System Repair and System Restored, What does this mean?

In my profile, I've stated that I have a Windows 7 64-bit computer. I usually turn it on and off whenever I'm done using it or wish to use it as the everyday man would.

However just last week I was turning on my computer as normally, but after the "Starting Windows" logo disappeared and went to black, instead of taking me to the "Welcome" image, the screen remained black for a minute and the system reset itself asking for the options seen in the picture sample below:


Please note the image seen here is a MAC, while I myself have a PC. Regardless this is the image I saw. Upon hitting the recommended "Launch Startup Repair," I went through the process and it asked for System Restore, which it did. Afterwards, my computer reset yet again and turned on like it usually does as if nothing happened, with all the files from yesterday intact and unharmed.

While I shouldn't worry too much about it, what does/did this mean for my PC? Is/was there something wrong before? Does this happen often? What should I do to prevent it from happening again?

An error recovery message could be caused by different things. Your computer could have picked up a virus or other malware that has damaged or corrupted system files. Some piece of hardware (motherboard, hard drive, RAM) might be failing. A one-time power glitch could have resulted in a "Single Event Upset" that can trigger the error recovery. As could using the power button rather than the shutdown command.

Hopefully this was just a one time event. But there are a couple of things you can do to see if your computer is having software or hardware issues. One of the Forum experts prepared a troubleshooting guide that contains links to many different diagnostic checks as well as procedures to repair system files, check for malware, look for problematic drivers, etc.

Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

marsmimar said:

An error recovery message could be caused by different things. Your computer could have picked up a virus or other malware that has damaged or corrupted system files. Some piece of hardware (motherboard, hard drive, RAM) might be failing. A one-time power glitch could have resulted in a "Single Event Upset" that can trigger the error recovery. As could using the power button rather than the shutdown command.

Hopefully this was just a one time event. But there are a couple of things you can do to see if your computer is having software or hardware issues. One of the Forum experts prepared a troubleshooting guide that contains links to many different diagnostic checks as well as procedures to repair system files, check for malware, look for problematic drivers, etc.

Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

If it helps any, so far this has only been a one time event. I use Trend Micro for Internet Protection and it found no viruses of any sort. As for Hardware, I had a new Seagate 500 gbs Hard Drive installed back in August last year, and I also usually shut down my computer the usually way ("Start" -> "Shut down")

Goji73 said:

If it helps any, so far this has only been a one time event. I use Trend Micro for Internet Protection and it found no viruses of any sort. As for Hardware, I had a new Seagate 500 gbs Hard Drive installed back in August last year, and I also usually shut down my computer the usually way ("Start" -> "Shut down")

Since this appears to have been a one time event I wouldn't be overly concerned. In very technical terms, sometimes "stuff" happens for no apparent reason. :) If this becomes a regular issue, then by all means start going through the troubleshooting tutorial to see if you can isolate the problem.

A similar event happened today:

As I was turning on my computer as normally, after the "Starting Windows" logo disappeared and went to black again, instead of taking me to the "Welcome" image, the screen remained black for half-a-minute. Fortunately the system reset itself and this time took me to the welcome screen without asking for the options seen in the picture.

THIS has happened before my hard drive change and have been more "common" than the one on the first thread. Also by "common" I mean it would appear about 3-4 times a year. what would this mean?