Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

Cannot boot windows 7. Exhausted self repair attempts


  • Please log in to reply

#1
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
Hi Team,
While running protools recently I had a system crash. This happens typically if I forget to shut off ProTools and the computer goes into standby/sleep mode. The few times that it has happened in the past, I have been able to repair it using a number of the self repair options in the boot menus. However, this time I was unable to do so with those options.

My next step seems to be to use the Windows repair disk to repair it that way. However, after trying this i'm getting an error message saying that the version of windows I am trying to repair is not the same as the one on the disk. This is definitely not true as it's the disk that came with my system. I read somewhere that trying to disable the HDD and all other drives in the bios would circumvent that problem. A number of people had this work for them so I gave it a try, but to no avail. It is possible that I did not do it right as I am not as familiar with the Asia UEFI bios.

To sum up, system crashed and can't boot
Can't get into safe mode
Can't use system restore or snapshot
Can't use startup repair
Can't get windows repair disk to work

if anyone else could provide any solutions to this it would be fantastic, I would really rather not reinstall windows.
  • 0

Advertisements


#2
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
Thank you for the response. Yes I do have a laptop.
  • 0

#3
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
I created the cd and was able to boot it. I moved all of the files from the backup folder to the config folder but first it said there wasn't enough space. So I deleted a few things using the explorer and was then able to copy them. So the completely full disk could have something to do with the initial problem.
Anyway, after restarting, it said windows still could not start and it ran startup repair again. After "searching for a problem" for a few seconds, it actually moved to the "repairing" stage, which it hasn't done at all through this whole process. However, it just restarted again after a minute or two and then went back into the same startup repair, except this time it went back to "could not repair the problem" so back to square one. I gave it another try just to be sure and replaced the files again, rebooted, only this time it didn't even given me the "repairing" stage, just went right back to "could not repair" again.
  • 0

#4
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
I will run the chkdsk again and report back. I will also try to free up some more space, but the file I deleted yesterday was about 11 GB so it should have been enough. It was a file called CBSpersist that was just sitting in my recycle bin. I have had problems with this file growing in size to the point of being an issue and I've had to delete it multiple times. My windows drive only has about 100 GB on it, so over the years it's teetering on being full with junk. Do u think the 11 GB was enough space or should I still delete more stuff?
  • 0

#5
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
Update: I ran chckdsk and it came back with no errors. I was able to free up over 15 GB of space on the windows drive, but still not able to boot up. running into the same issues. I tried an sfc scannow command which said that there is a system repair pending and to restart and scan again, but it gives the same message.

However, now I have a new question. Just as a last resort, I thought I would try to check the bios in case I had accidentally set my data Drive to be the first bootable device somewhere along the lines of troubleshooting. When I looked under my bios under hard drive BBS options, it did appear that my windows drive was set to Second, because it lists it by its name which is corsair force GT. So I changed that to be number one in the boot order and set the other SATA drive to be secondary, saved settings and restarted. Now I am getting a black screen with the message "boot manager missing". So it seems that after setting my windows installation drive to be the first drive in the boot order, it's giving me this error message. so if I did in fact have the wrong Drive set, that raises the question how did I get so far in troubleshooting when I had just my data Drive set as first priority. And why didn't it give me the "boot manager missing" message when trying to boot from the data Drive. Or is it possible that the bios is somehow calling my data Drive the corsair Force GT mistakingly? What's throwing me off is that there seems to be two sections in the bios to set boot order. One is just called boot order, and the other is called the hard drive BBS as mentioned above. I can send a pic of bios if needed.
  • 0

#6
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
You mean just boot with my windows install cd? Should I do this with the corsair force (windows) drive still set to number 1? This is the drive that gives me the boot manager missing error.
  • 0

#7
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
I went ahead and tried it and the operations completed successfully but it said that there were zero operating systems installed on the drive. I tried restarting again and same problem, BOOT MGR is missing.
  • 0

#8
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
I tried it with the corsair force ssd and got the same result: missing boot mgr. then also reverted my bios settings to default, which set them very differently and took the corsair force out of the options completely in the boot priority list. Doing it this way, there is no missing boot mgr message, but just goes back to the windows repair loop. I am fairly confident that my windows is installed on the corsair force Ssd. So I'm not sure why the default bios settings would not include it on the boot list. It is listed in the "hard drive bbs priorities" list however.

On another note, could I just use that mini xp program to move files onto a USB drive and then reinstall windows? I don't have many files on there, but they are important so if I can just get them and reinstall windows I'm ok with it.

Also want to take another moment to thank you again for taking the time to help me.
  • 0

#9
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
I realize I may not have been clear on the last message. To sum up:

Ran the cmd prompt scans with corsair ssd set #1. Scans complete successfully stating 0 operating systems installed. Restart yields boot mgr missing.

Ran scans with default bios settings and data drive set to number one. No corsair ssd in the boot option priorities list. Scans complete stating 0 operating systems installed. No missing boot mgr message. Restart yields windows repair loop.
  • 0

#10
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
I did this and the first time everything said it completed successfully except the attrib bcd command which did nothing. Same result after restart. Tried the whole process again and this time when I get to the attrib bcd command, it says bcd not found
  • 0

Advertisements


#11
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
On the previous step when I ran the command from the prompt in winRe it started in path X:\sources.

So youre saying use the "i find" command to find out which partition windows is on. Then run your command with that drive instead of c.
So let's say it tells me windows is in drive D: Do i then run the command bcdboot D:\Windows /s D: ?
  • 0

#12
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
That one says " boot files successfully created". Exit and restart goes back to Bootmgr is missing. Did not try to boot from windows cd yet
  • 0

#13
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
Ran command. Says "successfully updated NTFS file system boot code.
Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes".
I have left it at this screen pending your next instructions
  • 0

#14
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
darn, restarting yields same boot mgr missing message. :(
  • 0

#15
Anderwolf

Anderwolf

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 89 posts
Can I use the mini xp program to move them on to an external hard drive?
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP