Win7 keeps restarting, startup repair and system restore fails

[ArchStalker]

Hello everyone,

I am not sure which category this belongs to as it broaches many areas, but I felt this was the closest (other than general)

In short my computer refuses to start win 7, it tries to repair it, but fails. I have tried system restore point and restore to previous known working state but neither works. The computer will start in safe mode though.

Some background:
This started when my AVG virus software started telling me it could not update so I uninstalled it (or rather tried to update it by downloading a new version of it and trying to install it over the old, but this had some problems so I uninstalled it). I rebooted after the uninstall and the cycle above started.

At this point time I tried restoring the system to the point before I tried the "install new version over the old" and the restore was successful but the problem persisted. After this though, no restore point will work anymore, I just get

"unspecified error occurred during system restore 0x8000ffff"

Apparently the first restore really did work as when I started in safe mode, the AVG was there and I uninstalled it hoping it would help, but no.

I've tried running the Repair Computer option from win7 disk, but it wont work. I can not even try to reinstall win7 at the moment because I get this when trying to select any partition:

windows 7 windows cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk has an mbr partition table gpt

I know this is related to the fact that I have an UEFI motherboard, so I thought that there was something wrong with the booting sequence, but the fact I can get to safe mode sort of confuses me (EUFI is new to me). Anyhow the way I understand it, to reinstall install on UEFI I need to delete all partitions on a disk and I'm looking for other options first (or rather all boot fixes caution about copying HD data first, so for me the same thing).

Now the problem in not really that I can not find helpful things on google, but rather the fact that I can find too many and I'm not sure in which direction I should go, so I was hoping if someone more experienced than me could point me to the right direction.

Thanks for any help.

Kind regards,
Arch

 

[Kaktussoft]

If you do a "startup repair" it fails you say. But why? There's a clickable text something like "view diagnostics results". Click on it. It displays the tests it did. Status 0x0 means no errors... not interested in that. What erors does it give in what step?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Try a clean boot http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html
Of course activate it from "safe mode"... because normal mode is not working now. Put it back to normal boot afterwards. Post back results

 

[Kaktussoft]

Download tools and utilities | AVG Worldwide
Remove AVG if you think it did cause the issue!

 

[ArchStalker]

Download tools and utilities | AVG Worldwide
Remove AVG if you think it did cause the issue!

Who would have thought the answer was this easy! I did uninstall it before but I used a regular uninstall. It never occured to me that there was a separate downloadable tool for uninstall that I should have used...

Thank you immensely! You really saved me

*Edit* No, take that back. The computer did start properly just after doing the uninstall and restart, but after that when I turned the computer off and then later turned it back on, the problem came back

As for the other suggested points, the results are as follows:

Root cause found:
A recent installation or upgrade may be preventing the system from starting.

Repair action: System restore
Result: failed. Error code 0x1f

Repair action: System files integrity check and repair
Result: failed. Error code 0x490

Tried running sfc/scannow, but it found no problems

Still seems to point to the AVG installation hassle, but I have I'm now just baffled

One weird thing though: it states that windows directory is d:\Windows, even though windows is installed in C:\

Also tried the clean boot (thanks for the link!), but no help. So it's not a background program problem.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Can you still boot to safe mode succesfully? Did you do sfc/scannow in safe mode and it found "no integrity errors"?
what happens if you try to do a "system restore" in safe mode?

run the AVG uninstall tool again. Does it boot succesfully (normal boot), but only once?

 

[Kaktussoft]

safe mode with networking works as well? If so use msconfig again just as doing a clean boot. But disable more services!! Start ONLY:

DISPLAY_NAME: Base Filtering Engine
DISPLAY_NAME: Cryptographic Services
DISPLAY_NAME: Encrypting File System (EFS)
DISPLAY_NAME: Windows Event Log
DISPLAY_NAME: CNG Key Isolation
DISPLAY_NAME: Workstation
DISPLAY_NAME: Plug and Play
DISPLAY_NAME: Power
DISPLAY_NAME: User Profile Service
DISPLAY_NAME: RPC Endpoint Mapper
DISPLAY_NAME: Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
DISPLAY_NAME: Windows Management Instrumentation
DISPLAY_NAME: Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework

Does it boot succesfully? In safe mode you can revert back to old situation using msconfig (enable normal boot)

 

[Kaktussoft]

Download tools and utilities | AVG Worldwide
Remove AVG if you think it did cause the issue!

Who would have thought the answer was this easy! I did uninstall it before but I used a regular uninstall. It never occured to me that there was a separate downloadable tool for uninstall that I should have used...

Thank you immensely! You really saved me

*Edit* No, take that back. The computer did start properly just after doing the uninstall and restart, but after that when I turned the computer off and then later turned it back on, the problem came back

As for the other suggested points, the results are as follows:

Root cause found:
A recent installation or upgrade may be preventing the system from starting.

Repair action: System restore
Result: failed. Error code 0x1f

Repair action: System files integrity check and repair
Result: failed. Error code 0x490

Tried running sfc/scannow, but it found no problems

Still seems to point to the AVG installation hassle, but I have I'm now just baffled

One weird thing though: it states that windows directory is d:\Windows, even though windows is installed in C:\

Also tried the clean boot (thanks for the link!), but no help. So it's not a background program problem.

The disk that's normally called C is called D because every OS can define drive letters! Drive letters can very in each installed OS.

Post screenshot of disk management from safe mode

 

[Kaktussoft]

you see this?

root cause found:

"A patch is preventing the system from starting"

repair action: System restore
result: failed. error code = 0x1f
time taken = 202973ms

 

[XweAponX]

windows 7 windows cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk has an mbr partition table gpt

I had an error very similar to that that prevented me from running SFC or performing an In-Place install. I installed Windows 8 as an upgrade on that machine, it transferred everything over: Including the errors. So now I'm stuck with Win 8. Luckily I did an Easy Transfer for all of my settings, hopefully this will restore everything on a fresh Windows 7 install.

 

[ArchStalker]

you see this?

root cause found:

"A patch is preventing the system from starting"

repair action: System restore
result: failed. error code = 0x1f
time taken = 202973ms

Yeah I do, but I have no idea what to do about it in addition to the AVG uninstall

Basically the situation is exactly as before. I got 1 successful normal boot right after AVG uninstall (using the tool on their page), but after that 1 boot things got back to how they were. And yes, all safe modes work. Running AVG uninstall again does not help.

I tried the clean boot version you suggested, but it did not help, windows would not start.

After playing around more with system restore I noticed that safe mode tells me that system has been restored, even though when I tried it at startup repair, it said it was unsuccessful. And looking at the system, AVG was indeed back. Unfortunately uninstalling it this time did not give me even that 1 successful normal boot.

If I run system restore under safe mode, it does not give any errors and it seems to actually restore the system to the selected point, but still windows will not start normally.

About the windows install directory: here is a screen shot of disk management:



On system restore, when it fails and I go to that additional info bit, it tells me windows is in d:\windows.

 

[ArchStalker]

Well I got the computer to start up once more by doing the boot repair command in command prompt. Being the paranoid person I am and with very little time for this, I've been keeping the computer constantly on for 2 weeks and it's been working quite perfectly.

Alas then came the day that I turned it off by reflex and windows started updating it self. The update process was interrupted -> computer restarted -> the problem came back with the only difference being that there were no errors on system restore anymore, the only error was for files integrity. However having learned some lessons, I did make a restore point just a while ago and was able to get the computer back on. Now it's been on again for about 4 days and once I have time, I intend to install those windows updates one at a time to see if one of them is the culprit.

Still several things here that don't make a lot of sense to me but hopefully I can isolate that (hopefully just) 1 update and run the rest. If not, well suppose I should wipe the drive and reinstall everything anyhow soon

 

[Kaktussoft]

Is system restore working in recovery environment... or not?
Same question for system restore safe mode.

Computer does or doesn't start in safe mode?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Well I got the computer to start up once more by doing the boot repair command in command prompt. Being the paranoid person I am and with very little time for this, I've been keeping the computer constantly on for 2 weeks and it's been working quite perfectly.

Alas then came the day that I turned it off by reflex and windows started updating it self. The update process was interrupted -> computer restarted -> the problem came back with the only difference being that there were no errors on system restore anymore, the only error was for files integrity. However having learned some lessons, I did make a restore point just a while ago and was able to get the computer back on. Now it's been on again for about 4 days and once I have time, I intend to install those windows updates one at a time to see if one of them is the culprit.

Still several things here that don't make a lot of sense to me but hopefully I can isolate that (hopefully just) 1 update and run the rest. If not, well suppose I should wipe the drive and reinstall everything anyhow soon

See you got "A patch is preventing the system from starting"
that's fixed now?

"by doing the boot repair command in command prompt"=> What do you mean by "boot repair" .. from "command prompt"