Windows 7 Home Premium won't boot

cwarep · 12 May 2014

Initially my desktop computer wouldn't turn on. Determination was my power supply had crapped out. I purchased a new power supply (different brand & more power capabilities) installed it and now my computer will not boot up completely. It goes through the BIOS and (as usual) stops at a page offering the option to boot to either Win Vista/2008 or Linux, which really is not an option, because I never completely installed Linux. I select the Win Vista/2008 option and get a page named Windows Error Recovery. Within that page are options, Launch Startup Repair (recommended) and Start Windows normally. Start Windows normally results in Windows partially starting, then stopping stopping at the point of the 4 Windows color dots beginning to spin, then re-booting to the options of Win Vista/2008.

After selecting option Launch Startup Repair(recommended), the message after the program has completed running says: Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.

Upon viewing the problem details on the page I see the following:
Problem signature
Problem Even Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 0.0.0.0
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 21200553
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
Problem Signature 06: 12
Problem Signature 07: NoBootCause
Os Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Local ID: 1033

If someone could please advise me of a fix for this situation I would be very grateful.

Mellon Head · 12 May 2014

Can you boot into Safe Mode?

Britton30 · 12 May 2014

Try re-running startup repair after a reboot, then repeat two more times. Your GRUB loader from Linux has probably taken over.

gregrocker · 12 May 2014

To reassert the Win7 boot loader which has been overridden by GRUB, you must first Mark Partition Active the 100mb System Reserved (preferred if you have it ) or C partition, then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times or it will not repair.

If this doesn't work then you need to delete the partition with GRUB on it as even having GRUB1 on the drive can keep Win7 from repairing. Then confirm Active and run repairs again.

cwarep · 13 May 2014

First thank you all for the rapid replies. Now I'll answer the question asked by Mellon Head (No I can't boot into Safe Mode) and reply to the suggestions.

To gregrocker: I'm not a total Newbie, but neither am I an expert either. I think I understand what you're telling me (reassert the Win7 boot loader which has been overridden by GRUB, you must first Mark Partition Active the 100mb System Reserved (preferred if you have it ) or C partition), but have no idea what you mean by GRUB, or how to go about "Mark Partition Active", because as stated initially, when I try to boot up my two choices are: Win Vista/2008 or Linux. In essence I only have the one real choice, since if I click on Linux it never finishes, probably because I never finished installing Linux after I attempted it, so I've never been able to boot to Linux, as its not fully installed/loaded. I don't have enough knowledge to argue differently, but I don't suspect that Linux really has anything to do with my problem, as I've always seen those two choices for booting ever since I attempted to install Linux a year or more ago.

To Britton30: I have probably re-run startup repair to-12 times with no change/luck.

After running the Startup Repair program I can get to another page, by clicking on the "View advanced options for system recovery and support". From there I can get to "Choose a recovery tool" where there are 5 options to select from: Startup Repair, System Restore, System Image Recovery, Windows memory Diagnostic and Command Prompt. The "Startup Repair" I've been through over and over. I've tried several different System Restore dates/points, but after running each of the latest 4 Restore points, at the completion they each finish with the notation: "System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed. Details: An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (ox80070002). You can try System Restore again and choose a different point.....)

I never made a System Image, so that option is out of the question. And the last two, Windows Memory Diagnostic and Command Prompt aren't any help either. I did go to the Command Prompt and tried to start Windows with the "Win" and "Windows" commands I remember from the earlier versions of Windows, but no luck their either.

Any other suggestions/recommendations or other software that might be helpful?

Britton30 · 13 May 2014

GRUB is a boot loader for Linux systems and it overwrite the w7 MBR, Master Boot Record. The blue text, Partition - Mark as Active Is a link to show how to do it. :)
Method 2 or 3 may work for you.

mjf · 13 May 2014

Unless done with care installing linux on the same drive as your Windows OS can cause grief. Numerous posts on this forum testify to this. In your situation I would
1) restore to a system image prior to the attempt to install linux or,
2) do a clean install or,
3) try this
MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record

gregrocker · 13 May 2014

If you don't confirm the Partition Marked Active
is the 100mb System Reserved (preferred if you have it) or C partition before running Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times then it will not repair.

Again you must confirm the Active partition or Startup Repair won't work!

When you click on the blue links it provides illustrated tutorials.

It doesn't matter if GRUB was used or not, you must Mark Partition Active or Startup Repair will not work to repair or rewrite Win7 boot loader.

cwarep · 14 May 2014

OK, guys, here's the latest.

Britton30 - Went to the link you gave and did Method 2 to re-write the MBR to C:\

mjf - I went to the link you gave and followed the directions.

gregrocker - I Partition Mark Active - the C:\ drive as you directed, although I think it was already the active drive, I did it anyway. Then ran the Startup Repair 4 times.

At the conclusion of Startup Repair the message is: "Windows can not repair this computer automatically. If you recently attached a device to this computer, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator, or computer manufacturer for assistance."

When I view the diagnostic and repair details, all the tests that were run indicate "Completed successfully, Error code = 0x0. At the end of the report the messages says: "The Diagnosis and repair details message is: Root cause found: Unspecified changes to system configuration have caused the problem."

So I'm wondering if the new power supply is what may be the "recently attached device" that has Windows in a tizzy, or something else?

When I attempt to boot up now I no longer see any reference to Linux. The choices are Launch Startup Repair (recommended) or Start Windows Normally. When I select Start Windows Normally, the booting process gets to the same place as when I first asked for help (the 4 colored dots that initially swirl around and turn into the Windows 4 colored flag) stop just before turning into the flag and then the computer goes into reboot and I'm back to the 2 choices again.

Any other suggestions, short of a clean re-install? Speaking of Re-install (I've never had to do one before) will I only lose all the programs I've installed, but not my other files such as pictures and music, or will everything be lost?

gregrocker · 14 May 2014

Have you unplugged all other Hard drives and peripherals during all repair attempts?

You can try the rest of the steps at Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.

The steps lead up to if necessary rescuiing your files via several methods.

Then follow these same steps for a Clean Install Windows 7.

In your case because of the possibility of Linux bootloader corruption, after rescuiing files I would wipe the hard drive with Diskpart Clean Command from the booted Win7 installation media's Command Line in System Recovery Options. This will clear any boot code that's interfering to give you the cleanest slate.

If you're interested in getting and keeping a perfect install based on the tools and methods that work best with Win7 look over this tutorial for a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which is same for retail.

For future reference here is the best way to Dual Boot - Windows 7 and Linux - Windows 7 Forums