Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery

Seanmorgan said:

hi i tried to use this to get out of my loop but my only option on system recovery options is start up repair. what can i do?

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Hello Sean, and welcome to Seven Forums.

See if you may be able to use either step in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below to open a command prompt at boot to then be able to do the tutorial on the first page.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/682-command-prompt-startup.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi! Last week I got my family's computer working again with these instructions, but now it's happened again and it doesn't work :/ The first time, when I clicked normal startup it reached the logo part, but now when I click it it goes directly to startup repair, which obviously doesn't work. I also tried fixboot, fixmbr, rebuildbcd and chkdsk but nothing, and the two restore points end up in error... Any ideas?

Is your repair disc working? Mine gave me many errors so I created one to replace the defective one. But after many attempts and realizing that my files were lost (temporarily), I removed the Hard Drive and connected it to another PC, used multiple recovery programs to recover more than 50% of the lost files and restoring the Laptop to factory new, by using the DVDs I created the first time I configured the Laptop. If you have the DVDs to restore the system to Factory New and you have all your files safe and sound, just Nuke it with the DVD created for Factory new. Is this Windows 7 or 8?

Hi, thanks for the response. It's Windows 7. I created a repair disk too last week since the options included wasn't working and I tried it the first time we had this problem, but again, it didn't work. I didn't check it this time so I'll do it now, though I don't have much hope it will work, but anyway. In this case, luckily the files don't seem to be damaged. I can see everything is there through the notepad and also through a windows xp portable I downloaded (which by the way doesn't let me do much)

I'll also add this: the last one to use that computer was my brother and he says that he saw something related to Microsoft Windows Defender (and maybe DirectX?, he doesn't remember..) Well the thing is that the last checkpoint was made last night automatically and it's named Windows Defender Checkpoint. So maybe something related to a virus or some kind of malware? I tried to run Malwarebytes Anti-malware through that WXP portable but it doesn't let me...)

Did you try to use the Windows 7 media instead of the repair disk? Booting from it will give the option of either installing windows or a repair. Choosing repair will send you to multiple options, like the simple repair start up problems and then on. Then you have the system restore option there too. But if you already tried all this, then I'm wasting your time.

There are two options I could try but one of them is too expensive. The cheapest one is to take out the HD, connect it to another PC (USB enclosure) and try the Disk Error Checking tool. Checkmark both Automatically Fix File System Errors and Scan and Recover bad sectors. The expensive one is to have another drive, same capacity or more, and try to clone the troublesome one. I did that once with a Windows XP system (Dell) that went on a loop when starting up (Windows XP Logo). Cloning the drive worked, I've no idea if the cloning process skipped the bad sectors but it worked. But don't waste money in buying another HD. I only suggest this option if you already have one, just in case. For cloning, I used the Acronis version that Western Digital let you download for free. I'm not sure if either the Source or the Target disk need to be Western Digital but it's just an idea (crazy one).

ADDENDUM

The cloning was pure luck because the original plan was to buy the HD to replace the one with the XP Logo Startup loop. Since it was a Dell, we had the Restoration CD to use with the new HD. The cloning was just an experiment I did to see if I got the same results (startup Loop) like with the old one. Surprisingly, the system booted normally so I didn't need to go through the tiresome re-installation process.

Again, if you happen to have an extra HD, same capacity (or more) as the "defective" one, try the experiment.

Sorry, I just arrive home so I couldn't reply earlier. At the end my dad decided to take the cpu to a pc repairman this morning. Luckily we could do some backups of a few important personal files that were stored in the main partition (which I guess will be formatted) through the xp portable I had downloaded. Anyway, thanks skunky62 for taking time and try to help

This seems perfect for my predicament, all except for the fact that when I select Startup Repair from he booting menu, it goes straight to a black screen, F8 doesn't work either.

Hello everyone!
This evening, my computer forcibly restarted, and after fussing with it, I was finally able to get to the command prompt. I followed all of the steps provided, yet I was unable to get the computer to boot up normally. In addition, I tried a System Restore which was "successful," though after it was finished, startup repair booted up for five seconds and then claimed that it couldn't do anything to solve the problem. Has anyone else experienced this sort of problem? If any of you have suggestions/tips, they would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time and effort. (I'm doing this on a Dell Inspiron N7010 with Windows 7 if that makes any difference.)

samcham said:

This seems perfect for my predicament, all except for the fact that when I select Startup Repair from he booting menu, it goes straight to a black screen, F8 doesn't work either.

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If you can't get to System Restore, then re-install the OS again. If you previously created the DVDs to restore the system to factory new, don't waste your time. Try saving your data to another PC and Presto.

ConnorPhillips said:

Hello everyone!
This evening, my computer forcibly restarted, and after fussing with it, I was finally able to get to the command prompt. I followed all of the steps provided, yet I was unable to get the computer to boot up normally. In addition, I tried a System Restore which was "successful," though after it was finished, startup repair booted up for five seconds and then claimed that it couldn't do anything to solve the problem. Has anyone else experienced this sort of problem? If any of you have suggestions/tips, they would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time and effort. (I'm doing this on a Dell Inspiron N7010 with Windows 7 if that makes any difference.)

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Almost. Did you try all the System Restore shown? Why not try an earlier one until you exhaust them all? If that doesn't work, I'm sure Dell gave you the system with a restoration DVD. Go for it, after saving the Data to another PC or drive. My hellish experience, you can see all my posts from late last year, with Dell Inspiron was ridiculous. That was the first model where you couldn't remove the HD so easily. You needed a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering to take out the stupid HD.

Should I try disabling Norton 360 via command prompt first? I've heard that antivirus software sometimes messes with System Restore. I'll try all of the other restore points like you suggested. Thanks!

ConnorPhillips said:

Should I try disabling Norton 360 via command prompt first? I've heard that antivirus software sometimes messes with System Restore. I'll try all of the other restore points like you suggested. Thanks!

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I've no idea about Norton 360 because I don't trust Symantec. I used to trust Peter Norton but he sold his name more than a decade ago. Try other System Restore points until there are none.

I tried going through all of the System Restore points, but still no luck. In addition, I tried re-installing Windows 7 using the disk I bought, but I had no luck with that, either. Furthermore, I don't think I was given a restoration DVD of any sort with the computer. Any idea as to what I should do next?
This is one of the reasons why I try to avoid updates as much as possible... -.-

ConnorPhillips said:

I tried going through all of the System Restore points, but still no luck. In addition, I tried re-installing Windows 7 using the disk I bought, but I had no luck with that, either. Furthermore, I don't think I was given a restoration DVD of any sort with the computer. Any idea as to what I should do next?
This is one of the reasons why I try to avoid updates as much as possible... -.-

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Download your Windows 7 version (Home Premium, Pro, etc.) from DigitalRiver (ISO files) and start anew. The Windows Lic. /Activation number for your system should be underneath it. Just download the Drivers for your System from Dell itself, by using Dell's Tag Number.

Microsoft (a possible link to DigitalRiver Win 7 Download)

Well, I finally got the laptop to do a clean install of Windows. Now all that's left is to fix my internet connection. Thanks for all the help!

help

When I get to step 5 and I Click View advanced options for system recovery and support. It don't bring me to the main System Recovery Options screen. Instead some drop down menu to select a keyboard input method and then when i choose my language a menu opens after i click next and it ask me to choose a recovery tool and i get the options to shut down or restart. Can anyone help

Instead of going all the way through to step 5, just choose command prompt the first time. It's worth a try.

It does not even let do that.

Hello Bradley, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if you may be able to boot from a System Repair Disc created on another 32-bit W7 computer and do the Startup Repair tutorial with instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Brink, you are a hero beyond measure.

Today I created an account just to give you the greatest of thanks! For the last half decade i've been using a Mac as my main machine and have it setup to stop this kind of fuss down to a Tee.

I've been keeping up with all windows related things however as I use it at work and so do all of my tech friends. At some point I knew that i was going to build something mean to produce music on/game on etc. That happened this September and I'd been collecting software for it for the previous 12 months. Suffice to say it got built within a week and I poured literally a hundred hours into the software build, tweaking everything to my preferences and getting it setup perfectly to match the useability of my Mac.

Two weeks later, just as I was getting round to my first backup, it died inexplicably (I thought it was a beta version of Firefox that did it but have no way of confirming this). After a further two weeks of reading every night trying to fix it I got nowhere, none of my friends had any helpful suggestions and I just wanted to cry. Fast forward two months and my grands worth of rig has been sitting in the corner collecting dust because I couldn't face the rebuild.

Tonight I thought I would have one last google and this thread popped up, I followed your instructions to the letter thinking that it wouldn't work and there it was, the shiny LogIn screen I have so longed for. I nearly cried. I love you.

Hello Acronis True Image. Let's do this.