Perpetual start up repair purgatory.

I seem to have spent quite a lot of time to not get very far, getting up in the night to switch download files etc...!

Firstly I now have 3 seperate downloaded copies of x-17 58997, all of them are the same size at 3,243,070 KB.

As they came from;

Windows 7 Direct Download Links, Official Disk Images from Digital River

I downloaded on a new formatted disc and verified to confirm it was complete.

This gave me the error as before CD/DVD failure.

Yet we know the CD/DVD can work and I was as careful as I could to construct the disc.

Next I went to the MIni tools partion tool. rebuilt MBR,,,,tried to reboot...as before, default to widows start up repair recommended,,,blue screen...etc.....

Here are the photos of the partitions;

I then went on to look at the hard drive using the surface scan.

It showed 2 errors after 1% of scan was completed, when fully run there were only the same 2 errors

pic below..

Next on to Sea Tools download.

I am currently running SeaTools for DOS which is taking forever the picture shows 16 errors detected at 7% of scan.
Currently at 33% and still 16 errors detected.........I assume I should continue?

I have also downloaded IMG burn and copied another V17-59887 IOS image to a new disc.

I assume this is ok as the celebratory music startled me an it said it was completed!

Grateful as ever for what to do next?

I am waiting on the Sea Tools scan to finish...another 2 hours???

Then I was going to attempt to boot with my newly formed Img burn 58997 IOS.

Would that be in order or is the Hard drive too much of a problem?

Cheers

You are doing great, learning and progressing.

The HD tests do not look good but Seatools results should determine whether you keep the HD or replace it - ideally with an SSD for unbelievably fast performance. Google a video for your "PC model + replace hard drive with SSD" to see how to access and replace.

If the HD is iffy you can still try repairing or reinstalling if you can get the Win7 disk to boot. Are you sure you have a DVD drive and does it say DVD on the drive?

If you can boot the Win7 DVD to rescue any files and try repairs outlined earlier and further in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start, you can report back your progress for other suggestions. At any time you can also cut to the reinstall. I would full format my drive due to the problems it has, using the commands in Step 2.2 of SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation.

If you can't get the DVD to boot then boot PW CD to Quick Wipe the HD, which should force the Win7 disk to autostart itself to do the above formatting commands.

Then Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. You'd want to follow those same steps if your replace the HD.

Apologies for my lack of follow up after all of your help.

I have had to do a system restore on the Windows 8 computer I borrowed, which took nearly 9 hours.

This not a new found desire to play with computers, more a run of dreadfully bad luck!

Back to my troublesome Toshiba,

I was waiting for the results of the SeaTools Hard drive test, which took around 3 1/2 hours.

The outcome was that it failed both the short and extended tests.

Photos attached with the logs.

After this, once the disc drive was available I tried the run the Image burn version if the 58997 ISO that I had yet to try.

No dice, the same story, defaults to start up recovery recommended then blue screen and large cursor.

So, based on logs and test results, is it safe to say I cannot proceed from here until I change the hard drive for another...at which point hopefully an ISO will boot up and I can use my existing code.

Cheers

Yes, everything you need has been outlined already. Ask back any questions.

Keep the thread open until you have your new SSD (preferred) with a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

While I am waiting for my new hard drive to arrive (sorry funds prohibited an SSD), I thought I would try to recover some of my old documents and photos.

Searching on this excellent resource I came upon the Peppermint tutorial.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...cy-backup.html

( I posted at the end of that thread with my problem).

The application seems to run smoothly, but the document folders Peppermint on my unbootable laptop with damaged HD finds are empty...

I am able to drag and drop the empty files over to my USB external hard drive.

Any thoughts please as to why my document folders are empty?

The latest version from the link is Peppermint 5, I downloaded the 32 bit version rather than the 64 as I assumed it would keep things simple?...is that my issue here?

Cheers.

Cross check it with Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console
or Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free CD

Gregrocker, Thanks again for your help.

The windows 7 cut n paste recovery is not working for me, as as soon a we go near recovery, it reverts to blue screen etc..

Paragon 11 is potentially more interesting,

My aim is to copy and retrieve my previous documents/downloads/pictures.

I get to the file transfer wizard and can't work out where to go next..... I have opened various parts of that screen, but none look like documents/downloads/pictures.

I have looked at the "help" section and online........Here is the screen I see where I hope to find the documents etc..

What should be my next move?

Cheers.

Double click D to see if you can find any and move to Clipboard. You'll need to save them to a USB device or another HD.

I clicked on D drive and found

depositfiles

and documents and settings pasted these to the clip board.

I am running Paragon from the CD/DVD drive and have a fresh formatted USB flash drive in the USB port.

I need to find a path to send the files on clipboard, but it doesn't seem to recognise the USB drive as an option?

Please advise where I should send the files on the clipboard to retrive them.

Screen 1 shows clipboard

Screen 2 shows Path destination.

Cheers..