[roxyturtle]

Hello,

Hoping to avoid reformatting my laptop. Last night I ran both a Flash update and an Adobe Acrobat update. While doing the restart for the Adobe update, my laptop didn't boot correctly -- it got stuck on the "starting windows" screen of Windows 7. I ran the startup repair wizard but after 15 hours it was still running and looked like it still hadn't even started (the screen just showed "checking for problems" for hours).

I have tried booting my laptop into safe mode. It gets to the screen where it's loading all the necessary files and drivers but never actually gets into Windows. A friend suggested I need to adjust my BIOS but it's not something I'm familiar with and would appreciate some expert advice.

If possible I'd like to avoid reformatting my laptop. Though I back it up regularly I was in the middle of an important document which I have no complete second copy of. Because of course that's the way it always goes.

[Advertisements]

Remove all floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs from your computer, and then restart your computer using the computer's power button.

If your computer has a single operating system installed, press and hold the F8 key as your computer restarts. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows logo appears, you need to try again by waiting until the Windows logon prompt appears, and then shutting down and restarting your computer.

On the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight Repair your computer, and then press Enter. (If Repair your computer isn't listed as an option, then your computer doesn't include preinstalled recovery options.

Select a keyboard layout, and then click Next.

On the System Recovery Options menu, click a tool to open it. If your computer's system is severely damaged and you can't access the System Recovery Options menu on your computer, you can access it using the Windows 7 installation disc or a USB flash drive, or using a system repair disc if you created one earlier.

http://windows.micro...ns-in-Windows-7

You can read this website to see if it can help you.

http://cybernetnews....-recovery-disc/

SRX660

[SRX660]

Remove all floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs from your computer, and then restart your computer using the computer's power button.

If your computer has a single operating system installed, press and hold the F8 key as your computer restarts. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows logo appears, you need to try again by waiting until the Windows logon prompt appears, and then shutting down and restarting your computer.

On the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight Repair your computer, and then press Enter. (If Repair your computer isn't listed as an option, then your computer doesn't include preinstalled recovery options.

Select a keyboard layout, and then click Next.

On the System Recovery Options menu, click a tool to open it. If your computer's system is severely damaged and you can't access the System Recovery Options menu on your computer, you can access it using the Windows 7 installation disc or a USB flash drive, or using a system repair disc if you created one earlier.

http://windows.micro...ns-in-Windows-7

You can read this website to see if it can help you.

http://cybernetnews....-recovery-disc/

SRX660

[roxyturtle]

Thank you SRX660! I am able to get to the System Recovery Options menu. Which option should I choose? (I assume not startup repair since that keeps freezing.) Sorry, that's probably a silly question.

ETA:
I tried running system restore. I can get all the way to choosing a restore point, but when I choose a restore point the system stops responding. I also noticed that it says "current timezone: GMT -8:00" but I am GMT -5:00. Not sure if that makes a difference but could that be preventing the restore from working?

Edited by roxyturtle, 25 September 2011 - 01:08 PM.

[roxyturtle]

Morning update: Looks like my HD is dead. I ran a HD test in my BIOS this morning and got a "hard disk 1 quick 303" error. So I'm pretty much screwed. Thanks for your help but it looks like I have to call HP.