Windows 7 won't start, hangs on "Starting Windows" screen, no logo

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  1. Posts : 179
    Windows 7
       #1

    Windows 7 won't start, hangs on "Starting Windows" screen, no logo


    I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I can't think of anywhere else.

    This is going to be long, but hopefully all the information will help. Last week, I attempted to recover my Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB (this is the second time recovering it, but I'll figure that out once I deal with this problem) using Stella Phoenix Data Recovery. I formatted the My Book, no problem, and let the Recovery wizard run. It was running for a good 3 or 4 days up until now. Since it was taking to long, I just let it run and check on it when I get home.

    Today, I come home, and I see the My Book idling, so I know my computer blue screened, or it restarted somehow. I turn the monitor back on, and I'm greeted with the American Megatrends screen. It lists all my hardware, and everything seems fine. It says to press Del to resume, so I do, and that gets me to the BIOS page. I hit Exit to save changes, and expect Windows to start, but nope: the computer restarted.

    Bewildered, I went through the same American Megatrends page and the BIOS page three times with the same result. I tried changing my boot drive to my SSD, then my secondary hard drive (also had Windows 7 installed), then my DVD drive. Nothing worked. I called a friend and helped trouble shoot, asked me to reset my BIOS (couldn't find that setting), asked me to remove the SSD to see if that was the problem, and it still didn't work. Then, I noticed a message at the bottom of the American Megatrends page:

    4th Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace

    He googled that for a bit, and told me to go disable the S.M.A.R.T. setting wherever I could find it in the BIOS. I did that (with the SSD removed) and I was able to select the Windows 7 that was installed on my hard drive (Samsung F3 1TB). But it would hang on the "Starting Windows" page with no hint of the Windows logo loading. My friend told me to plug the SSD back in and try booting again. This time, I selected the Windows 7 version installed on my SSD, but again, it hung on the "Starting Windows" page with no Windows logo. I restarted the computer (manually shut it down using the power button) to see if it would work. This time, when I selected the Windows 7 installed on my SSD, it allowed me to select Launch Repair, which I did. It got past "Windows is loading files", and then hung again on the "Starting Windows" screen. I figured it needed some time, so I left it and went to play Zynga Poker. Half an hour later, it was still on that screen.

    I tried popping in the original Windows 7 CD and tried booting from the disk. It got to "Windows is loading files".... and hung there for two hours.

    I restarted it again and am waiting on it, and am waiting for it to boot from the disk again, but does anyone have any guidance? I'm so sorry for the long story but I figured I might as well include all the details to let you know what I've tried.

    This may or may not be important, but before this crash, when it was still helping me recover the My Book, I would move the mouse a few times, and try to open some random programs (MSi Afterburner, Microsoft Word) to let the CPU work a little, but they never opened. Task Manager also froze for days on me, and even when I opened a second Task Manager, I could not end the first Task Manager.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'll try to answer any questions the best I can!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 179
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Update: Last night, I think the Startup Repair option finally worked but I wasn't watching the whole time. It asked me to recover so I said yes. When I returned 15 minutes later, it was at the login screen so I punched in my password and got to the desktop. However, Windows said it needed to restart for some changes to take place. I hit okay, and when it restarted, it hung on the "Starting Windows" with no logo again. I will try again today, but does anyone have any suggestions?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 179
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Update: I found this thread System Recovery Options and tried booting into advanced options. I was able to get to the keyboard preferences almost instantaneously. It worked, and repaired. I logged into my account again, and it was fine. I used Advanced System Care to scan my hard drive, and it was fine. I tried chkdsk but it said I had to reschedule it on restart, so I tried restarting my computer. Again, it hung on "Starting Windows", no logo. I'm trying to boot into advanced options again, but now it's hanging on the "Windows is loading files" page I'm going to restart the computer if it continues to hang like this and try the advanced options again.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 983
    7 x64
       #4

    Disconnect all drives except the one you want to do the repair on or boot from.

    I have had this happen with certain system that when a drive failed the system would not boot to Windows. No matter what I did the system would not boot until I found the bad drive and disconnected it.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #5

    Have you done a simple starup repair with your disc ? Not a restore just a simple startup repair.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 179
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #6

    edwar said:
    Disconnect all drives except the one you want to do the repair on or boot from.

    I have had this happen with certain system that when a drive failed the system would not boot to Windows. No matter what I did the system would not boot until I found the bad drive and disconnected it.
    Oh okay, let me try that one.

    AddRAM said:
    Have you done a simple starup repair with your disc ? Not a restore just a simple startup repair.
    Well with the disc, it simply hangs on "Windows is loading files". I will try to disconnect all drives, and post again.
      My Computer

  7.    #7

    What is the mystery here? It says quite clearly the HD has failed and to replace it. If this is the HD which holds the System boot files (you don't say) for your other Win7 install then that's why it won't start. Unplug all HD's except the one which has WIn7 you want to start then Mark Partition Active the Win7 partition or it's 100mb System Rserved partition (preferred if you have it) then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

    But your description is so laborious it's nearly impossible to follow so try this: Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

    If you can get it started post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map with listings showing all drives, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu. Otherwise a camera snap of Partition Wizard booted CD would help us spot the problem.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 179
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #8

    edwar said:
    Disconnect all drives except the one you want to do the repair on or boot from.

    I have had this happen with certain system that when a drive failed the system would not boot to Windows. No matter what I did the system would not boot until I found the bad drive and disconnected it.
    Now it says

    Press any key to boot from CD or DVD ....
    BOOTMGR is missing
    Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart

    _

    I think this is because my Samsung F3 contains the Windows 7 that I FIRST installed. I installed my SSD second, also with Windows 7. Maybe I should repair that drive instead...
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #9

    Yep, I would start there. Get your main Windows 7 hard drive ( the hard drive in perfect working condition ) up and running.

    As suggested, unplug all the other drives.
      My Computer

  10.    #10

    darknightz0117 said:

    Now it says

    Press any key to boot from CD or DVD ....
    BOOTMGR is missing
    Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart

    _

    I think this is because my Samsung F3 contains the Windows 7 that I FIRST installed. I installed my SSD second, also with Windows 7. Maybe I should repair that drive instead...
    Did you mark the correct partition Active and run the Startup Repairs as I just explained, on only the HD you wish to start?

    Whichever is the one which SMART says is a bad HD should be replaced, or confirm it's condition using maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.

    If neither is bad then repair them both the same way separately, afterwards boot your choice via BIOS Boot order or one-time BIOS Boot menu key.
      My Computer


 
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