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Windows 7 will not boot
polaris314
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Forgive me if this does not warrant its own thread; I didn't know where else to ask and didn't want it getting lost in a larger thread.
Basically, I purchased a laptop last week, ending my nearly 1 1/2 year drought of not having a home PC. I spent the better part of the weekend pulling data off my old paperweight of a desktop rig by putting the drives in my roommate's machine and pulling the files over the network. Everything was going great. I went to shut it down Monday morning before leaving for work, and had a few programs that were halting the process, so it prompted me to force a shutdown. Upon doing that, the machine blue-screened, so I hard-powered it off, and went about my business.
I came home Monday night and fired it up, only to have it stop at what I am assuming is the "Welcome to Windows" screen (it has been replaced by a manufacturer splash screen), with the hard drive in a constant state of trying to load something. I can leave it that way forever, the desktop will never load.
So I turn, to you, P-A. I am trying everything I can to avoid having to restore to factory, as I'd rather not spend another 2-3 days copying files and organizing things again. Here are some things I have already tried, with no success :
- Boot into Safe Mode (any configuration) : same behavior
- Running repair utilities from partition : Startup Repair cannot find any issues, chkdsk /f doesn't report any problems, System Restore can't find any restore points (a bit odd since I KNOW it created a few automatically via Windows Update)
- Running repair from bootable recovery cd : same as above
- Last known good config : same behavior
Things I have seen suggested but have not tried yet :
- Enable boot logging
- Disable ethernet/wifi (not sure if this will be possible as BIOS options are extremely limited)
- Remove last few driver/system updates (cannot do unless I can get to safe mode at least)
- chkdsk /p or /r (haven't tried because of the time involved but will definitely try later)
Anything else you guys can suggest would be appreciated. I've been Googling this for two days now and haven't found anything matching these exact symptoms, but have been noting down suggestions for similar cases.
Basically, I purchased a laptop last week, ending my nearly 1 1/2 year drought of not having a home PC. I spent the better part of the weekend pulling data off my old paperweight of a desktop rig by putting the drives in my roommate's machine and pulling the files over the network. Everything was going great. I went to shut it down Monday morning before leaving for work, and had a few programs that were halting the process, so it prompted me to force a shutdown. Upon doing that, the machine blue-screened, so I hard-powered it off, and went about my business.
I came home Monday night and fired it up, only to have it stop at what I am assuming is the "Welcome to Windows" screen (it has been replaced by a manufacturer splash screen), with the hard drive in a constant state of trying to load something. I can leave it that way forever, the desktop will never load.
So I turn, to you, P-A. I am trying everything I can to avoid having to restore to factory, as I'd rather not spend another 2-3 days copying files and organizing things again. Here are some things I have already tried, with no success :
- Boot into Safe Mode (any configuration) : same behavior
- Running repair utilities from partition : Startup Repair cannot find any issues, chkdsk /f doesn't report any problems, System Restore can't find any restore points (a bit odd since I KNOW it created a few automatically via Windows Update)
- Running repair from bootable recovery cd : same as above
- Last known good config : same behavior
Things I have seen suggested but have not tried yet :
- Enable boot logging
- Disable ethernet/wifi (not sure if this will be possible as BIOS options are extremely limited)
- Remove last few driver/system updates (cannot do unless I can get to safe mode at least)
- chkdsk /p or /r (haven't tried because of the time involved but will definitely try later)
Anything else you guys can suggest would be appreciated. I've been Googling this for two days now and haven't found anything matching these exact symptoms, but have been noting down suggestions for similar cases.
polaris314 on
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Second, this is why you make regular backups, and especially make a backup of a new system after you've transferred over all your data and installed all your normal software.
1) You copied data over
2) It wasnt that long ago that you did this
Put in your windows 7 installation disk (the manufacturer should have given you one, if not they are dicks) and reinstall windows. Note, you dont actually have to format the drive windows is installed on (alternatively you can have it try to 'fix' the windows install), just have it delete and install over the current windows directory. After this is done all you will need to do is reinstall any programs you installed on your computer. All your data should be safe. To be extra safe put the hard drive in a friends computer and back it up.
Otherwise you can try some boot fixing utilities in Windows RE. You can read about a few options for fixing boot errors here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
As far as making backups is concerned - I certainly understand the merits of doing so, however, in this case, there was very little "new" to back up, since nearly all the data on the laptop was pulled from existing drives.
I will look into more of the suggested fixes tonight. Thanks!
XBL/PSN-Polaris314/Twitter/DJ P0LARI5
You see, SATA for laptops and desktops use the same connectors and this is good. Back up your data and reinstall. Takes much less time than searching the Internets for answers you might not find.