Windows 7: Startup Repair Failure - infinite loop repar not working

I am trying to repair a Samsung R519 laptop for a friend, so I don't know exactly what happened before it broke.

It would boot up to the initial splash screen on a black background and then go to a blank screen with just the cursor.

Samsung Recover Tool has been removed - C is blank and E is the system/data drive.

I have tried the startup repair infiinite loop recovery Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery

Nothing (seemed to) happen.

Then SFC /SCANNOW : Run in Command Prompt at Boot
when I ran this it said
"there is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart windows and run sfc again."

I tried removing pending item by deleting
C:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml
but still got the same error.

Tried using dism.exe as mentioned in How to removing a pending update that is preventing a successful boot (Network Steve Forum)
but got no mounted images found.

The laptop did not come with any installation or repair discs. I was able to make a repair disc as I have the same model.

I cannot use System Restore as the only images there are either corrupt or refer to c:\, although it does say "The drive cannot be found" when referring to c:

System Recovery refers to the OS as "Windows 7 Professional (recovered) on (E Windows 7".

The data on the laptop is trivial so it's just a question of getting it working again.

I've used F8 to get into Advanced Boot Options which no longer recognises the user name and password so I went through the repair infinite loop link used initially to undo what had been done.

That let me log back in but I'm no further forward.

Any help would be greatly received.

Problem details on Startup Repair now say:

StartupRepairOffline
6.1.7600.16385
6.1.7600.16385
unknown
21200994
ManualRepair
7
NoBootFailure
6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
1033

I would be tempted to reinstall , you can d/l the installation iso from digital river. Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

Use the product key on your friend's laptop - it should be on a sticker somewhere - perhaps under the battery .

You might need a driver or two - perhaps there is a specific nic driver for that model - you can d/l those from the manufacturer website beforehand on your working machine, and copy them onto a cd/usb/whatever.

http://www.odrivers.com/2012/05/sams...s-7-32-64.html

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/do...ownloadMain.do

I am assuming the machine came with Windows 7 originally - if not the product key on the sticker will be for the originally installed o/s.

Thank you. Hadn't thought of looking for the product code on the bottom of the laptop so thought I couldn't re-install.

Will give it a go, but tomorrow.

Everything you need is here to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Thank you both. Now have a very empty laptop with Windows 7.

There were steps in the tutorial to rescue your data if needed.

Stick with the tools and methods in the tutorial to maintain a perfect reinstall.

I think that was what he wanted.

I actually managed to recover the data as well which I wasn't expecting.