Asus G60 can't startup Win 7

[belikexp]

My daughter called me and said "I can't start Win 7". She has it passworded.

I can't get to the screen to enter password.

I can't repair, system restore or enter safe mode.

Asus G60 laptop does not come with an install disk. It's a recovery disk; which I don't want to do because I would lose all her data.

So I bought a copy of Win 7 professional upgrade and another SATA drive 320 gigs.

I pulled out the laptop drive and I connected it to my desktop PC. I can see all the files. I took ownership of it and scanning the drive with Malwarebytes. (So far nothing).


I'm thinking of reinstalling Win 7 on the new hard drive and then copying over her data from the old drive.

Any other suggestions or comments?

 

[Night Hawk]

When booting up with the recovery disk instead of performing a full restoration back to factory look for the repair tools also generally one of the F8 boot menu options when 7 has startup problems. The repair tools section includes an automatic startup repair option that will scan and repair problems preventing Windows from loading.

With the purchase of a new 7 install disk and brand new drive the option is always there to unplug the first drive long enough to see a clean install of Pro on it and then back files up from the first drive. Once saved you can perform a full recovery on the original drive and still have all files and data safe on the new drive for copy back to it.

First try the repair tools options however to see if its only a simply startup problem in order to preserve the preinstalled copy as well as all files and settings. If all efforts should fail then the option to OS the new drive as a recovery tool would be needed.

 

[belikexp]

I have no idea what happen to the original install. She must have installed something to wreck the installation.

The new drive is installed, new Win 7 pro installed and she is transferring all data from the old drive to the new.

I don't have the time to figure out what really happened. This problem is solved.

 

[gregrocker]

Keep in mind she still owns a license for her version of Win7 on that machine.

You can unlock all versions in your Pro installer by extracting files to desktop, deleting ei.cfg file in Sources, then running Setup to choose her licensed version for clean install. Afterwards, insert key on COA sticker on bottom of laptop.

You can even recompile the edited files into an ISO to burn an all-versions DVD to use for repairs/reinstalls/elsewhere: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/32055-bootable-iso-create-installation-files.html

That would free up the Pro license you bought to use elsewhere saving $100+.

 

[Night Hawk]

Which edition was already on? If Pro was already preinstalled the new disk can also be used by simply entering the OEM key with fuss. You also have the option to move up from HP to Pro with the added features plus support for the XP Mode.

At least you have retrieved all files and now have a pair of choices to look into there as far as editions and even leaving it as a dual OSed laptop.

 

[belikexp]

Win 7 Home was pre-installed. So I can't reuse the key.

I had to use the system restore disc before installing Win 7 Pro upgrade. On hindsight I could have just bought the new hard drive only and just do a system restore. I really didn't need the new Win 7 pro upgrade.

Oh well. It's done. She has recovered all her files.

I'm going to have her do a backup of all her data files and create a repair disc. Maybe even do a system image.

Maybe I'll play around with the old drive and try to figure out what was wrong.

 

[gregrocker]

You can reinstall Win7 on a factory-installed OEM license as many times as you want.

That is why the Product Key is there on the COA sticker on the bottom of laptop. Just insert it after install at Control Panel>System link. It should autoactivate. If not, a robocall will sort out the indiv. key from the batch.

You only need to have the Win7 installer version for the license on sticker. That is why I explained above how to unlock all versions in your Pro installer.

 

[Night Hawk]

I thought that was only seen when you had the Ultimate builds and were able to unlock the other editions. All that was on the beta and RCs there however.

As for performing a clean install with an upgrade disk, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

This would free up the Pro disk for use on another machine since that was bought retail.