[Shatbat]

Hello everyone.

I've been trying to repair for some time a Sony Vaio PGC-61611U, which as the title says, doesn't boot.

The original error message goes something like this:

Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your pc.This error can be caused by unplagging a removable storage device...,or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM.Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your pc. File:\Boot\Bcd Status: 0xc00000e9 Info an unexpected I/O error has occurred.

Or sometimes it will also say "Operating system not found". I'm not quite sure yet what makes it go for one option or the other, but it seems to be related with whether the optical disk drive or the hard disk are first in the boot order from the BIOS.

So far I've tried using Knoppix and then TestDisk to repair the boot sector, but TestDisk said the boot sector was fine. I tried using a Windows 7 installation disk and boot from it, but no matter what I do, whether I choose Start Normally, Safe Mode, or Safe Mode with command prompt, it eventually reaches a point with a black screen and a cursor, and nothing more.

I also tried accessing the hard disk from Knoppix, but I got an error that looked like this:

Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read NTFS $Bitmap: Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory. Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details

So far I've been trying to find some way to run chkdsk /f or bootrec.exe, which I can't do fron Knoppix as far as I know. Ideally I'd like to make the computer work again, but right now I feel I could also settle for being able to access the data (even if it is from linux) and put it on an USB stick, which I can't do directly at the moment.

So, can I have some help with that? Does anyone know what is going on, and how can I fix it or at least recover the data? I try not to make posts about such things, I usually can manage on my own, but my google-fu has failed me this time and with an amateur level of knowledge I don't think I can get much further than this on my own.

Thanks

EDIT: I didn't post this one in the "Windows doesn't boot" section because it doesn't seem to be malware related, or at least obviously so. The owner of the computer told me that her brother was the last person to use it, and that when she tried to turn it off it said that windows hadn't been shut down correctly, so it must have something to do with a bad shut down attempt.

Edited by Shatbat, 30 December 2013 - 01:17 AM.

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Shatbat

The HDD may have bad sectors on it.

Have you tried restoring the MBs default settings in the BIOS and then setting them to DVD drive as the first boot device and the HDD as the second boot device.

What type of W7 OS disk do you have as in full retail, OEM, downloaded ISO, a burned copy or a back disk up that you made yourself.

Have you tried a system restore from command prompt, details here

[phillpower2]

Shatbat

The HDD may have bad sectors on it.

Have you tried restoring the MBs default settings in the BIOS and then setting them to DVD drive as the first boot device and the HDD as the second boot device.

What type of W7 OS disk do you have as in full retail, OEM, downloaded ISO, a burned copy or a back disk up that you made yourself.

Have you tried a system restore from command prompt, details here

[Shatbat]

Hi. Thanks for your help.

I did that with the BIOS just now. Nothing special happened

I burned an ISO I downloaded from this page: http://best-windows....disks.html#full
It is supposed to be legitimate, the download came was from Digital River. I got Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit

And that's the main problem. I can't access anything, not even the command prompt. I just tried to use Safe Mode with command prompt, and I got to the old black screen with movable mouse pointer at the center. And the computer just gets stuck there indefinitely. I don't even understand why would it try to load a GUI if I just want the command prompt

Edited by Shatbat, 30 December 2013 - 11:28 AM.

[Ztruker]

What happens when you boot the DVD you burned?

How did you burn it? May want to try again using ImgBurn at the slowest available speed, 4X if possible.
Use a DVD+R, not a DVDRW (Re-writable).

[Shatbat]

Hey, sorry for the delay, was on new year's celebrations away from the offending computer

I tried burning the same image, in ImgBurn, at 3x, and the same black screen with a pointer thing happened.

[Ztruker]

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
7 Free Hard Drive Testing Programs
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
Bootable Hard Drive Diagnostics

[Shatbat]

Thanks. I started out by running Seagate's SeaTools for DOS, I found out there that the hard risk is WDC-WD3200BEVT, so it's Western Digital. I ran a long test now that I was in it, but it failed/ It found errors on sectors 2064 to 2071 and 4156234 to 4156323. The repair also failed. It mentioned the term "bad sector found".

Then I got Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and ran an extended test. Right away it said "TEST COMPLETED WITH READ ELEMENT FAILURE; ERROR/STATUS CODE: 0007" and asked me to continue with a full scan.

And... "TOO MANY ERRORS FOUND: PLEASE CONTACT TECHNICAL SUPPORT; ERROR/STATUS CODE: 0225"

Ok. That sounds bad. So... if nothing else, any way I can retrieve some of the data?

[Ztruker]

If you can't access it then no, no way to save the data. About all you can do at this point is replace the hard drive and reinstall Windows 7. If you do, make sure you start backing up your data.