually my friend found that bootmgr was completely missing.  Dunno how that happened.
 

 

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