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Startup Repair loop, how to do a repair install
My wife's PC crashed today and got into a startup repair loop. I'm hoping that I can do a repair install, but I can't figure out how to do so. Here's the details:
Her system is just a few months old. Here are the specs:
ASUS P8Z77-Mpro motherboard
Intel i5-3570K (not overclocked) - intel cooler
8GB RAM (can't remember what kind - maybe G.Skil)
Galaxy GeForce GTX 550 Ti video card
Corsair TX-850 PSU
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit from a clean install on a Corsair SSD (including Program Files/Program Files (x86)
Users directory on Samsung SATA drive with other stuff that isn't installed in Program Files directories.
The problem:
Today she wanted to play Skyrim, so she ran the Skyrim Nexus Mod Manager.
It had an update. She downloaded and installed the update, the tried to run the game.
When the game launched it started Steam and tried to download updates (there is a new update to Skyrim that came out a couple of days ago), and she walked away.
When she came back it was on Startup Repair screen saying it could not repair the problem. The Error text is:
In order to try to resolve it, I did the following from command prompt:Code:Problem signature Problem Event Name: Startup Repair Offline Problem Signature01: 6.1.7600.16385 Problem Signature02: 6.1.7600.16385 Problem Signature03: unknown Problem Signature04: 21200018 Problem Signature05: AutoFailover Problem Signature06: 24 Problem Signature07: Corrupt File OS Version: 6.1.7601.201.0.256.1 Locale ID: 1033
Code:c:\>bootrec.exe /fixmbr The operation competed successfully. c:\>bootrec.exe /fixboot The operation competed successfully. c:\>bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd Scanning all disks for Windows installations. Please wait, as this may take a while.... Successfully scanned Windows installations. Total identified Windows installations: 0 The operation competed successfully.Code:c:\dskchk /f /r c: c:\dskchk /f /r d: c:\dskchk /f /r e: c:\dskchk /f /r f:At one point, I did all this and it gave me an error saying,Code:c:\>sfc /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR-C:\Windows\ Beginning system scan. This process will take some time. Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation. c:\Windows\System32>sc config trustedinstaller startup= auto [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS c:\>sfc /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR-C:\Windows\ Beginning system scan. This process will take some time. Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation. c:\Windows\winsxs>rename pending.xml pendingxml.backup c:\>sfc /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR-C:\Windows\ Beginning system scan. This process will take some time. Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.
"C:\Windows\System32\CRYPTBASE.DLL is not designed to run on Windows or it contains errors.".....
I backed up the original cryptbase.dll, then copied it from x:\Windows\System32. I no longer get that
error, but just what is listed above.
I tried using a System Restore (there are 4 restore points available), but each time I get:
"System Restore failed while copying the registry from the restore point"
So, from what I can tell, I'm pretty much screwed and have to re-install Windows 7. I'd like to try to do a repair install, but the user directory is on another drive and not in the standard location. According to the tutorials here, doing a repair install is impossible without moving the user directories back to their default locations. The problem though, is how can I move those directories if I cannot boot into safe mode?
Is there anything I can do other than a clean install? That takes forever, so if I can avoid that, I'd rather.