Tried EasyRE once more using Rufus. Boots up fine now. Automated Repair doesn't work. Tried changing drive flags and set C: as boot instead of 100MB System Reserved, didn't work. Anyone have any other ideas, I am desperate and exhausted.
Tried to copy in a new winload.efi from a working Windows 7 laptop using the command prompt to fix the winload.efi missing error on startup. No go. Rebuilt the boot loader from scratch again using the Nuclear Holocaust instructions. I now have a better grasp of the commands and what they do. No go.
I opened it up, took out the boot drive and attached it as a slave to another Windows 7 laptop via SATA>USB. I can now access the entirety of the drive's contents. Is there anything I can try to do from here to fix or further diagnose the problem?
Where exactly are you in the steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start? What were the infection boot scan results which as explained are where you should start?
Can we see a picture of the PW drive map? Attach using paper clip in reply box.
Where is the Active flag now? Did you run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times no matter what it reports?
What was the result of System Restore run from System Recovery Options?
Try it again.
well looks like i crashed and burned on thinking the hard drive was dead. The only reason i mentioned that is because usually if you get the message os not found; it can also mean the system is not able to read the hard drive. But now that i see that is not the case. you can disregard that. But I will still try from here.
Did you try the steps mentioned in the link that greg posted? And if so how far did you get?
Good morning Matt and Greg.
I am now here: Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery
Step 9 at the bottom of the list.
I have tried the procedure which involved copying RegBack and a few other files but am still stuck on infinite loop. The file sizes I had were very different from the estimates listed in the guide, however none were 0kb. Will give it another go.
Well its probably good if you continue through the end of those steps and see how far you get(if it will let you do so)
Are you even following the steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start
which are everything that works best to repair WIn7 based on tens of thousands of cases we've helped with here?
What about the infection scans which is where to start? You can do that slaved in another PC as well as the HD Diagnostic and rescuiing your data.
Greg is right. You need to be sure you are following the steps in the link(s) he has posted in order to see whether or not those steps will work to solve the issue.
Greg, the link is in your list.
As a non-techie how was I to know said method doesn't work at all.Some failures to repair which involve an infinitely-looping Startup Repair at boot can be repaired by following the steps in Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery - Windows 7 Help Forums .
Okay, now that I'm no longer groping around in the dark alone I'll try to take it from the top. Thank you for your patience.
I'm taking it out. I put it there at someone else's request but I honestly have never seen it work yet.
Quote