Windows 7, corrupt? Got myself into a mess, help!

Here's what happened. A user tried hibernating the machine (no idea why) and subsequently it got stuck in a boot loop where the machine wouldn't progress past the bios logo and the hit X to enter setup. I literally couldn't even hold down F8 before it would reboot and the loop would start again.

So I used the inbuilt system utilities to run a HDD diagnostic, and after 2 hours of that it checked out fine.

I grabbed hirens boot USB, loaded into that and changed the windows folder to windowsX. Rebooted, Lo and behold, the boot progressed this time to windows recovery. I let the recovery do its auto repair and I was back in windows.

Suprisingly, it wasn't smart enough to name windowsX to back to windows. It just created another windows folder with some rubbish in it.

So I went back into my boot USB. Changed it back manually to windows and rebooted. Unfortunately, windows is still confused and I get a boot menu now with two Windows 7 (recovered) options. One is from a previous install, which I don't use. Although it's hard to distingish which is which.

But anyway, when it boots I now get put on to a temporary profile. Any idea how I can get out of this mess, please?

Thanks.

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs.

When you renamed windowsX back to windows, what did you do with the Windows folder created by the recover?
Is you C: drive a UEFI-GPT or a Legacy -MBR?

If you're logged to a temporary profile look if under C:\Users you still have your name.

ICIT2LOL said:

Hello and welcome facebook mate just boot into safe mode and run these
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Disk Check < if necessary include the /f and /r in the command line as per Option2 (if you are going to use the /r switch there is no need for the /f switch)
Run these in safe mode and the sfc often best run for two to three runs – you can leave out the /r switch in ckdsk if you feel it not necessary

Now the other thing you can also try in safe mode is a system restore to a point before you used all that stuff because I think what you have done with checks etc is just to really confuse the system as to what it is supposed to be doing.

Now for what it is worth when you test drives etc always best to go for some of the recognised tests as I find the Windows features like drive testing and updating drivers leaves a lot to be desired.

Did this, thanks. Fixed somewhat, what I'm not sure as windows still isn't right. System restore might be an option...!

RolandJS said:

Try an external boot that has a file manager to delete hiberfil.sys -- that will delete that pesky hibernation file. Now, the challenge is: to return your Windows back to the proper directory, delete the parallel directory, which perhaps you have already done?

Here's what's weird. I've got two windows directories. I can change them now to whatever I like. I've no idea how windows is booting. When I hit the boot menu before windows loads, it tells me one of my directories is corrupt (one which I renamed windowsJ) I've since changed that to something else yet it's still referring back to the windows folder as that.

I'm confused, if there's any other suggestions here i'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Megahertz07 said:

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs.

When you renamed windowsX back to windows, what did you do with the Windows folder created by the recover?
Is you C: drive a UEFI-GPT or a Legacy -MBR?

If you're logged to a temporary profile look if under C:\Users you still have your name.

I deleted the temporary folder. Not sure how to tell about the UEFI-GPT? In bios it's set as UEFI, though. I wonder if in hirens boot CD there's a MBR editor?