Windows 7: Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery

If you've ever experienced a Startup RepairClick here to read the entire tutorial

ok, i've now found the disc, how do i get the disc to load? can i run it from command prompt?

thanks for your reply by the way, really comprehensive but i thought it'd be better to look for the disc again because i'm not confident with all that!

You have to boot the disk, have a look at this tutorial at the link below,

How To Change the Drive Boot Priority in BIOS


Then you can use this method to make back-ups of the data you need to save to the external.

How to Copy & Paste in Recovery Console on Windows 7 or Vista


When you get done with that post back here and we'll pick it up there.

dell seems to have it's own version of BIOS but I did find the priorities. changed it and no effect, back to the loop.
It also has an option to press F12 for the boot menu, where I also tried loading the CD/DVD drive and still back to the same problem!
I would like to be able to get it sorted myself but is it the sort of thing that a computer shop might be able to fix?
thanks again for your help

EDIT: the Dell version of BIOS has check boxes next to internall HDD and USB storage device along with the DVD drive. I unchecked these all apart from the dvd drive and it said there were no bootable devices (or something along those lines)

There is this possibility to restore to factory conditions but you will lose all your data in the process.

   Information

New Dell
Turn on the computer.

2 As the computer starts, press <F8> on the keyboard until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.

Note:
You must press <F8> before the Windows logo appears on the screen. If you press <F8> after the Windows logo appears on the screen, the Advanced Boot Options menu will not appear on the screen. If you do not see the Advanced Boot Options menu, restart the computer, and then repeat this step until you see the menu on the screen.

3 Press the <Down Arrow> on the keyboard to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press <Enter>.

4 Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.

5 Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.

6 Click Dell Factory Image Restore.

7 In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.

8 Click to select the Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition check box.

9 Click Next.
The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.

10 When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.
The software is now installed as it was when the computer was first received.

Hey there, i was doing it exactlly as you've said but my computer is still not starting up normally. It throws me on Startup Repair window every time i turn PC on. Everything was the same until that RegBack folder where my files have quite different numbers there for example: Default file has 425,984, Sam file has 28,672, Security has 24,576, Software file is doubled and System is 5,000,000 higher. I'm not sure if that has to do with anything or is it something else but that's kind of onlly diference i'm noticing.
TY

Hey I have also noticed that when i exited prompt window and opened it again to check something it reseted... Is that normal or is my computer just wierd?
TY

Thought I'd update....
I ended up having to take my hard drive to the IT technicians at University and they managed to get the important stuff off of it. This is lucky as computer repair shops would charge a fair amount. It turned out my hard drive was corrupt and couldn't be read properly. I bought a new hard drive and have spent the whole weekend reloading windows. The reason I couldn't boot from the CD was because the windows 7 disc I had was only an update disc, so I had to reload vista, then update it.
So now, it's fixed! But lost a fair amount of data, ie programs and videos.
Hope this helps.

very...very....veryyy good..
this is what happen to my girl lapton. better try this thing.

Great tutorial, thanks Dzomlija, bookmarked.

Hello...
Please help - I can get to Step 3 above, but then it does not go to Step 4... It just sits on a black screen forever.
I cannot get past the screen that asks if I want to run "Startup Repair" or "Start Windows Normally"...