Windows 7 boot failure: error ‘0xc0000225’: can't repair or reinstall

Hi guys


I’d be very grateful for a bit of help please.


My 3 year old Samsung RV720 laptop wouldn’t boot into Windows 7 today – , was fine yesterday, but today it just hung at the Win7 startup logo.



I haven’t installed anything new on the laptop since July (except Windows updates) because I only really use the laptop for photography hols away from home, and to watch catchup programmes on my TV each day from the BBC and Channel 4 here in the UK, whose websites can be trusted.


I tried to reboot it from the recovery console, in safe mode and also in safe mode with command prompt, it hung as soon as it started loading drivers.


I tried to start windows from the recovery console with the last known good configuration and it hung at the startup logo again.


I checked the bios and my 4mb of memory in 1 slot is listed and my 750gb hdd is listed in the boot priority, CD first, HDD second, same as usual.


I tried to invoke the Samsung recovery via F4 at boot and I got the message ‘an error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data’ and error code ‘0xc0000225’ and telling me to insert recovery disk.


I tried to use repair your computer from the built in recovery console and it loaded files but it hung at the first blue Windows background screen (with the leaves and the bird), just a cursor never got any text or options.


I tried to run repair your computer from my bootable rescue disk and from a second bootable Win7 system repair disk, it loaded files, then hung with a spinning disk at the first system recovery options prompt, ‘select an operating system to repair’. Waited ages several times.


I tried to reinstall Windows and after pressing install it went to the next screen, said it was starting and hung. Waited an hour...



I downloaded an ISO and ran Sea Tools for DOS HDD Diagnostic and that told me there was no hard disk - why?


I downloaded Samsung HUTIL HDD ISO but it came back with lots of errors I didn’t understand including an 'out of mem error' ?


I downloaded an ISO for MemTest86 and it passed all the memory tests the first time around, but the second time around it said bits in error: total 1, error confidence value: 236


I’m thinking it’s a new HDD? But I’m worried about the memory too?



Spent 6 hours all in all reading and testing and I’m out of ideas now. Please can somebody who knows more about PCs help me maybe?


Many thanks.

Wow, you really tried a lot of stuff. Good on you. One thing ... you stated you ran Seagate Tools and got 'no hard drive' then you ran the Samsung tools and got errors. Is the hard drive a Samsung or a Seagate? Each manufacturer has its own hard drive tools, so if you don't have a Seagate, that's why the Seagate tool said there was no hard drive installed.

Even within a manuf they sometimes have different tools for different series' of drives. So first thing is, I'd find the exact model of the hard drive, then find the tool for that exact drive from the manuf and run that tool.

The mem test could also be a problem, but if it were me I'd start with squaring away the HD. If I kept getting errors trying to do that that I thought might be due to a bad memory stick (i.e. stick of RAM), then I'd swap that stick out with another if I had another compatible stick on hand. But as far as the odds, it's more likely the hard drive is having a problem than the RAM stick. RAM has no moving parts and while a stick can certainly go bad, the hard disk is more vulnerable and more likely to develop a problem. JMO.

EDIT: I don't know if you have any Linux Live drives (memory sticks with a bootable portable version of Linux), but if you do you could boot from the mem stick into Linux, then mount the internal drive from within Linux and format it from there. This would of course wipe all your data but you have already tried steps to reinstall Windows so I am assuming you don't mind. Once the drive is formatted from inside Linux you could power down, then boot from a Windows CD and try re-installing Windows again, or better first, boot from the manuf HD tool (assuming there is an ISO and you can make a bootable CD or mem stick with it) and check the drive first.

Work through Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.

Download Win7 Home Premium x64 SP1 English Official ISO download
burn to disk with Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool.

If disk won't boot from BIOS, try triggering it with F12 menu. If it won't boot try resetting BIOS to Defaults in BIOS setup via F2 or whatever key your model uses.

If disk won't boot no matter what, try flash stick.

Thanks

HDD is a Samsung HN-M750MBB. I guess that's why Seatools for DOS said no disk then.

I just ran Windows Memory Diagnostic Test from the recovery disk and it passed ok so we'll park that for now then.

So I guess I need to get Samsung HUTIL or another bootable HDD diagnostic test to run. I tried to check I was using the correct utility on the Samsung website (Samsung Hard Drives) but I can't see it?

Samsung HUTIL errors scroll off screen. What I can see says:
'Can't open CD driver CD001.
'SHSUCDX can't install'
Turbodisk 2.42 Drive C:
Size: 4096 Kbytes
Memory: Extended (XMS)
Sector size: 512
Root entries: 384
Sectors/cluester: 4
2040 clusters (FAT12)
your ram drive is loaded at C:
Out of memory error.
Bad command or filename.
C:\>

Tried to dir *.exe at C: for log, nothing

It's nearly 3am here, I'm off to bed, will pick this up again tomorrow afternoon then. Thanks in advance for your further reply please.

There isn't a bootable utility for Samsung, so running SeaTools for DOS - How to Use - Windows 7 Help Forums is fine as long as you are sure it is burned correctly. Does it detect any other PC's hard drive? An alternative is Partition surface test with Partition Wizard bootable CD

But the fact you were able to boot it sounds like you can boot a disk, so I'd burn the Win7 ISO to DVD to use for repairs or reinstall depending upon what HD test finds. To confirm the HD condition use the System Recovery Options Command Line to run a full Disk Check

@expeditionist: You're in good hands with gregrocker so I'll leave you to it. Hope you have better luck tomorrow.

Thanks for your help remm

gregrocker - thank you very much for joining and helping me

had a good kip, I'm now 6 hours in to testing with your suggestions, lots of downloads on the troubleshooting - they're very slow here. Exhausted again.


Let me just skip to the useful results so far maybe: full surface scan with Partition Wizard Home Edition v8.1.1 bootable, found one error on HDD: Read error in this block (after about 93% ok)


Can't get to this screen yet: https://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...ry_options.jpg , because recovery disk and system repair disk both hang here with spinning cursor: https://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...ns-xp-w7_3.jpg


Gonna make another Win7 DVD and bootable USB flash drive and try again as suggested. Also, I have a full retail box version of Win7 64 bit from my desktop, maybe try that DVD too next...


But, assuming I can get to the System Recovery Options after that, can I fix the bad block at the command prompt somehow?


And should I run Paragon rescue disk which I downloaded to try and recover data before or after trying to fix the bad block at the command prompt?

I looked at copy disk in Partition Wizard Home Edition v8.1.1 but didn't use it because I'd quite like to just copy a few files and ditch the rest of the disk if needs be cos it's full with films that I already have elsewhere.


Thanks?

I would rescue files first since the disk is still in question until it is tested with one other bootable solution like Seatools which works for all models, followed by Disk Check from the Recovery Options Command Line.

I'd try the retail DVD if its same version. If disk fails try writing ISO to flash stick.

The repairs order I'd run after rescuiing file and disk check are Startup Repair, System Restore, check for infection and attempt repair of System files (SFC) to see if it will boot into Windows or Safe Mode: Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

I recovered the data I wanted with Paragon Rescue Disk, it'd only boot off linux/flash usb, so I must've done something wrong making the DVD, but that job is done now. Took ages to copy 8GB of data to USB though.

I tested booting the SeaTools for DOS CD in my desktop and it found my disks fine so I went back in to my laptop's BIOS and figured out that the AHCI automatic/manual setting switch wasn't enough, it brought up another AHCI enabled/disabled switch after setting AHCI to manual and I hadn't seen that before (at 2am yesterday). Moral of the story - when you're tired, go to bed.

Running a long surface test now on my HDD with SeaTools, guess that'll finish overnight, maybe it'll fix HDD too?

Win 7 64bit ISO is still only at 30%, my connection is so slow, it's a concern cos my connection often goes down in the early hours, hope it finishes overnight.

Have a plan of action after surface test, like you said - try the retail dvd, make win7 dvd/flash from iso that is downloading if retail dvd don't work, then disk check from the recovery console command line followed by the rest in the order you said. I have the Windows Defender bootable flash drive made already in case it's not the HDD.

I've come to the conclusion that you must be very methodical and very patient to do this for a job and not get stressed easily - you're a better man than me.

Can I ask, my HDD is partitioned, c and f, system and data. Is it right that I need chkdsk C: /p /r and chkdsk F: /p /r if I get to the recovery console command prompt?

Monday tomorrow, I might have to put progress on hold for a few days now.

Thanks for your help.

You're doing fine, very methodical and patient.

Looking over Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to compare it with the one you've got, you may want to save time now that you have your files (check again) by wiping all partitions to do the one great install that is then preserved by imaging.