Black Screen of Death??????

[dmcianfa]

Not a blue screen of death, but rather black.

Here's my issue. Shut computer off during vacation. I have a surge protector. Came back, boot up, no go. Boots until windows logo appears, then it just goes black with only the mouse cursor up. Nothing will exit from this screen. CTL-ALT-Del, no go.
1. Rebooted in safe mode and same deal and same black screen before login prompt.
2. Enabled low resolution to verify its not video card. nothing.
3. Entered BIOS and switched to boot from dvd drive with install disc. Went to Start up repair. said it could not fix. here is the readout on the bottom:

Root cause found:
---------------------------
Boot manager is missing or corrupt.
cannot repair automatically
Repair action: File repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x15
Time taken = 0 ms

4. Went to system restore: Cannot restore no points
5. Went to system last known image: No images created (my fault) just installed windows like 2 months prior with no issues.
6. Went to command prompt and did a Bootrec /bootfix and Bootrec /rebuildbcd. Nothing, still black screen.

Some background info in case it relates to the dillema. I have windows installed on my E:/ drive and seperate from my data HD (C:/), so I can run a bit faster. But, I still have some old data on the E:/ drive that I absolutely need and subsequently never moved to the C: drive. The E: drive is from my old computer, so I have some important photos and documents I do not wish to lose. So, I'm contemplating reistalling windows completely, but do not want to lose anything. I know I should have backed up my data on all drives, but I havn't yet. Plus I don't know how to do this effectively without windows running. Anyway, some fixes short a complete wipe and re-install would be grand. Thanks ahead of time all and look forward to any suggestions. My system specs are under my user profile if need be. I'm not a pro at fixes, but I am an engineer and understand some terminology and basic commands, but not all, so bear with me if I ask what an achronym is or how to do a particular corrective action. I didn't build the computer myself, I had a friend help whose done this plenty of times and for a living with no issues with other clients. However, he is out of the country right now. Anyway thanks.

 

[richyrichuk]

have u booted without restart after system failure from 'F8' to get a bluescreen error code?

 

[DeanP]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[neonpc]

windows on E: and data on C: doesn't look good to me.
Is it one hdd taht you are talking about or two phisical Hdd's?

 

[dmcianfa]

rich,
Not sure I understand you rich. I have to reboot after system failure and I do not get a blue screen with F8, so no bluescreen error code.

DeanP,
Already tried that as stated in the original post and start of thread. Startup repair cannot fix the issue of missing or corrupt boot manager file.

neonpc,
This is not an unusual setup. Plenty of people I know have two hard drives, one for operating system and the other for data. It's fairly common among serious gamers and their machines to get a bit more umphhh out of their system. In any case to answer your question, yes there are two physical hard disks, but you could have seen that on my specs sheet under my profile when I said if you need them to look for my specs there.

 

[neonpc]

I would sugest to reseat the memory; try to boot with one memory stick only, or try with a new one.
Two HDD is OK, but why you have windows installed on E and your data is on C?
Anyway, If I were you I would recover the data from the OS drive and start all over. First make shure taht your memory is OK.

 

[dmcianfa]

I'll try that when I get home, but the error is telling me it's the boot manager, which leads me to believe its not the RAM. I tested the memory in BIOS and it seemed to be trouble free with no errors. I'll try the one stick anyway and see what happens. Both these sticks 4g each are of pretty good quality I should mention.

 

[dmcianfa]

***sigh***

I was hoping for more responses. One other thing, my wife just told me that when she shut it down before vacation she did a hard shutdown, meaning she flipped the switch without logging out or shutting down with the OS. Not good, not good right? I don't know I'm lost here and cringe at the thought of reinstalling everything from square one.

 

[richyrichuk]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

if its a MBR issue have u tried what deanp said above?

 

[dmcianfa]

Yep, tried repair. That's what gave me the "boot manager corrupt or missing" error under details that I listed in the initial post. However, it stated it could not fix it, so not sure where to go from here.

 

[richyrichuk]

HBCD or UBCD to fix a boot issue. could try a SFC in a slave machine.

 

[neonpc]

How to repair MBR on Windows 7 | eHow.com

 

[DeanP]

It may take 3 times for Startup Repair to fully fix the problem.

 

[dmcianfa]

HBCD or UBCD to fix a boot issue. could try a SFC in a slave machine.

I'll use this if all else fails with any windows fixes, commands, or hardware connection actions I may do first. Wouldn't that be a prudent order?

 

[dmcianfa]

It may take 3 times for Startup Repair to fully fix the problem.

I'll try it multiple times and see.

 

[dmcianfa]

No dice with multiple times on startup repair (3+). I tried to repair it five times now and still the same thing: Black screen with cursor after the microsoft logo appears with flying colored balls coming together for windows startup. Still no safe mode and tried many of cursor commands including

bootsect/nt60 ALL/force
bootrec.exe/fixmbr
bootrec.exe/fixboot
bootrec.exe/rebuildbcd
bootsect/nt60 E:\

Nothing. I'm still dead in the water and now I'm wondering if I should re-install, but I don't know how to get all my info off my hard drive without being able to get to windows. If anyone has any ideas before doing a reinstall I'd welcome any and everything.

 

[dmcianfa]

I also reseated my memory. Tried booting with only one stick in a slot with each stick too. Nothing. I unplugged both hard drives and booted with each. Of course the system wouldn't boot with the OS on the one hard drive, but it didn't make a difference when I unplugged the other. I'm running out of ideas here.

 

[dmcianfa]

If I reinstall windows altogether on the one drive it was on, I won't lose any data on the other will I? Also, I won't have to reinstall any hardware drivers will I once I do a windows reinstall? I'm to the point where no one is helping me much and I don't know of anything else to do that I havn't tried already or wasn't mentioned by others to do besides a complete re-install.

 

[dmcianfa]

Ok, I'm not really sure I understand, but I was able to look at my drives under "load drivers" in recovery options.

With both hard drives plugged in it reads:

"Windows 7 on E: Local Disk"

E: 320 G Local Disk Samsung
C: Old Disk 200G WD
D: System Reserved 99MB (partition?)
X: Boot
F: DVD
A: 3.5" Floppy (which I don't even have)

When I unplug the Western Digital 200G HD that is my old disk off my previous computer it reads the following on Recovery Options screen:

"Windows 7 on D: Local Disk
D: Local Disk 320 G Samsung drive
X: Boot
C: 99 MB System Reserved (is this the partition?)
E: DVD
A: 3.5" Floppy (which I never had in ever)

When I contacted my builder yesterday he stated that he put Windows seven on the C: drive. This isn't jiving though is it? Shouldn't the Samsung drive be on drive C: as he stated? With both HDs plugged in why is it telling me it is finding Windows 7 on Drive E: instead of C:. Furthermore, why is my old disc (the 200G western digital) labelled as C when both units are plugged in? If this were true and my builder installed it on C: it should boot from my Old disk, but when I unplug my samsung drive it will not even attempt to boot, so clearly it must be on the samsung drive. I'm confused.

On another note, I was able to extract my data off my old disk (Western Digital 200G) by taking it out and hooking it up to my laptop to get everything I need from it. So, I'm thinking of wiping both drives and starting anew. Unless of course someone's got a bright idea I havn't tried yet.

 

[DeanP]

Boots until windows logo appears, then it just goes black with only the mouse cursor up.

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