Sorry if I am asking unneeded questions. As I said, I'm not a tech wiz. I did not know for sure whether the distinction between the F8 menu and the F9 menu was an important one and wanted to be clear on that before I did anything irreversible.
F9 is the hotkey used by some OEM's to run Factory Recovery from boot, that's all.
Don't hesitate to ask back any other questions to get through the steps given.
Thanks, Greg. I'll work on it and write back if I have questions. Your help (and Marsmimar's) is appreciated.
Follow-up: After trying to just reduce the bloatware and clean up my system, I've decided to go for a clean reinstall. However, I have an important question. I notice that the instructions provided in the Clean Install link say that any factory recovery partitions on the drive may not work after doing a clean install. Is this an unavoidable risk? Just for safety's sake I'd like to keep the existing recovery partition untouched. Is there a way to guarantee that? Thank you!
Your only assurance is to make the Recovery Disks first, then if you want to also save the Recovery partition to have a second method then after the Clean Reinstall test the Recovery partition to see if it will still boot and cue up. If not you can delete it and recover its space using Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition.
But you can save a Win7 backup image of your existing install to have your own customized Recovery as well: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Ok... I'm at that desperation point. I need some major advice, here.
So... I went through the sequence for doing a complete Clean Reinstall of Windows 7 as Greg's post details. I followed the instructions to the letter. I got back to a clean state, with all drivers and Windows updates complete, but NOTHING else installed. I hadn't even yet connected any peripherals to the laptop.
And... the damned thing is still behaving the same way. I'll be specific in hopes that there's something diagnostically relevant:
I made sure all drivers and updates were installed, but nothing else. Then I went to transfer a few files from the Windows.old folder on the drive. Just a simple cut and paste from that folder to the new desktop. Here's what happened:
1. Cut and paste
2. Nothing appears on the desktop
3. I look at Desktop in Windows Explorer and the transferred files are there, just not appearing on Desktop.
4. I ctrl+Z and retry the process a few times. Each time, nothing appears to happen. But if I back out of a folder, then go back in it (in Explorer), they files show up as transferred.
5. Recognizing this behavior as similar to what was going on before the Reinstall, I try to Restart.
6. The restart hangs eternally on "Logging Off" until I eventually just hold the power button to shut it down.
This is exactly what was happening before. What... is... going... on?
If you'd followed the steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 there would be no windows.old folder since you'd boot the installer and delete all partitions, create and format new or let the installer do it for you.
I would do it over and add a step when you boot the Win7 installer to install: run Diskpart Clean Command
I'm trying to follow that "extra step" you suggested. However, in Step 1, part C, when I go to "Computer Management" and click "Disk Management," it hangs forever on "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service." That means I can't identify the disk number.
Start with Step 2 to boot into DVD Command Line and determine the DIsk number using Diskpart.
You have serious problems with the OS which are unlikely caused only by conflicting boot sector code although that should still be wiped with Clean command.
Where did you get Win7? I don't think you can trust whatever you installed if its that corrupt at a fresh install, and should download a new official Win7 installer ISO for your licensed version and burn to DVD or write to flash stick using the tool provided in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.
Make sure to only follow the steps in the tutorial, nothing else, to see if the problems persist. If they do test your hardware using the tests given in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 then continue working through the steps there while reporting back your progress.
I got my copy of Windows 7 from the link you provided and wrote it to a flash stick. I'm going to try your latest set of instructions and hope for the best. Still no idea what the problem is, but Event Viewer still reports multiple errors every time I log on after the last reinstall.
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