Spent a year travelling while my desktop at home, crashes upon booting

gregrocker said:

Did you run the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test? It seems pretty definitive. I think I would have wiped the whole drive to see if it could repair after rescuiing any data if necessary using the step for that in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start. But when a failure code is given we're told not to ever trust it again. So the only question is if it is accurate. You can confirm that with Seagate Seatools or Partition Wizard Partition surface test .

Now is a good time to consider getting the best possible HD upgrade now with SSD prices going down to $50-60 for 120gb and $100 for 240 gb. The speeds are amazing, well worth the investment even for a larger one if you don't have another HD to store your data on or to do a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which steps are the same for retail and will assure a perfect install.

Yes I ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. First trying the Advanced Test (Computer crashes and shuts off during the "Analyzing Media" function. That's why I tried the quick test. I would wipe the drive but there are files on there (thesis, design projects, pictures, etc.) that I want to keep. I will try and do the copy & paste to save these files. Honestly, I should upgrade my HD, however; I'm very tight on money at the moment so I'm trying to salvage what I have until I can afford an upgrade. Will DEFINITELY follow these tutorials because I am desperate to at least save my files.

You need to save your files first before doing anything else. Not having files backed up is the same as saying they are disposable.

Plug the drive into another PC to copy them to its HD or other media, or use Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console from booted Win7 disk to copy to external, another HD or flash stick. Another method is Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free CD.

Then confirm the HD condition with Seatools or PW CD, or if it's plugged into another PC using Crystal Disk Info. If it fails again replace it and do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. If not proceed with Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start or wipe the HD using one of the HD test boot disks to reinstall.

gregrocker said:

You need to save your files first before doing anything else. Not having files backed up is the same as saying they are disposable.

Plug the drive into another PC to copy them to its HD or other media, or use Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console from booted Win7 disk to copy to external, another HD or flash stick. Another method is Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free CD.

Then confirm the HD condition with Seatools or PW CD, or if it's plugged into another PC using Crystal Disk Info. If it fails again replace it and do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. If not proceed with Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start or wipe the HD using one of the HD test boot disks to reinstall.

Thank you again for the input, this has all been extremely helpful!

Unfortunately I do not have another PC or HD and am unable to access Copy & Paste in Windows Recovery since I cannot boot windows. I tried the Paragon Rescue Kit but it will either let me copy over only a few files at a time (about 4 .doc files or pictures), and would inevitably freeze on me. I ran a slow burn to copy to the CD also just to be sure it copied well. I might end up trying to run Paragon again and copying over the files I absolutely cannot live without (there are a few but not too many, mostly word docs). I'll post updates if I am able to at least salvage these files with this program.

Computer0304 said:

You can use this as an alternative if you do not have another pc and you have little time to backup the whole drive on the borrowed system: Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS

I'm not too tech savvy but I noticed that this is for Linux based systems. I figured since you suggested it that it must work with Windows, however; I just wanted to double check :) Thanks for the info!

Update :

I was successfully able to pull the files I needed using Paragon Rescue Kit Checked to make sure my files were there using my laptop, and low and behold, nothing was lost.

I will continue to follow the steps in wiping my HD and running a diagnostics check to see if it is repairable. Thanks a million for all the help so far! I'll keep you updated on the status of my HD

I am still unable to boot to windows so I have taken the next course:

First, I downloaded windows defender offline to a usb and booted it. I ran the full scan, however; my PC crashed right at the end of the full scan. About halfway through the scan though, I am prompted with something along the lines of "there may be potentially hazardous or infected files from the preliminary scan" (I apologize it is not verbatim, it takes about an hour to show and my PC just crashed a few minutes ago). After trying that twice I ran the Memtest86+ to test my RAM. Again, my PC crashed during the full scan.

At this point I have all the files I need and am considering if wiping my HD is the next best option incase there is a virus, malware, trojan, etc.

Would any of you recommend this as the next course of action?

Mahalo and thank you again!

If you copied your files out be sure to keep them quarantined on stick or disk media until you can scan them with Malwarebytes and your AV before reimporting them

Then unplug all other drives, wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command and then Clean Install Windows 7.

Look over these same steps for doing a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which compiles everything that works best with Win7 to assure you get and keep a perfect install.

Let us know how it goes. There's still the possibility that there is a hardware problem which if indicated can be tested from the steps in the preface of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start