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Windows 7 Home Premium does not reach login screen - reboot cycle
I have had Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) installed on my Gateway NV53 laptop. I must note that my laptop dual boots Windows and Ubuntu 10.04 with GRUB 2 as my default bootloader (which employs a chainloader to boot Windows 7). 4 weeks ago, I began experiencing problems with my Windows partition. Everytime I booted up, the bootloader would show the Windows 7 logo, and then the computer would restart without ever reaching the login screen.
At first, I thought the issue was with the Windows 7 bootloader. So, I used the Windows 7 Repair Disk (for 64 bit machines) and from the command line, rebuilt the BCD from scratch. I even made Windows 7 the default bootloader (instead of GRUB, because I suspected maybe GRUB was being buggy), and still I experienced the same problems. I concluded that the problem could not be the bootloader seeing that I rebuilt a new one from scratch and the problem persisted. I then proceeded to remove the most recent hotfix (I had read somewhere that lately users have been experiencing issues with hotfixes offered by Microsoft) using the Windows 7 Emergency Recovery Disk (ERD), and that did not fix the problem either. I also scanned my partition for viruses and none were found.
I should also note that I have tried booting with Safe mode, Safe mode with networking, and Safe mode with command prompt, and all of these options result in the same boot issue. Furthermore, I have performed Startup repair and that does not work either.
I suspect that maybe I am missing a driver in the C:\Windows\System32\drivers directory which is causing my problem, but I don't know.
At this point, I have done everything I could, and I am open to any solutions offered by anyone here. I ordered the Gateway Recovery Disks but the only issue is that if I restore Windows 7 to factory settings, I fear that my other partitions (i.e. Linux) will be removed, and I don't want that.
Any help is appreciated,
Thanks!
Last edited by flouran; 20 Dec 2010 at 16:16.