Windows failed to start and can't find operating system

Kaktussoft said:

Status: 0xc0000000e
This error I had after moving a partition with GPARTED. I think C-partition is visible now in diskpart and type=ntfs
You can even do: DIR C:

anyway perfoming a chkdsk will fix the problem. After chkdsk start your windows normally. not starting? try startup repair again
don't do bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd because this rebuilds your bootmenu and maybe you lose some options in bootmenu. Please post results

At this point, he can't access the bootmenu, so I think this would be safe. This is what is recommended by Microsoft in this situation. I realize they aren't always right, but it didn't seem like a bad idea considering the inability to access the boot menu.

"If it is not the disc, then I have a suspicion that there is something wrong with your hard drive because the windows files are loaded from the disc to the drive when you boot from the disc"

=>Wrong! A recovery disk doesn't use the harddrive to put files on.

Kaktussoft said:

"If it is not the disc, then I have a suspicion that there is something wrong with your hard drive because the windows files are loaded from the disc to the drive when you boot from the disc"

=>Wrong! A recovery disk doesn't use the harddrive to put files on.

Oh, I thought it did because I never see/hear the DVD spin when running the utilities from the disc. My mistake.

Edit: Does it write it to memory? Because I can still run the utilities without the disc in the machine. I'm just trying to narrow down what might be the problem if his disc is fine. Of course, it could be any number of things...

it creates a ramdisk (X) and runs everything from X

Kaktussoft said:

it creates a ramdisk (X) and runs everything from X

That makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

I'm at work and don't have access to my laptop right now, but to answer the questions:

- Thanks for clearing up that the disc wasn't corrupted. I'll try cleaning it when I get home and test it in another machine. All I can say is that after I rebooted the computer after running Startup Repair, the recovery CD seemed to spin up normally. It gave me the normal prompt (Press any key to load), followed by a "Windows is loading utilities..." bar that loaded, and then a black screen with a cursor. After that, the blue Windows background is supposed to load, followed by the prompts that take me to a screen with the Recovery Options menu (including System Restore, Startup Repair, Command Prompt, etc). But this time it didn't; it stalled on the black screen, and I heard the disc spin down. It's been extremely slow in the past, so I thought I just had to wait 10 minutes, but after 20 nothing had happened. I shut down and tried again with the same result.

- I have not run a successful chkdsk. I think that was one of the first things I tried when it refused to boot, and for some reason it gave me an error...? At this point I have tried so many things I may well be mixing it up with something else, though.

- When my computer first failed (and I was still getting the "Windows failed to start, try starting normally or use repair options" error message, not the "Boot device is inaccessible" message that I'm getting now), I could use F8 to access the Advanced Boot Options menu with Safe Mode and Repair Your Computer and Last Known Good Config and so on. I thought I might be able to do that again to access recovery options when the disc wasn't loading, but I pressed F8 repeatedly at startup and nothing happened.

- I haven't opened the computer case at all.

I called Microsoft tech support and they're sending me a new Windows 7 installation disc, so if all else fails I have the option of a new installation. But I'm still hoping there's a way to restore my hard drive.

Do you still have the utility boot cd you used yesterday? I would try running that when you get home just to see if it loads in your computer. Don't use it, just see if it boots. Unfortunately, I don't think the partition repair is going to fix the problem anymore since it didn't the first time.

I won't be around today, so I thought I would offer some advice to get things running in the event that you are unable to boot from the Windows 7 DVD and the DVD does not seem to be damaged.

1. Shut down your computer.
2. When the computer is fully turned off, unplug it from the wall.
3. Remove the battery.
4. Hold down the power button for 30 seconds to close the circuit and allow all components to drain power.
5. Replace the battery.
6. Plug the computer back into the wall.
7. Turn it on and see if the Windows 7 DVD boots.

The above will reset the BIOS and can reset the CMOS, which can fix some boot problems.

If you can get the Windows 7 disc working again, you may also want to look here:

Windows failed to start - Microsoft Answers

There are a lot of good links to tutorials on these forums as well as good advice that should not harm your computer. You can run the startup repair again as suggested in that page, or you can skip to the next step if you think startup repair is going to cause more harm than good.

Good luck!

silvergreen, were you ever able to resolve your computer problem?

Nope, still won't boot. I haven't touched my computer since last week and have been waiting for my Windows 7 reinstallation disc to arrive.

On Thanksgiving I tried running my recovery disc again. Didn't work. I burned a fresh copy of the disc. I was hopeful because it loaded the blue Windows background screen more quickly than the old disc, but it ended up stalling there for an hour before I turned the PC off. Then I asked a friend to try burning the recovery disc to a USB stick. Not sure what he tried, but he knows his stuff and couldn't get it to work. He was able to get Ubuntu to run from a USB, and I accessed my hard drive from there and copied all my files to an external drive. So thankfully I rescued my files, but since I couldn't get the Windows 7 disc (any of them!) to work, I felt like I had hit a wall.

I wanted to try the advice in your last post, but I had a question: with "remove the battery," were you referring to the CMOS battery? I looked at the Dell manual for instructions, and there were literally 12 components I had to remove (none of which I could identify on sight) before removing the CMOS battery. I looked on YouTube for instructional videos, but there weren't any for my make and model, and I decided against it. If you're referring to the primary battery, though (I wasn't sure), I'll definitely try it.