Windows 7: Mayday - Win7 will no longer start

I have a 9 month old dual boot system (EasyBCD) with WinXP Pro and Windows 7 Pro (64 bit). Last weekend I upgraded to SP1 in Windows 7 and did all the required restarts with no problem. Then I decided to go into XP and check for updates. This had not been done for 71 days so there were a few. Did the required restarts with no problem.

System is not overclocked, run Nortons Internet Security, 2 1TB drives not in a RAID setup. Win XP is only installed because some software I have will just not run in Windows 7.

Tried to restart PC back into Windows 7 and that's when I discovered that I could not do so. It stops at the "Starting Windows" screen.

Tried the boot from disc and repair route but it found nothing wrong. Can still see all my HD partitions and data thru XP so thats a relief... but if I have to reinstall, it would be 2x in 5 months due to "crashes".

I do have access to a screenshot I took of the Windows 7 Disk Management window after I did the first reinstall. Would like to compare it to what is happening right now but that is hard to do if I can't start Windows 7.

Would even like to manually start Windows 7 (to check things) from the command prompt but don't know if it is possible.

Any advice?

Update here... tried using F8 but that did not work... but...

Noticed a flash of BSOD between the Starting Windows screen and the system restarting. Tried several times to Restart normally and make quick used of the Pause button. That did not work (that BSOD is FAST - All I got was a blur of text) but after 5 or so attempts at reading it the system went to a black screen for 10 seconds and then into Windows 7. This came up...

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1000007e
BCP1: FFFFFFFFC0000005
BCP2: FFFFF880011B3BB8
BCP3: FFFFF8800338C878
BCP4: FFFFF8800338C0D0
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\031911-24663-01.dmp
C:\Users\AJ\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-63710-0.sysdata.xml

Have not dared yet to restart.

Does this new info mean anything?

Could be anything causing that, hardware most likely or a duff driver.

Try booting into Safe Mode by tapping F8 repeatedly while booting up (ignore EasyBCD for now) and then go straight to & right-click Computer, go to Properties > Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > Settings, uncheck 'Automatically Restart'. Apply and OK.

That's one of the first things I do on any new system. That way at least you get to read the BSOD.

Next, try rebooting into the Safe Mode menu but choose 'Last Known Good Configuration' and see if that works.

Have you added anything unusual lately or used any Registry cleaners - which are pretty-well guaranteed to wipe out good registry keys along with bad ones? Believe me on that one.

Edit: EasyBCD support here: http://neosmart.net/forums/

Unticked "auto restart" as suggested. No registry cleaners. All I did was run Windows update. Not sure about that "last known good configuration". I read something about Restore points being disabled if you have a dual boot system with Win 7 and XP.

Since I did get into Win 7 by repeatedly hitting the pause key while repeatedly restarting and trying to read that BSOD I'm afraid to restart but I have to take the plunge sometime...

Update... Windows restarted normally, no problem. Need to try going into XP and then restarting back to Win 7. Did check for Windows updates and none were there so it looks like the one I last installed did so correctly.

That sounds good. System Restore works OK and I quad boot, using EasyBCD by the way. There is an issue with dual boot XP and anything else as XP doesn't like other OS's restore points and thinks they are superfluous to its needs and literally erases them every time you reboot into XP.

There's a tutorial on it and how to avoid the problem, here: System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete - Vista Forums

Please follow these instructions for BSODs
http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...tructions.html

Thanks for the Restore points info. Re BSOD posting instructions, will this work (gather information) for something that has happened in the past? I'm not having startup problems anymore (fingers crossed). Also, this BSOD was appearing even before the log on screen, would that make a difference.

Anyway, don't know how pushing the pause key got me past the startup hurdle but I'm glad. Was looking at a tedious reinstall at that point with a week of trying to figure this out. Did not even know there was a BSOD until I saw the momentary flash, and I mean a micro flash, of blue between "Starting Windows" screen and the PC auto restart. Thanks to Ex_Brit for suggesting how to stop that auto restart.