Windows 7 Won't Boot (Can't even boot startup repair)

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  1. Posts : 13
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
       #1

    Windows 7 Won't Boot (Can't even boot startup repair)


    Hardware Information (This is from memory and may not be completely accurate):

    The computer model is emachines
    The processor is a dual core Intel Pentium
    The graphics card is NVIDIA (Can't remember the model.)
    4GB of RAM installed

    Software Information (Also from memory, but this is likely to be more accurate than the hardware.):
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Antivirus software is Comodo Internet Security - Also the firewall (product information).
    I often used Advanced System Care for optimization. - product information.

    Okay, so, after searching the internet for ways to fix my problem for the past three days, I'm at a complete loss. I was told by a professional that my registry was likely corrupted and that my best bet would be to re-install Windows entirely. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that, but was prepared nonetheless.

    So I inserted the installation disk, and wouldn't you know it, the installer wouldn't recognize my hard drive (BIOS recognizes it though). Searching for reasons why this was happening only turned up people saying to make sure it was recognized by BIOS, which I considered a no brainier. When it still didn't work for people in certain threads, they were told to try wiping their hard drives. I've done it. Windows still doesn't want to notice my hard drive.

    After that, I decided to try and install Windows to an external hard drive. I know this isn't how Windows was designed, and I knew it wasn't how Windows was meant to be used, but I was (to my knowledge) out of other options (Also, the external hard drive has 1 TB of space on it, so I wasn't concerned about speed loss). So, I searched for ways to do that, and I came across PWboot. The first half of the installation worked, the second half did not. I began getting an error that read (bootmgr is missing press ctrlalt+delete to reboot.) Which I did. But that didn't fix anything. So I tried the entire process again, and it didn't work.

    The "Repair your computer" feature in the windows install disk turned up nothing as well. I can't "Factory Reset" because it can't detect any installation of windows, the startup repair function can't "repair this computer automatically", and none of the other options will even open (with the exception of the command prompt, but most of the commands aren't valid for some reason.)

    I have been to corners of the internet that I didn't know existed during the last few days. I am tired, and I am frustrated. I really, really need your help, sevenforums.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Professional
       #2

    Did windows update your Atheros wireless driver lately? If so I can help.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 13
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
    Thread Starter
       #3

    No, but thanks, I forgot to mention that I was using a C-NET CQU-906 wireless dongle (product information) in the OP.

    EDIT: On an off-topic note, Tennessee is awesome. I was born there.
    Last edited by Tiamarth; 08 Aug 2012 at 13:24. Reason: Noticed Tennessee's state flag
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 4,751
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1
       #4

    Just to be sure, did you insert the Win 7 disk, shut down your PC and reboot with the Win 7 disk in your DVD drive? Is that when the boot failed? == Did you burn the disk from a file or did you buy the disk? Is it a full retail version, upgrade or OEM? Let us know and hopefully it will start a path to recovery.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 13
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
    Thread Starter
       #5

    bigmck said:
    Just to be sure, did you insert the Win 7 disk, shut down your PC and reboot with the Win 7 disk in your DVD drive? Is that when the boot failed?
    No, I've always used Windows, it came installed on the computer. The regular boot process just failed randomly a few days ago.

    bigmck said:
    Did you burn the disk from a file or did you buy the disk?
    I borrowed a friend's installation disk as the computer I bought didn't come with any discs whatsoever.

    bigmck said:
    Is it a full retail version, upgrade or OEM? Let us know and hopefully it will start a path to recovery.
    It is the full retail version.

    EDIT: Also, I'm curios, would installing Windows on an external hard drive be truly impossible? Because the external hard drive I had tried installing to actually has around 400 more GBs of space than my internal one.
    Last edited by Tiamarth; 08 Aug 2012 at 14:49. Reason: curiosity's sake
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 4,751
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1
       #6

    Tiamarth said:
    bigmck said:
    Just to be sure, did you insert the Win 7 disk, shut down your PC and reboot with the Win 7 disk in your DVD drive? Is that when the boot failed?
    No, I've always used Windows, it came installed on the computer. The regular boot process just failed randomly a few days ago.
    You can't install Windows unless you insert the DVD and boot from that as I have shown above. If you do that, the install will start for you. Forget about doing it on the external drive.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 13
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Hmmm, maybe I mis-understood your initial question, so let me just reiterate. Windows stopped booting. I inserted the installation disk. When it finished loading and asked on which drive I would like to install Windows, my internal hard drive was not listed, and Windows said that it could not install to an external hard drive. I can boot from the installation disk just fine, but that doesn't help at all unless I can complete the installation or otherwise repair a previous installation of Windows. Neither of which seems to be working.

    Forgive me if I seem to be slow. I'm very tired.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 4,751
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1
       #8

    Tiamarth said:
    Hmmm, maybe I mis-understood your initial question, so let me just reiterate. Windows stopped booting. I inserted the installation disk. When it finished loading and asked on which drive I would like to install Windows, my internal hard drive was not listed, and Windows said that it could not install to an external hard drive. I can boot from the installation disk just fine, but that doesn't help at all unless I can complete the installation or otherwise repair a previous installation of Windows. Neither of which seems to be working.
    Sorry, I misunderstood the sequence of things. You are doing the install right, it just seems to me that the Hard Drive has died. It stopped booting a few days ago and now when you try to reinstall Windows, you drive is not listed. I think it is dead. You would need to get a new HD and then you should be OK to install Windows. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I don't guess it is under warranty. The good thing is that HD are really cheap. One thing you might consider is a Solid State Disk (SSD). They will speed up your computer a lot. You can get a 120 GB one for under $100, so that might be an option if you want to speed up your PC for a cheap price. If you have any questions about getting a new HD or SSD, let me know.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 13
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
    Thread Starter
       #9

    I thought that too, but the BIOS detects the hard drive, and I can edit the hard drive from portable operating systems. So how can the hard drive be dead? I'm new to hardware, I work with software, so it's very possible that I'm missing something.

    If the hard drive is dead, then I'm brought back to my question about installing Windows on an external hard drive, because I'm not in a situation where I can afford a new hard drive.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 4,751
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - Build 7600 SP1
       #10

    Tiamarth said:
    I thought that too, but the BIOS detects the hard drive, and I can edit the hard drive from portable operating systems. So how can the hard drive be dead? I'm new to hardware, I work with software, so it's very possible that I'm missing something.

    If the hard drive is dead, then I'm brought back to my question about installing Windows on an external hard drive, because I'm not in a situation where I can afford a new hard drive.
    I don't know if you can do that or not. Why don't you start a new thread and ask two questions in your first post. == 1 - If the HD shows up in Bios, does that mean it is not dead and 2 -- Ask if you can install Windows to a external drive. Mark this thread as "Solved" It will on the left at the bottom of your post.
      My Computer


 
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