Windows 7 won't start, hangs on "Starting Windows" screen, no logo

Try booting the installer and PW CD in another PC to see if they boot and work.

gregrocker said:

Try booting the installer and PW CD in another PC to see if they boot and work.

Here was the update I posted, in case you didn't see it:

[UPDATE] So I tried partition wizard on the F3, same exact sequence of events, with it loading to a black screen with a bunch of white words. Also says "NET: Requested protocol family 1". Searching that on google gave me nothing. I tried the new repair disk on the F3 as well, and still stuck on "Starting Windows" no logo. I'm going to let it stay like that overnight, see if maybe it's just taking a super long time to load or something. If it is still stuck like that tomorrow, I'll try using the Seatools utility you gave me.

It looks like my plan to use PW to wipe the hard drives and do a clean install of Windows 7 won't work since PW won't even load. I'm going to see if I can borrow a clean hard drive from a friend and install Windows there, then attempt to use Partition Wizard to see if I can salvage the SSD or the F3.


In regards to testing the discs on another PC, they worked flawlessly. I guess I'll try switching out the drives to see if maybe my DVD drive is acting up. Will try tomorrow.

Switched out the DVD drives, still didn't work.

What about writing a USB installer with the tool in Step 5 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot ?

If that fails use Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu.

gregrocker said:

What about writing a USB installer with the tool in Step 5 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot ?

If that fails use Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu.

Sorry this is late. I don't have a spare USB at the moment to create a USB installer. I'm going to borrow a friend's hard drive today and install fresh Win7 to see if I can fix the mbr on those two drives.

Would this plan work:

-Remove all drives and plug in only blank drive
-Install Win7 on blank drive
-Plug in SSD with blank drive still installed
-Boot to Partition Wizard CD and repair MBR for SSD
-Repeat with F3

I'm not positive if those are the correct steps.

Why would you do those steps? They seem unnecessary.

You don't need to install to a blank drive to boot PW CD to repair SSD MBR. You still need to boot the PW CD, or WIn7 installer from DVD or Flash stick, to try to repair Win7 or wipe the HD to reinstall it.

The problem is that you can't boot the disk so I would work on achieving that. Do these disks boot in another PC so you know they're good? There's a possibility the disks are burned incorrectly and aren't really bootable. Do you get a prompt to "Press any key" when you select them to boot?

gregrocker said:

Why would you do those steps? They seem unnecessary.

You don't need to install to a blank drive to boot PW CD to repair SSD MBR. You still need to boot the PW CD, or WIn7 installer from DVD or Flash stick, to try to repair Win7 or wipe the HD to reinstall it.

The problem is that you can't boot the disk so I would work on achieving that. Do these disks boot in another PC so you know they're good? There's a possibility the disks are burned incorrectly and aren't really bootable. Do you get a prompt to "Press any key" when you select them to boot?

The disks are good. I've booted them in my other rig, and they started up just fine. I get the prompt "Press any key" and everything works after that.

I'm actually a little worried right now because I put in my new hard drive and stuck in the Windows CD and it (once again) hangs on "Starting Windows". I'm going to leave it like that and check again after dinner but it looks a little troublesome...

And I would love to wipe the SSD to reinstall, but I can't since Windows 7 or PW CD won't boot =/

Then move the SSD to the other PC to wipe it using Diskpart Clean Command.

WHen you move it back to problem machine the known-good installer should boot itself on a wiped HD.

If this fails install to SSD on the other PC with its HD temporarily unplugged then SysPrep to move HD to another computer to adjust WIn7 to start on new hardware.

Did you reset the BIOS to defaults? Is there a BIOS update?

gregrocker said:

Then move the SSD to the other PC to wipe it using Diskpart Clean Command.

WHen you move it back to problem machine the known-good installer should boot itself on a wiped HD.

If this fails install to SSD on the other PC with its HD temporarily unplugged then SysPrep to move HD to another computer to adjust WIn7 to start on new hardware.

Did you reset the BIOS to defaults? Is there a BIOS update?

So the friend that gave me the blank hard drive recommended me to change the IDE mode to Legacy IDE and I did. I was able to repair the MBR for both my SSD and F3, and it looks fully functional (they're both up and running). S.M.A.R.T. readings from Speedfan says 33% good for the SSD and 97% for the F3. CrystalDiskInfo says 94% good for the SSD and just plain "good" for the F3.

From maker's HD diagnostics, I guess I'll have to use the Hitachi diagnostic for my drives, since Samsung isn't giving me anything. I'll run that test tomorrow