Will not boot to Desktop

GWilliamT · 23 Nov 2015

New to the forums need help with failure to boot problem. Am not sure this is the right place for this question.
Lenovo H430, Win7 Home Premium 64bit, about 4?yrs old.

On startup it will "load files" and eventually get to what I believe is Windows graphics screen (light blue sky with lazy "contrails" and a flower on right), but will go no further, does not reach log on screen. If left alone, Startup Repair starts, and runs and runs . . . .. Startup Repair has run several times, once all night, with no resolution - "Repairing disk errors. This might take over an hour to complete."

On one of the Startup Repair attempts, it did give results - all with error code 0x0, except for line at the bottom "...root cause ... corrupted." This was while ago and I have forgotten the exact msg.

It will not start in safe mode, or to the last know good configuration.

Since there are a few pieces of data that are not backed up, I need to avoid the Lenovo One Key Recovery, even if I manage to pull the data to other storage, that is last resort "solution."

Being a Lenovo, I have no supplied disks of any sort.

Any insight or direction for resolving this would be appreciated.

Thanks.

ThrashZone · 23 Nov 2015

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
I would suggest attempting to recover your files first,
Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS

Peppermint Live CD/DVD/USB - Create for Emergency Backup

Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

GWilliamT · 24 Nov 2015

Thanks for the direction. The first seems the simplest for data retrieval. Will be trying that. I assume the others are alternatives for the same purpose.

I have completed some of the steps in the troubleshooting link, but in the interest of thoroughness and order I will pretend I haven't, and start again.

ThrashZone · 24 Nov 2015

Hi,
Yes all three are different ways just choose the one you like the best I posted in no particular order although the last Linux one has a very good support guy if you have any questions about it,
Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

GWilliamT · 24 Nov 2015

Am working through the TS script.
1. Adv Boot Options > last good config resulted in the same boot stall as I've been experiencing.
2. Boot > Sys Recovery from repair disk.
Command line prompt reads: x:\windows\system32>
Only results I could get from chkdsk -

no problems
102399 KB Disk space
Failed to xfr logged msgs .. status 50

Cannot find how to check all partitions.

Disk partitions

1 Primary 100MB
2 Primary 906GB
3 OEM 25GB

I set #1 as active.

3. Booted to recovery options as above.
4. Startup Repair has failed many times. As stated in OP.
I don't know how to run chkdsk on the partitions.
sfc /scannow msg: "Windows Resource protection could not start the repair service"

So that's where I am at the moment. Gotta take a break.

GWilliamT · 01 Dec 2015

Without going into all the trouble shooting and efforts at repair and recovery since 'taking a break', the current status seems to be that the primary partition (the c: drive) whereon all my data lives, shows in Paragon and in EasyRE as unformatted. The other two - system reserve and OEM - are as expected.

I did not expect this as the computer boots to just before the logon icons show up.
1. Does this mean there is no longer any data there?
2. If there is, is there any hope of recovery?

-

GWilliamT · 13 Dec 2015

This is a final update on this problem. Ultimately, after trying all (that I knew of) at my disposal and not managing to repair or even access anything on my HD, I asked the local tech to take a shot at my data. He was able to recover most of it. I suppose that if I had the resource (another machine) to hook it to I might have saved the $70.

Having recovered my data, I DL'd Win7 on a laptop, burned a disk for a clean install, then reinstalled the programs I needed.

There remained a problem with Outlook accessing my e-mail server and what seemed a dysfunctional Windows updater - ran interminably.

Found no working solutions on line. A chat-tech told me it was a register corrupt problem that transcended the Win7 install, and fixed it (maybe). Problems still persisted.

After uninstalling my AV (stopping it didn't help), and insuring that Windows security was also quiescent, Outlook started to work, and though very slow and repetitive so did the update function, all 250 plus updates finally DL'd n installed.

So now, I think, the machine is back. An MS Tech (on chat/remote control) helped to iron out those last issues. He wasn't entirely sure about causes but he was very helpful (and free) and spent several hours with me. The path to peace seemed to be to boot safe, uninstall suspect programs, then reboot. But, I had done that before without resolution. Oh, well.

It's well now and as often happens, I'm not really any wiser about either what the original problem was except that it wasn't viral, no traces found, or why the two later problems came up. One of those programs we uninstalled (best guess) was blocking communication with the e-mail and possibly the update server.

All of the uninstalled are now reinstalled and it all works.

Thanks to all those here at sevenforms, and elsewhere (I was knocking on a lot of doors), I did find the suggestions helpful and most contributed "my recovery." I wish I could point to specific answer or causes, but I can't. I can say that with the new year close I may resolve to not be so laissez faire about maintenance and back-up.

paul1149 · 14 Dec 2015

All it takes is for one strategic sector to get knocked out for the partition to become unrecognizable. I would give that drive a good long test and check its SMART attributes, because it may be on its way out.

ThrashZone · 14 Dec 2015

Hi,
Yep you can use mini tool to check the disk for bad sectors,
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free