Login error following crash, no recovery options

Shadders said:

Hi all!

I'm a bit of a pc novice so please don't be too technical with me!!

I have an ageing Alienware Aurora which is running windows 7 x64. Yesterday it chucked a fit (technical term :) and froze, so I did a hard reset. On re-booting, instead of the usual login screen (user image and name, with space for password) I now have a blank image, and space to type username and password. I enter my username and password (which I know to be correct) and get "username or password incorrect". There is only one user, so no alternative option.

I take regular dell datasafe backups, so thought I would just do a system restore and it would all be fine. I press F8 on boot up and get the menu, with "repair my computer" at the top. I select and press enter, but instead of huge menu of recovery options, I just get a blank screen, then the Pc continues to load windows to the login screen as above.

Have tried booting in safe mode but no different.

As I say, the PC was purchased in 2009 and I don't have system recovery disk any more, although I do have the windows 7 disk.

Any help or suggestions gratefully received?!

Hi Shadders,

Welcome to Seven forums.

Please let us know when you mean hard reset did you perform a factory reset at the system. You should check this link which you should resolve your problem:

Failure to Boot

If you wish to request backup discs then check this link:

Request Backup Disks

Kindly update your system specs here by following this. Keep us posted with the results so we can advise you further.