Windows 7: Windows can't start after update

About a month ago I replaced my hard drive on my laptop. After reinstalling Windows 7 from some recovery disks I had I went through the process of updating the OS. After about a week of the computer being fine I went through another batch of windows updates and windows would not start. It kept going into the system repair which would never finish and bring me to the recovery manager. I can't do a system restore because my computer keeps telling me I have no recovery points. Even though I checked and I did have recovery points before this problem. The only thing I have been able to do is a factory reset. I have done it 3 times so far and each time after about a week this problem happens again. I'm not exactly sure which update it is but I do know that it an update after the SP1 update. Any input would be very much appreciated.

Hello pmeade92 and welcome to Seven Forums.

I think I'd run some diagnostic checks on that new hard drive to see if you got a bad one. SeaTools for Windows is a diagnostic made by Seagate that works on all hard drives, even those not made by Seagate. The manufacturer of the new hard drive probably has their own diagnostic tool available as well.

SeaTools | Seagate

It's also possible that soemthing within the updates is causing an issue. Whenever there's more than just a few updates I prefer installing them manually just a few at a time. Start with the critical/required, then the recommended, then the optional. Keep track of the KB numbers. Install the first group of 5 or 10, reboot the computer and see if everything works. If it does, install the next group, rebooting after each group installs. If any problems are noted you'll know exactly which group to uninstall. Reinstall each update individually and reboot after each one. They'll either install properly or you'll know which one is the problem. Save it for last and continue installing the next group. It's a lot slower this way but usually results in a better update experience.

Selective updates is the way no doubt! Have you tried booting up in safe mode at all? If you can get up in safe mode you can pick and choose which updates to remove by the dates they went on by looking over the "View updates history" option in the Control Panel>Windows updates section there.

Often what will be found is one or two updates saw a bad or failed install. Once you remove so many at a time until Windows can boot up normally then you would be pick and choosey about each one that you try again.

The other things you can try in the meantime would be the Startup repair tool to see if that will repair a non related problem that might be the cause as well as going to the command prompt option while booted live from either the recovery disk or a repair cd you could burn on another 7 machine for the repair tools cd.

Once at the command prompt you would simply type in the "chkdsk /r" command to schedule the Check Disk tool in case of any drive errors. Those can prevent a normal startup as well at times.

I cannot boot into safe mode. The startup repair doesn't ever finish. It eventually freezes up and then goes to the recovery manager. I have run chkdsk and the first time it said there was a pending repair and I needed to restart the computer, which did nothing. When I run chkdsk from the recovery manager it goes to about 9% and then restarts.

There are two main things that would cause that type of problem since no Windows processes are loaded when the tool runs. 1) The volume perhaps partition table if not numerous system files are corrupted. 2) Or the drive may have been bought new with bad sectors and not be working properly.

I tend to suspect you may have to return the drive under the limited warranty for exchange or refund if everything else you try fails to get anywhere. I've never run into any new drive I couldn't OS and see a working result with unless the drive was bad from the start. Typically it would be some other hardware issue not the drive that would cause problems.

What make and model is the drive itself? Generally the drive manufacturer will provide it's own diagnostics program found at their support site. The SeaTools will work on a large number of brands but not all brands with newer ones popping up over the last few years or so. But you will need something to point at or rule out the drive as being defective.

I have same problem on an Asus netbook. first time it was able to restart using recovery points. Then after next Update, it shows no recovery points and no troubleshoot option (Safe mode/command prompt/no networking) finish starting up. No Hard Drive change on mine, was working OK until that time. Ahh, can not find a recovery partition or factory restart. Any ideas?

Welcome to SF! bluecuban

If you had custom installed 7 on the netbook there by way of a USB Install Key or made up any repair cd on another 7 machine you could create an iso image of you could boot from a flash drive to run the repair tools option. You might have to start a System Restore from there if a few good restore points were found or run the Startup repair tool a few times in order get up in safe mode at least to roll back some of the updates.

On occasion an update will see a bad or partial only install resulting in boot problems. At least if you made it up in safe mode you could get into the Control Panel>Windows Updates section and look over the Windows updates history to pick and choose the latest for removal. But you will need some type of bootable media for this either by flash drive or external usb optical drive to run any of the repair tools while booting live from disk or flash drive.