Windows 7 - Not Starting Properly - Help Please

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  1. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    Windows 7 - Not Starting Properly - Help Please


    Hi,

    I have a problem with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

    Recently, when starting the computer I can get to the screen where it normally asks me for my password but the password box, and the username picture, do not appear. The computer is not frozen (I can move the mouse).

    Also, when booting in safe mode the computer stops right before I would get to the login screen and just shows the mouse cursor. Again, the computer is not frozen (I can move the mouse).

    Things I have tried:

    Run advanced boot and then:

    i) Startup repair
    This says it cannot fix the problem and I should contact Microsoft

    ii) Run SFC from the boot CMD window
    If I try to run sfc /scannow by itself it says:
    "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again."

    So I ran:
    sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=g:\windows
    In my case, drive C is the "reserve" partition (100 MB) and I have confirmed that my OS is installed onto drive G.
    It says:
    "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation."

    iii) Run checkdisk from boot CMD window
    chkdsk /f /r
    (I know that the /f was redundant)
    then repeat i and ii


    What else can I do?
    Last edited by dj1298j; 10 Apr 2014 at 20:02.
      My Computer

  2.    #2

    Is the hard drive detected in BIOS setup? Did you SATA controller change mode there?

    Everything is here that can be done for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start leading up to if necessary rescuiing your files to run Recovery, do the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 or if retail Clean Install Windows 7
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    gregrocker said:
    Is the hard drive detected in BIOS setup? Did you SATA controller change mode there?

    Everything is here that can be done for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start leading up to if necessary rescuiing your files to run Recovery, do the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 or if retail Clean Install Windows 7
    The hard drive is detected in the BIOS. I have not changed any part of my hard drives in a long time. How do I know if my SATA changed mode and how would I fix that?
      My Computer

  4.    #4

    Some times a power cut can change the BIOS to defaults which might kick the SATA controller to IDE when it was set to AHCI instead. So that's something to try in addition to the steps I gave.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    I have tried getting rid of this error message when running SFC:
    "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again."

    by running in the boot cmd prompt
    dism.exe /image:G:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions
    without success (G is my Windows drive)

    How do I force start SFC?

    EDIT: Also, when running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, with a reserve partition (100 MB) on drive D and the Windows installation on drive G, is this the correct form:
    sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=g:\windows


    EDIT 2:

    Something tells me there is something wrong with the command, because the SFC does not even show the % complete bar.

    EDIT 3: Should "offbootdir" be the drive that is labeled "system rese" (C), or the virtual drive (X) that I am booting the repair tool from, or the drive with the Windows installation (G)?

    EDIT 4: If I am on the virtual repair drive "X", will this command work:
    G:\Windows\System32 then write sfc /scannow
    Or does that just scan the virtual drive? The scan completes, but it only takes a few seconds which makes me wonder if it is only scanning the virtual drive X. How long does the SFC of 1 TB drive normally take?

    EDIT5: It seems that SFC tries to repair files with "archived" files on my hard disk. If I boot from the Windows 7 64-bit SP1 .ISO, can I have SFC use the files from the DVD to repair my computer files instead?

    EDIT6: What exactly does /offbootdir refer to, and why might it be different than the main Windows drive?
    Last edited by dj1298j; 10 Apr 2014 at 21:17.
      My Computer

  6.    #6

    What were the results of the bootable AV scan?

    Does an OS show up to repair in the window when you boot into Win7 installation media or Repair CD System Recovery Options?

    Since some of the steps require using Partition Wizard bootable CD, go ahead a burn it to CD using Windows Image Burner and post back a camera snap of the drives map and listings as we may be able to spot a problem.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    I will run Kaspersky Rescue overnight.

    The Windows installation shows up fine in the repair section when I boot from the Win7 DVD.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    I ran a full scan with Kaspersky Rescue 10 and it did not find anything.

    It's so weird that the computer is still fully responsive, except not showing the account picture / password box. Could there be corruption of a user account or something?

    EDIT: I will run CHKDSK again.

    EDIT: If I can get to the welcome screen where one normally inputs the password, but cannot open the CTRL+ALT+DEL menu, is there any way to open a COMMAND window?
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 84
    Windows 7 ultimate x64
       #9

    Using the recovery console to copy cmd over sethc in system32, then pressing shift 5-6 times might work
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #10

    brreaker said:
    Using the recovery console to copy cmd over sethc in system32, then pressing shift 5-6 times might work
    That's a great idea. I will try that.
    If anybody else needs this, it is described in detail here:
    http://www.pcworld.com/article/24918..._password.html

    Is there any way to use the CMD window to remove the password from my account and choose auto login? EDIT: I think I found the way to remove the password. User Account Password - Remove But how do I set it to auto login? So instead of the computer displaying my user picture when I start the system (where it may be getting stuck), it would try to automatically log in. EDIT: I think I may be able to do this by editing the registry from kaspersky rescue disk 10. Log On Automatically at Startup

    EDIT: Another thing I should mention is that in my BIOS menu it shows that I have two operating systems, both labeled 'Windows 7'. It has been like that ever since I installed Windows 7 a couple of years ago. One of which boots into Windows, the other does not boot. Could that be part of the problem with confusing SFC?

    EDIT2: Also, assuming I can run CMD within Windows 7 and try running SFC I wonder if it might give the error that "the repair service has not started". Anybody know how to launch the repair service from CMD? Also, how do I give myself permission to run SFC (to fix "Access is Denied")? Is there any way to log into my account from CMD?

    EDIT4: Another thing I wanted to mention is that before this problem occurred, I installed nVidia beta drivers.
    Last edited by dj1298j; 11 Apr 2014 at 07:44.
      My Computer


 
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