PC running fine until it decides to go into a boot loop this morning. Gets as far as the “Starting Windows” screen then reboots.

Did a 2hr CHKDSK but no change.

Used a recovery CD which found some errors – fixed those but still no change.

Anything else I can do?

Don’t have any recent restore points. Some data is backed up but the rest is on the machine. Don’t think it’s the HDD that’s corrupted, more likely W7.

Start up in safe mode and slowly disable drivers until it is fixed/take a look at the event manager?

Windows update. You can roll back updates, usually. Roll back the most recent one, from safe mode.

Does it boot in Safe Mode?

Is it a retail install or an OEM preinstall? What’s this “recovery CD” of which you speak?

Do you have a spare PC?

Can’t get to a Safe Mode option at present. Would be handy to at least get to that point.

It’s a ChillBlast machine. Very solid performer but now out of warranty.

The recovery CD must have been one I made about 12-18 months ago. I have a boot disk from Dec as well, but haven’t tried that yet.

Boot from the recovery disk, select “repair installation”

Tried entering Safe Mode using this tip > restarted > screen said it was booting in safemode minimal services with network … but then it just looped back to a reboot.

Boot from the recovery disk, select “repair installation”

It only allowed me to do a Startup Repair, which initially said it had worked, but it hadn’t. Ran it again and it found an issue with an external device even though nothing plugged in.

Have you changed ANYTHING in the hours leading up to the problem?

I have had this when changing an HDD from “SATA as IDE” to “Native SATA Mode” on Gigabyte brand boards after the OS was installed. Undoing it fixed it.

Could be memory problem? Boot into memory checker and have a soak test.

Have you changed ANYTHING in the hours leading up to the problem?

The last thing I did was a CClean followed by a restart. No hardware changed. I control the Windows updates so don’t think anything there impacted it.

CClean changes the Registry? Hmmmm…..

Never used it – but I might hazard a guess there’s a connection there.

CClean changes the Registry? Hmmmm…..

Never used it – but I might hazard a guess there’s a connection there.

Only if you choose to clean/repair the registry, which I didn’t. I just did a normal clean, ie temp files, Chrome, etc.

OK. I’d still guess it’s connected, but I would, at this point, myself, just reinstall W7 leaving the rest of the files there [backup first if poss – you could boot from a Linux live CD/USB and copy the files off]

Apart from updates, on my main PC I think it only takes about 20 minutes to get the system installed so I’d say that’s relatively easy/quick thing to do.

EDIT – Oh, I wonder if there’s an easy way to put all the files you deleted today with CCleaner back – that’s got to be worth a try. Maybe that could be done from a command line with Linux – anyone know?

Ok, but how do I reinstall W7 yet leave the existing (data) files there? Surely I’ll need to manually grab those files somehow and stick em on an external HDD? Have a W7 laptop if that’s going to help. Ta

EDIT: Boot drive is an SSD with OS and most work related files (not partitioned) hence wondering how to do the above. E: and F: are the other drives (with just data).

I think you need the original install media. Boot from it and then something like this [copied text from another site – I searched for “Reinstall Windows Keep Files” – NB I think only the]

“You could do a custom install and recover the data from the Windows.old folder.

Boot from the Windows 7 DVD

Click Install Now

Accept License Agreement

When the option is displayed to select an installation type, click (Custom Advanced)

Select the disk partition where you would like to install Windows 7 Click Next.

You will receive the following warning:
The partition you selected might contain files from a previous Windows Installation. If it does, these files and folders will be moved to a folder named Windows.old. You will be able to access the information in Windows.old, but you will be able to use your previous version of Windows.

(At all cost, do NOT click anything named Format or Delete or Partition. So even doing a custom install, your personal files are still preserved.
Click OK

Setup will now start the installation. During the installation, your machine will be restarted several times.

When the installation is complete, you can complete the Out of Box experience such as selecting your laptop, create a username, password, your time zone. You can then proceed to download the latest updates for Windows and reinstall your applications and drivers.

You can then recover your personal files from the Windows.old folder and reinstall all your applications and drivers.”

However, to get your data beforehand, I’d burn a Ubuntu Live CD/DVD and boot from that. That should allow you to access your drives and copy stuff off to the external and/or laptop. If the other data drives are not corrupted in any way and don’t hold any Windows files, then I’d just disconnect them until after the OS is installed then hook them back up and turn the machine on [maybe let it get it’s updates first] – they should just remount.

Making a Live CD is downloading a .iso from the Ubuntu website [‘d use 12.04 32-bit as it’s most likely to work].

Then when it’s downloaded: in Windows, pop a blank DVD-R* in your drive, find your file, right click, and choose Burn Image to Disc.

That should give you a bootable DVD.

Start your PC – head into the bios first to set it to boot from DVD drive, then pop the Live DVD in and let it boot – you want the “Try Ubuntu without changing my PC” option. It is slow to boot from a DVD, but eventually you will land on the desktop. From there plug your external in, wait for it to mount and go grab your files to copy off.

You may need the laptop running to Google info about how to find your way around in Ubuntu, but it’s pretty easy.

*dismiss any messages when you put it in.

You appear to have overlooked two of my questions…

@Cougar: all answered in other posts in a roundabout way – summarised here:

Does it boot in Safe Mode? No, not even when “forced” to via DOS reboot

Is it a retail install or an OEM preinstall? OEM preinstall (via ChillBlast)

What’s this “recovery CD” of which you speak? Just a normal recovery/repair disc created a year or more ago, eg as per this

Do you have a spare PC? W7 laptop (everything else is fruity)

Just tried booting from an 08 version of Linux and it’s not having it. Will create a new one.

Cheers all for help so far.

Right, so it’s an official Windows recovery disc rather than the OEM-provided one or a third party tool.

If you’ve got a spare laptop, you could get a USB > SATA adapter to mount the PC’s disk on the laptop, use that for recovery purposes. Not free ofc, but a useful thing to have around if you’re in the habit of not backing up properly.

From the recovery disc, you can drop to a command prompt. Try running sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows – this will check and attempt to repair Windows’ system files.

Failing that, if you reinstall Windows into the existing c:\windows directory, it should reinstall without losing any data or settings.

Quick update as I’ve been out for a while …

Have created an Ubuntu ISO image and am currently trying to boot from it.

Previously tried running sfc /scannow blah blah but it resulted in “Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service”

Will report back later as I appear to be entering the orangey pink nebula that is the Ubuntu System!

Just watched Horizon on BBC2. You’ve got a nasty dose of Stuxnet and are personally responsible for knackering the Iranian nuclear research programme….. so I wouldn’t answer the door if I were you 🙂

Aaah Unity……

Love it.

I recently had the ‘bootmgr’ missing problem with Win7 and couldn’t get it to boot, I was at it for two days with various recovery/Win7 discs without success.

Fixed it by downloading and burning a ‘Linux Mint 15’ disc on another PC. Loaded it up and installed it with the ‘install alongside windows’ option. It split the hard drive into two partitions, and I can now boot Mint or Win7 from the options as it boots up.

Poxy Windows!

Must try Mint. I’m going to hide a USB 3 stick inside the shell of my Chromebook so I can run either the Chrome OS or Linux. I think there is room inside the casework because it doesn’t have the 3G internet option 🙂

I don’t know which OS to use yet though. Oh my gods if it could run Android, Chrome OS and a Linux distro I’d be in heaven. Or something like that.

spursn17

Maybe this was your problem.

Have to admit that 12.04 64bit really isn’t liking my machine at all. Half the time it doesn’t boot, and when it does it hangs randomly, especially during file transfer. I always thought Ubuntu was supposed to be fast and stable? Not whinging at you GFS, just frustrated with the OS.

In that case I’m wondering if there’s another problem with the machine.

Go to the application centre and download a HDD SMART checker for your drive.

So a knackered W7 install and problems with Linux after doing a new install – sounds like a duff bit of hardware somewhere.
It might be worth running something like Memtest.

Yes – it should be an option at boot from the Live Disc. Leave it overnight and report if it finds ANY problem

Ubuntu also has a diagnostic application IIRC – I think it’s called “System Testing” or something

Hmm, looks like I have a series of system restore points dating from 18th Aug back to Dec 2012. By default it’s going to restore C: (boot) and E: but not F:. So I’m going to use Ubuntu again to finish pulling everything off those 3 drives and then give it a go.

How are you going to run that? The Windows boot disc?

Yes. I must’ve set up system restore points back in Dec as that’s the date I created the disc. Seems like it saved them weekly (with Sun being the last one). Not yet sure what level of restore it does as it appears to be based on rebuilding via registry info etc, hence wanting to pull all data off the drives just in case.

Best of luck – keep us up to date.

Gave up using Ubuntu for file rescue as it must’ve crashed 20 times. Reverted to an old Reatogo XP image (with loads of integrated apps, eg Magical Jellybean Keyfinder for grabbing OEM W7 product key etc) lying around and managed to retrieve all data. Hoping to do a restore point in a few mins and get back to how things were on Sunday. Failing that, I’ll attempt to reinstall using Window.old for reference.

How weird…

Weird indeed, especially re Ubuntu instability running from a CD. Doing a Google shows plenty of people experiencing the same though.

BTW, the restore point didn’t work as it still wouldn’t boot. Currently downloading W7 Pro ISO so I can re-install. Could be a late one!

I have to do mine at the weekend – and I also need to download about 20GB of Programs.

I know the feeling…

Is your’s bu88ered too, or just time for a refresh? Re 20Gb programs, I store all downloads so I don’t have to go through the process again and again.