"Startup repair" failing - hard disk space issue?

sml156 said:

You did not answer the posts did you try to start it normally or safe mode

Sorry. I'm rebooting constantly. Regular and Safe and Safe with networking and Command Prompt. As of right now, it's still not booting to Windows... Only to
"Startup Repair" which then fails and only gives me the option to shut down, restart or go to the command prompt. I've asked for instructions on how to ensure I'm booting to C: --- but no one has responded with those instructions yet. I can press F8 repeatedly (while booting) to get to BIOS, but I don't know where to look to see if I'm booting to C: -- I have a feeling I'm not and that's the issue.

You can control the boot order in the BIOS, but even if the first device on the list was a non-bootable device (such as an empty DVD drive), it should simply skip it and try to boot from the next device on the list and arrive at C sooner or later.

Unless someone has been fiddling with the BIOS, I wouldn't expect it to be useful to you at this point. I assume your uncle wouldn't know how to get into it at all and couldn't have done something accidentally.

Who has had their hands on this machine in the last year: you, your uncle, a PC shop, and who else?

Why would a garden variety laptop owned by an unsophisticated user have an X drive? It's not standard.

Where was this machine purchased? Has anyone supposedly reinstalled Windows on it since the original purchase date?

$200 for a fix is ridiculous and I would be suspicious of that shop for that reason alone.

Or are you in Manhattan, land of the $10 glass of orange juice and 600 square foot "apartments".

Unless you have a bootable dvd or usb key your computer you must be starting in your c: drive the reason as I stated earlier when your computer starts in dos it creates a ram disk out of your ram and it gives a portion of ram a drive letter which is x:

Code:

RAM drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the only thing I can suggest is restoring your mbr

Code:

MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record

but you will need Windows 7 dvd or Windows 7 repair dvd . you could also run

Code:

SFC /SCANNOW 
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

again because I noticed in your picture when you ran it last it said to reboot and run it again

X is normally the Win7 Repair or Installation disk. It would normally have Sources but is strange it has Program Files on it, then C also shows Program files as well.

Anna, do a few reboots to see if you can get SFC /scannow to run as this is key to repairing any damaged system files. I know you also plan to run a AV boot disk to get an idea of how serious it might be infected, so those twin repairs will be crucial to trying to get it bootable again.

Earlier you posted Diskpart LIST DISK. It would be good to SELECT DISK 0 and then LIST PART. Then SEL PART # for each and DETAIL PART so we can see which is intended to boot Win7 because it is Active. This also is explicated more in Partition Marked Active.

You have a lot of good help here and may feel a bit piled on. Just remember that at any time you can bail out of repairs, use Partition Wizard disk to shrink from the left the C drive, then Clean Reinstall Windows 7 to the space you shrunk only and your files will be safe in their old C storage location until you can get them properly backed up.

After all you've been through and the ridiculous rates they want there, if you decide on this last resort I will walk you through reinstalling to shrink space, help you get online to install TeamViewer, then connect to perfectly set up your install per my tutorial, even help you delete the old C partitions' Windows folder which is easiest done from Win7 boot disk to Copy & Paste Delete - in Windows Recovery Console