Windows 7 Not Booting Past Logo  

I'm running a 64-bit version of Windows 7 on my laptop.

Recently, I found a program called SlimDrivers on Lifehacker which basically automates the process of scanning for and downloading driver updates. Last night as I was running it, an error occured in a driver installation and required a reboot. I went through the reboot and my computer was just hanging at the shutdown screen for about 30 mins, so I decided to hard boot it by shutting it off by the power button.

Now, whenever I try to boot my computer, it sits at the "Starting Windows" screen with the Windows logo. I've left it there for up to 6 hours, absolutely nothing happens. I do not have the Windows 7 disc because this was an OEM install. How can I fix this?

Hyphen, welcome to the forums.

Sounds like the driver update broke something. Seeing as it is a laptop and you most likely didn't get an actual Windows disk follow option 2 here,

System Repair Disc - Create

to create a system repair disk, and then with that disk use it to run s system restore (assuming you haven't disabled it) to restore the computer to before the driver update. If you don't have a torrent client or uncomfortable with them you can find the 64 bit version (based on your specs) of it here,

Download Windows 7 64 bit Repair Disc.iso

Then once you have it restore to before the driver update, uninstall that drive update program and never install another one again. Programs like that are more comfort-ware at best,and snake-oil at worst. Even more so seeing as you have a laptop and for the most part any and all drivers for it should only come from the laptop manufacturer.

Okay, I've managed to boot a recovery disk via USB. I see tons of recovery points, yet when I try to restore I'm being told that "System Protection" must be enabled for the device? Why are recovery points being made if "System Protection" isn't enabled, how can I enable this through the command line or anything? I found what driver is broken by the way, is there some way I can roll that back? I can't boot into safe mode.

Can you boot into SafeMode?
Safe Mode

Last sentence:

Hyphen said:

I can't boot into safe mode.

Using the System Repair Disc,
go to a comand prompt.
Run SFC /SCANNOW.

Run sfc again if you didn't get a clean bill of health.

________________________________________
COMMAND PROMPT - GO TO A COMMAND PROMPT USING A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC
1) Insert System Repair Disc into optical reader.
2) Shutdown your computer.
3) Boot up your computer from the System Repair Disc
If your computer doesn’t boot from the optical drive, then
Immediately after pushing your Power ON button, start tapping the F2 key to get to the BIOS to change the boot order.OR
Immediately after pushing your Power ON button, start tapping the F12 key and choose CD/DVD to change the boot order only for this time.
4) Wait while a mini-version of Windows is loaded and finally the System Recovery Options dialog appears.
5) SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog |
Select a keyboard input method |
NEXT button
6) SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog
will search your system for installed versions of Windows.
7) SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS dialog |
select the Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows radio button |
NEXT button
8) SYSTEM RECOVERY OPTIONS |
Choose a recovery tool |
9) Click on command prompt from the list shown

Run any desired commands and type EXIT when finished.
Remove the System Repair Disc.
Shutdown your computer.
Power on your computer.
________________________________________

SFC /SCANNOW won't follow through and I get a message about a pending system repair and it asks me to restart, then I basically just get an infinite loop that continuously says that because it automatically attempts to repair my system every time I enter recovery.

Basically, I know what driver is causing the inability to boot. Is there any way I can disable it or roll it back from the recovery command line?

Using your System Repair Disc,
go to a command prompt and run
CHKDSK /R

karlsnooks said:

Using your System Repair Disc,
go to a command prompt and run
CHKDSK /R

Drive is write protected, won't work.