Spent a year travelling while my desktop at home, crashes upon booting

gregrocker said:

If you copied your files out be sure to keep them quarantined on stick or disk media until you can scan them with Malwarebytes and your AV before reimporting them

Then unplug all other drives, wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command and then Clean Install Windows 7.

Look over these same steps for doing a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which compiles everything that works best with Win7 to assure you get and keep a perfect install.

Let us know how it goes. There's still the possibility that there is a hardware problem which if indicated can be tested from the steps in the preface of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

I was able to wipe my drive using the disk clean tutorial and did a clean install of windows 7 using the first clean install tutorial you suggested. I was successful and was able to set up windows 7. However; when I followed the last part of the tut to refresh my Windows Experience Index (WEI), I ran into some problems. I ran it the first time and my PC crashed, leading me to a BSOD. I again booted windows 7 and ran the WEI refresh, only to get an error message about half way through (about 10 minutes into running the Direct3D 10 ALU Assessment) stating that it was taking too long to check
*edit* I ran WEI a third time and after about 10 min the PC stayed powered on but the screen turned black.... Leading me to believe it is indeed my hardware...in that case, I would follow your suggestion of testing from the steps in the preface of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.

Thank you again :)

Sounds like it might also be your video card. Make sure you have the latest driver, consider reinstalling the card itself.

If you didn't get to go through the steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 did you at least enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) and then run all rounds of Important and Optional WIndows Updates until there are no more? There are many other best practices in there that work best for Win7, based on tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here.

Since you have a bootable install go over your install thoroughly using Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 which start with the hardware tests and also go over the OS to access all of the troubleshooting resources.

gregrocker said:

Sounds like it might also be your video card. Make sure you have the latest driver, consider reinstalling the card itself.

If you didn't get to go through the steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 did you at least enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) and then run all rounds of Important and Optional WIndows Updates until there are no more? There are many other best practices in there that work best for Win7, based on tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here.

Since you have a bootable install go over your install thoroughly using Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 which start with the hardware tests and also go over the OS to access all of the troubleshooting resources.

ALoha :)

After logging on I followed your suggestion and checked to see if step #3 had been taken care of in that tut. I found that indeed Windows Updates "Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update" was selected. I then proceeded todownload and install Windows Updates (147 of them, whoa!) They downloaded just fine but at about 40% installation my PC crashed and I got a BSOD.

Upon booting I noticed that some updates managed to get installed since I was prompted with a "windows is configuiring updates" loading % upon after booting. I'll keep downloading and updating them until I have all of them.

Since I am not too tech savvy, I am a bit unsure as how to remove hardware and reinstall it if need be. I'd love to learn though I have already learned so much in the past few days from all your advice and tuts, which has been extremely helpful. Thank you again!

Don't forget Optional Updates which is where most drivers are queued.

Resolve repeat errors and look for crash clues in logs, check System Resources for Solutions, establish and keep a Clean Boot, check for overheating, test all hardware, use the recommended AV and other Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

Thanks again! I installed all the updates and my PC is running smooth now. Running malwarebytes now. Windows is running but I will continue to troubleshoot any hardware. As of now, I believe everything is near par. Thank you tremendously again for the help! Could not have done it without your advice and guidance.

Glad to hear it. Let us know how it goes.

gregrocker said:

Glad to hear it. Let us know how it goes.

Perhaps I spoke too soon... at least now I am almost positive it is my HD giving me trouble. I had ran some test in windows 7 and was notified that it had crashed due to a hard drive problem. I was given a message in windows notification center along the lines of (pardon my paraphrasing here) , "Your computer crashed due to hard drive failure. This doesn't necessarily mean your HD is dead but it could be showing that your hard drive is on it's way out".

I am currently running Drive Fitness Test again in hopes that it will work this time. I figured maybe it will run since I was able to boot to windows 7 after clearing my hard drive and clean installing, but I'm not crossing my fingers.

Would it be safe to assume that it is indeed my hard drive barely grasping onto life? If so, are there any specific hard drives you would recommend?

Thanks!

Run the confirmation tests I gave you:

gregrocker said:

Did you run the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test? It seems pretty definitive. I think I would have wiped the whole drive to see if it could repair after rescuiing any data if necessary using the step for that in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start. But when a failure code is given we're told not to ever trust it again. So the only question is if it is accurate. You can confirm that with Seagate Seatools or Partition Wizard Partition surface test .

Now is a good time to consider getting the best possible HD upgrade now with SSD prices going down to $50-60 for 120gb and $100 for 240 gb. The speeds are amazing, well worth the investment even for a larger one if you don't have another HD to store your data on or to do a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which steps are the same for retail and will assure a perfect install.