Windows 7 laptop not booting up

Hi all,

I have a Dell Inspiron N5050 laptop of a relative with me which isn't booting up. When booted, after BIOS it just shows a blank screen.

I will share what all I have tried so far.

When I first got the laptop, the hard drive wasn't being detected in the BIOS.

Then, I had booted laptop with Wondershare Live BootCD, and then the hard drive and its partitions were showing there. I ran checkdisk from there, and they all turned out fine.

I then booted up laptop from Windows 7 CD, and chose the option to repair the computer. However, no OS could be found. After searching OS for a long time, it shows the message that a problem had been detected, and shows to fix and repair the issue and restart. Under the details, this is what it shows.

The following startup options will be added:

Name: Windows 7 Home Basic (recovered)
Path: Windows
Windows Device: Partition = F: (99998 MB)

Name: Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
Path: Recovery\(some long string of random numbers)\Winre.wim
Windows Device: Partition = F: (99998 MB)

Name: Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
Path: Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim
Windows Device: Partition = C: (20000 MB)

When I click on "fix and restart", the operation goes on for quite a while before the laptop reboots. But, after reboot, still no joy. It also gave this error after booting:

Windows Boot Manager as title.

After that the usual long message of error, and then it shows this:

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.

After searching for the error code, I had tried booting with Windows 7 CD, and ran the command "bootrec /rebuildCD", but again, the laptop doesn't boot.

I have also tried "bootrec /fixmbr", and "bootrec "fixboot", both of which showed successful, but the laptop still does not boot.

However, after this, the hard drive is now detected in the BIOS.

I have also ran both short and long tests on the hard drive from Seagate SeaTools CD, both of which were passed. So, there does not seem to be an issue with the hard drive. It is a Toshiba hard drive 500 GB, by the way.

Seems like I have exhausted tries from my side. If there is anything else I can try, please advise. Otherwise, format and re-installation seems to be the way.

Can it be possible that the names of the system and recovery hard drives have changed, because from whatever CD I booted, it shows C as Recovery, and F drive contains Windows and system files.
Also, the Windows error which shows to fix issue, also somewhat shows the same thing... although I cannot interpret what it's doing exactly. Would appreciate if someone explained it.

If the drives have somehow interchanged, how do I solve it? Or, is it just wrong assumption on my part?

Any help will be appreciated.

BTW, just for information, I had posted this in an another forum too, here:

https://forums.techguy.org/threads/s...anged.1161520/

Help I got was pretty good there.

Just wanted to see if there is anything more I can do to solve this issue. Otherwise, I will just perform the format.

I have also tried factory restore, which according to information should come in options when I press F8 after the Dell Welcome screen when the laptop boots up... but doing that doesn't do anything either. Just shows a blank screen.

I wonder if the recovery partition is still safe, or will it pose any problems when I format and re-install.

Thank you for your reply.

The laptop is of my relative, and not mine. So, posting system specs will go into my profile?
Also, are the system specs required for this issue that the laptop is having? It isn't even booting up. Anyways, if it's required, guess I will do it.

I will read the troubleshooting link to see if I missed anything.

OK, I have updated the system specs as far as I could gather.

I didn't think of this before, but how do I find out if the OS installed is 32-bit or 64-bit version?

When I try to get information from Dell site by putting in the service tag, it shows drivers for 64-bit version. However, the memory on this laptop is only 2 GB. Should be 4 GB for 64-bit version, right?
How do I confirm what bit OS is running?

If it's 64-bit, I will have to download Windows 7 64-bit ISO for further troubleshooting. I only have 32-bit with me.
Same goes for Partition Wizard CD which is mentioned in the troubleshooting page.

I have already updated the system specs for CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Graphics Card from "Edit your system specs" in User CP. I can't get information about the motherboard.

I have already booted from Windows 7 CD, and Wondershare Live Boot CD, as posted earlier, so BIOS is setup to boot first from optical drive or USB. As mentioned, I have performed some tests and diagnostics.

I talked with the relative, and the data inside is not important anymore. He just wants the laptop to be fine and working. So, what I would like is for any advice to make the laptop boot up somehow.

Otherwise, format and reinstallation seems to be the last option.

I was wanting to restore laptop to factory state. I wanted to try that, but as I mentioned, pressing F8 after Dell welcome screen, is not showing any options. So, what to do?

To determine if the OS is 64-bit, I booted from Hiren's Boot CD, and found the Program Files (x86) folder in the system drive. So yes, it is a 64-bit OS.

I have taken a disk map of the hard drive by booting from Partition Wizard CD. Attaching the image here:



Please have a look and advise if something needs to be done to restore normal OS, or, to atleast something by which a factory restore is possible for the laptop. Right now, I cannot even perform a factory restore. As mentioned earlier, pressing F8 (which should be for factory restore), nothing happens, and same blank screen shows.

Also, in case I decide to go for a fresh install via Windows 7 CD, what precautions I need to take to keep the recovery partition as it is, so that it is possible to do a factory restore sometime later?

For the rest of the hard drive, I want to delete all partitions, and perform a fresh partition allocation, and installation.

Help please?