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Laptop Won't Boot, can't get past Initial Windows Screen
Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section. If I've put this in the wrong area, you have my apologies.
My laptop has had an immense amount of trouble booting over the past couple of weeks. I've google searched and tried every trick I could find to fix the problem, but things have only gotten worse. I've even tried posting the ordeal on another forum in the hopes that I could get some help, but I think it just annoyed people that I posted a wall text instead... so I'd like to start over in my attempts to troubleshoot this problem and hopefully get some help. I'm past the point of coming out of this unscathed, but I really want to avoid a system restore. I've foolishly put off backing up my stuff for the 8 months that I've owned my laptop, so only as a last resort would I prefer to do that.
Specs:
Acer Aspire 7741Z-4643
- intel pentium processor P6100 (2.0 Hz, 3MB L3 cache)
- intel HD graphics
- 3GB DDR3 Memory
- 250GB SATA hard drive
- Running on windows Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition
Here's exactly what happens when I try to boot:
First it shows the Acer logo, then the blinking cursor (Where I can hit f8 for more options), then I get to a screen that tells me Windows can't start up. It recommends that I do startup repair, but starting windows normally is also an option. If I do that, it tells me that it's attempting repairs and pretty much nothing happens. It says that it may take over an hour, but I waited much, much longer than that to no avail. I believe I waited about 5 hours the first time, then 6 the second time. Nothing was happening, so I forced a shutdown.
If I try to run windows normally, it gets stuck at the initial windows screen where you see the logo come into effect, except for me the logo never comes up. Sometimes, after a few minutes it automatically goes to startup repair.
If I hit f8 at the black screen with blinking cursor that I mentioned above, I get more options, such as system recovery, booting into Safe Mode and returning to last known good configuration etc.
When I attempt Safe Mode, it tells me that Windows is loading files. Now, I know what Safe Mode looks like, it's supposed to list a bunch of files before the booting actually occurs, but for me, it just freezes without anything being listed.
When I try last known good configuration, it goes straight to the windows screen that still won't load, and eventually startup repair will show up.
When I go to the system recovery options, I'm asked for my keyboard input, which is at US by default, and then I click next. From there, it takes about 5 minutes to load, but eventually I see a bunch of options: startup repair, system restore, system image recovery, windows memory diagnostic, command prompt, recovery management.
I've tried some things in command prompt to no avail, but I'm open to any suggestions.
Can anyone help?