Windows won't start, also won't start in safe mode.

On Friday when booting windows failed to start and went into auto-repair. It did start then and again the next day. However this morning it failed again and the auto-repair was not able to resolve the issue, including when I told it to do a system restore.

I have tried to start windows in safe mode but rather than booting and the list of windows files is done I get a blue screen for 1 second and am back at the windows failed to launch screen (repair windows or start normally options). On two occasions while tapping f8 to get into safe mode while the screen was displaying "boot from cd/dvd" an error message came up stating that there was a disk read error.

It sounds like it's possible the hard disk has developed a problem. I'd suggest going to the manuf's website and downloading their tool for checking that specific model drive. Hopefully they will have an ISO that can be burned to CD or USB stick and you can boot into the tool and have it check the drive.

To boot from a CD or USB stick this option must be enabled in the BIOS... and sometimes the advanced boot screen that allows one to choose to boot from an alternate device has to be enabled before it can be accessed during boot (usually by tapping F12, but it can be different for different machines). So you might have to boot into the BIOS to enable these things before it will boot from a CD or USB stick.

But maybe someone else has another preliminary, easier option to try first. But a read error sounds indicative of a HD problem.

Is the HD detected in BIOS setup when you check under Storage Devices, Hard Drives, or Boot Order Priority.

If not you'll need to try another cable, reseat the drive if laptop, to try to get it detected in BIOS, or replace it to do a Clean Reinstall Windows 7

If the HD is detected then download and burn to disk with Windows Image Burner the maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan, followed by Disk Check from the Win7 installer or Repair CD's Command Line in System Recovery Options .

If HD is detected work through the other steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

HD is showing up in BIOS. It's a Samsung hd103sj.

I made a windows 7 bootable sub but when I tried to do a clean install it said it could not partition the hd, so it sounds like my hd is stuffed. I'll try and find something from Samsung for checking the disk.

Thanks for the assistance.

There's no Samsung bootable test, so I'd use Seagate Seatools burned to disk with Windows Image Burner, or Partition surface test with Partition Wizard bootable CD.

Then from the Win7 disk or Repair CD System Recovery Options Command Line run a full Disk Check.