Windows 7 not loading from Bootable Repair Disc

gregrocker said:

If Ubuntu will boot then Win7 installer or Repair CD should boot, too. It does for everyone else.

If using the Repair CD, then burn another one. If that fails then download and burn to DVD or write to flash stick the installer from the link in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot.

Once you have the bootable disk you can complete the other steps. Did you try another bootable AV disk? Burn using ImgBurn at 4x speed which never fails.

If these fail, try resetting the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

If disks fail, try flash stick installer. If that fails unplug DVD drive.

Ok so I made a boot disk of SeaTools and carried out a long scan of the hard drive. It failed the test and said it had a bad sector which it then went on to repair but could not.

I'm taking it this is a hard drive issue.

I have just made a USB Windows 7 stick so will give it a go but I think I have now found the problem here.

And Ubuntu maybe works fine as it is the Live CD and not relying on the hard drive or needing to access anything on it (remember it's not installed on my computer)

Not sure but if this USB doesn't work then where else do I look? Replace hard drive?

What did SeaTools say about the SMART status? If it said anything other than "Smart has NOT been tripped" replace the drive.

Did it fail the overall test, or just that one sector?

Did it generate a 'SeaTools Test Code'? If it did then replace the drive.

F5ing said:

What did SeaTools say about the SMART status? If it said anything other than "Smart has NOT been tripped" replace the drive.

Did it fail the overall test, or just that one sector?

Did it generate a 'SeaTools Test Code'? If it did then replace the drive.

Yes, it created a DIR.log file with the results but the result after the long test was FAILED.

New drive it is then. Just in time for PayDay

Now that will be another massive task I imagine. SO frustrated!

Everything you need is here to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

The following link will show you the steps to replace your HD:

How To Upgrade The HDD Of Your Laptop PC my samsung

One thing to look out for is the thickness of the new drive. The hard drive compartments on some laptops can't accomodate the thicker drives (the thinner drives are about 9 mm thick, thicker drives can be almost 13 mm). Other than that, it's likely easier than you think to replace the hard drive.

You can see if those gzip files can be properly opened by downloading and running 7zip using another Windows machine:

7-Zip

gregrocker said:

Everything you need is here to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

As before, any Windows 7 Repair or Install disc will not work. This time round when I boot up from disc drive, the installer begins, I choose my language, region etc, press INSTALL this time and it goes to the next screen where it says 'Set Up is Starting', the cursor/timer thing spins indefinitely, the hard drive light goes off and it remains that way until I reboot.

The disc will not work.

mrbongo said:

gregrocker said:

Everything you need is here to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

As before, any Windows 7 Repair or Install disc will not work. This time round when I boot up from disc drive, the installer begins, I choose my language, region etc, press INSTALL this time and it goes to the next screen where it says 'Set Up is Starting', the cursor/timer thing spins indefinitely, the hard drive light goes off and it remains that way until I reboot.

The disc will not work.

I think Greg's post was for when you get the new drive.

F5ing said:

I think Greg's post was for when you get the new drive.

Oops. My apologies. I'm down to my last disc so it'll give me a chance to buy more when I go shopping.

Advice on new drive: Obviously shopping online offers more choice and range of price but I understand the drives can be fragile things so a bit reluctant to shop online and open a new drive that's been bounced halfway across the country. And yes, the drives on sale locally have also gone through transportation to get to the store but I guess my worry is finally getting resolution to this problem, only to find a new headache with the replacement.

Looking at local retailers I have found a 2.5" SATA with 750gb at the same price as some 320gb. The failing drive I have here is a 250gb. While I know that lots of people replace drives to increase storage capacity, is there any limitation on this like with RAM replacement?

Or can I beef up the storage to as much as I want?

Also want to say thanks to you guys for helping with this. I am a bit of a novice and really felt out of my depth with this one since it was a hardware issue. But the tutorials have learnt me a lot and many of the tools used I will use again and again I'm sure.

I'm always telling people - DON'T throw away your PC or laptop until you've tried a fix, it's great that sites like this exist as there's a thousand places in this city who would gladly take your cash before even looking at your machine, let alone give advice.

Big thanks.

Don't think it really matters too much buying online vs. local as far as handling is concerned - there are handling issues either way. If you buy local you get it 'now' and get a chance to test immediately and take it back and replace if necessary (although you've got to ensure they'll do that). I've purchased at least a couple dozen drives locally over the past few years and have never had to return one. But to be honest I don't even know if the stores I bought them from would honor a return (again, you need to confirm that).

As far as capacity is concerned I think the first limit you would hit is 2.2 TB. I've put 2 TB drives in devices that were 'advertised' as being able to handle only up to 1 TB, but I think that may have been because at the time they were manufactured drives were much smaller.

HITACHI Travelstar Internal 2.5" SATA Hard Drive - 750GB at cheap prices | Pcworld

This is one I'm considering, have done a quick search online and expected to find a huge difference in prices but the link above is a large PC store and seems a good deal.

They offer returns for faulty kit and have a computer lab/repair place in store so I assume they could quickly check if I returned it to the store. I am sorely tempted to look at boosting RAM at the same time but think I will leave that for now.