[rediew]

Oh, how nice, I open up sys restore to find out that backups dont exist!! (have been deleted by someone (or something))

any other suggestion?

i mean, it seems my Windows loads fine, it is just the GUI or screen which doesnt get loaded. i can even shutdown my laptop with the screen blank (i remember the key stroke sequence)
right now im downloading latest drivers for videocard, going to remove old, install new and see how it goes.

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How are you loading anything if you have no desktop to see what to do?
Do you have the post screens when you first turn the system on?
This is a laptop so no installation media correct?
What make and model laptop?

[rshaffer61]

How are you loading anything if you have no desktop to see what to do?
Do you have the post screens when you first turn the system on?
This is a laptop so no installation media correct?
What make and model laptop?

[rediew]

How are you loading anything if you have no desktop to see what to do?
Do you have the post screens when you first turn the system on?
This is a laptop so no installation media correct?
What make and model laptop?

I dont know how to explain, except that that's exactly what happens. Windows loads with a blank screen.

after the windows moving logo startup screen disappear and the screen goes blank to load windows welcome page (you woudl expect to see the mouse at this very moment),
my screen STAYS black (black, not turned off, i see the screen backlit).

and there it stays until HD activity stops. (full loading of windows). then if i press <WINDOWS> then ALT+F4, ENTER, the system shuts down.


Uninstalling Nvidia Drivers on safe mode and then going back to main mode with 640x480, I was able to get image of my desktop.
Did a fresh install of Nvidia latest drivers, restart.
Blank/black screen again. and that stays black even if i restart laptop with 640x480 mode.

Safe mode works ok with 1900x1200 resolution.

---------

ok, now the answers:

- well, i havent looked at the POST screens; i can check them out to see if there is any problem, mess up with the BIOS.

- this is laptop, but Im using a fresh W7 Ultimate install. so yes, there is install media (although Im not sure where it is right now

- Sager NP5797;

if you want, we can try and set up a remote desktop session or something (MSN or etc)...
<sameasforumname>@hotmail.com

is there a way to recover the win7 files just like an WinXP option (repair windows - delete files, maintain registry intact)??
considering this problem appeared after chkdsk wiped some bad sectors.

Edited by rediew, 19 January 2011 - 06:37 PM.

[rshaffer61]

OK the issue seems to be the Win 7 OS itself that is causing your problem so lets do a Repair Installation by following the steps HERE.
Please read and follow all instructions carefully.

[rediew]

ok.

I dont know why, but after i removed NVIDIA drivers to be able to see desktop on normal mode, things got weird.

my taskbar shortcuts wouldnt work, they would say 'this item does not exist' and also all pinned start menu items.

no .exe would run, no prompt would run, with the warning 'No such interface' displaying (eg, when rightclicking and asking for display properties). such error also with any 'run' command i would send (cmd, winword, excel, iexplore, exporer, services.msc, etc etc etc).

the weirdest thing possible.

it seems like Kernel at all ceased to work.

Finally i re-eneabled window desktop manager (i had disabled it on the previous restart) but no good.
Eventually i got myself ahold of another Win7 DVD... and was (surprisingly) able to auto-run summon setup.exe and it did work.

The problem is that installation files says it is impossible to 'upgrade' windows from a 32 bit to x64 and vice versa...

argh.

what to do now?

can i use windows DVD in boot to repair my windows? (like the win XP boot 'repair windows files' option?)

[rshaffer61]

The problem is that installation files says it is impossible to 'upgrade' windows from a 32 bit to x64 and vice versa...

This is true you can't simply upgrade or downgrade the OS bit version.
You need to borrow a OS disk of the same version and bit version as the one that is currently installed on your system.
Then since you state you have Win 7 installed you can try to do a repair installation.
OK the issue seems to be the Win 7 OS itself that is causing your problem so lets do a Repair Installation by following the steps HERE.
Please read and follow all instructions carefully.

[rediew]

i think i failed to explain properly the situation.

i have a x64 win7 installed, and the install disk (which is same or more) version fails to acknowledge that!

install disk is a x86/x64 install disk!

Edited by rediew, 22 January 2011 - 10:15 AM.

[rshaffer61]

You've got a mess going on.
The next logical step is to try a Parallel Installation. This would keep your data but install a second Windows on your hd.
We do it all the time with XP so I see no reason it would not work with Win7. The steps should be the same so I am including them below.
Parallel Installation of Windows XP

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

[rediew]

after doing the paralell install, can i move all files under my old 'username' to the new username folder?

(personal document, savegames, premiere/photoshop profiles, etc.. i should expect to transfer...

is it possible to import the settings and personal data (i mean, configurations and etc that programs do not store under 'my docs' folder)?


btw, clicking 'repair windows installation' on a DVD boot setup tells me that 'this version of windows repair is not compatible with your OS'

later on, on the regular 'repair windows startup' it says i dont have a windir and no disk at all!!. and tries to fix the TOC/MBR with failed status 0x49something...

things get weirder by the minute....



btw, if i do a clean install, what folders will be deleted?

what happens if i use the same username on the paralell install?

Edited by rediew, 22 January 2011 - 11:03 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Hmm just by chance have you tested your memory for failure?

The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time.

NOTE Keep in mind, the manual check listed above is always superior to the software check, listed below. DO NOT proceed with memtest, if you can go with option A

B. If you have only one RAM stick installed...
...run memtest...

1. Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)
2. Unzip downloaded memtest86+-2.11.iso.zip file.
3. Inside, you'll find memtest86+-2.11.iso file.
4. Download, and install ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/
5. Insert blank CD into your CD drive.
6. Open ImgBurn, and click on Write image file to disc
7. Click on Browse for a file... icon:



8. Locate memtest86+-2.11.iso file, and click Open button.
9. Click on ImgBurn green arrow to start burning bootable memtest86 CD:



10. Once the CD is created, boot from it, and memtest will automatically start to run. You may have to change the boot sequence in your BIOS to make it work right.

To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS

Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CDrom.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.


The running program will look something like this depending on the size and number of ram modules installed:




It's recommended to run 5-6 passes. Each pass contains very same 8 tests.

This will show the progress of the test. It can take a while. Be patient, or leave it running overnight.



The following image is the test results area:



The most important item here is the “errors” line. If you see ANY errors, even one, most likely, you have bad RAM.

[rediew]

RAMtest done, no erros.

I did a 'fresh' install of Windows 7 over the old installation (renamed users\myname first), which backed up the whole windows+prgramfiles+appdata folders.

copied back the old 'username' folder over the new one.

the only problem so far has been that all programs which used any reference to files inside mydocs or mymusic etc now have to be reconfigured.

is there a way to rename the c:\users\username FOLDER? so the old appdata work correctly?
(i can rename the user (in account management))

i know i can go to commandprompt and rename it by hand, but then i would screw windows login (happened when i renamed the c:\users\usernanme before fresh install)

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[rshaffer61]

It sounds like what you did was a parallel Installation and not a fresh install.
A fresh install would have resulted in the data being lost.
Did you have to reinstall programs and drivers?
You can copy the data from old folder to the new folder and then the programs should work fine. Simply copying the old folders over will not work since the programs now are pointing toward the newer user folders created when installed.
Open two Windows Explorers
One window open the old data folder you want to copy from.
The other is the newer folder for the data you want to copy to.
In old folder highlight all the data and then simply copy and paste or drag and drop into the new folder.
Time consuming but it is effective.

[rediew]

yes, i lost drivers (had to reinstall them). programs, also have still to be re-installed.

im quite sure it was a fresh install, execpt i didnt format the drive.
during istall, setup asked me if i was sure cuz it was going to put previous windows install into \windows.old\ folder.

i did that already (copy from old folders).

thing is, when installing programs again, some settings (like eg: winamp musiclist points to c:\users\usernameA; except new username is usernameB, so whenm trying to load files, it lists as inexistent).

also other programs will face the same problem (like premiere/CS5 suite and their big list of video/misc projects)

thats why i needed to change folder name from usernameA to username B.
is that possible?

[rshaffer61]

You can go into each program and most likely change th default save folder to the old one
You could change the old folder name to the new folder name but you would have to then delete the new folder if it even would allow you to do it.
You could do as I suggested before and just move all the data from the Old user folder to the New user folder.
Doing the install the way you did is a parallel install. You saved the data from old windows and made a new windows folder.
It's not that hard to do and the most accurate way to make sure you are going from old to new and that all data is copied over.
If something was to happen with the first two ways I mentioned you may lose the data completely with no way to get it back.
By copying and pasting your data remains in the old folder just in case a problem arises.