Can't boot to Windows, having some major issues.

[ERrorMACro]

Hello and thanks for taking the time to read this. I'll preface this post by saying that I'm not a hardware guru and I've been very bad in not writing down every single thing that I could regarding these errors.

That being said, here is my problem. About a week ago I started getting errors, presumably caused by Google Chrome (not crippling errors and easily taken care of by deleting the browser entirely) and then from Catalyst ATI (also taken care of by uninstall/reinstall). After a few days my PC became sluggish, and here's where I made the mistake. I restarted my PC hoping to restore order....but what I got was errors. Chkdsk ran, found errors (lots of orphaned files, a few bad sectors, etc) and I was promptly booted back into windows.

Now, my desktop manager starts crashing along with Windows Explorer and my PC locks up. Unable to do anything I use the old fashioned restart (smash the Power button). Once again, Chkdsk finds a fixes errors, boots me to Windows and then the freeze hits. This happens 3 or 4 more times with a few Startup Repairs in between.

Today, no Chkdsk, no windows and startup repair fails because "StartupRepairOffline". There are just a bunch of 0's and unknowns in the dialog box. Tried to do a fresh reinstall from my Vista recovery cd's and it hangs at "Loading Files" on the copy screen. Running repair tools from Win 7 Home Premium 64bit upgrade disk gets me errors such as "System Restore failed. Cannot find path" or something similar, Startup repair gives the "StartupRepairOffline" (the details of which tell me that my HDD is not responding), Memory Diagnostics cannot be launched etc.

CMD Prompt works, so I tried sfc / scannow but it says that I have a Repair pending which requires a reboot. After searching on the net for a while I found a CMD line to clear the pending.xml doc, but it does not exist on my system.

Reboot huh? Tried starting in Safe Mode so I could do a real restart, but the boot hangs on a file called Classpnp.sys. Manual shutdown and restart after this boots me to a screen that tries to boot from a CD.

Where do I go from here? Im too stubborn to accept the fact that my HDD might be fried, but is it really that simple of a case? If that does end up being the case, is there any way I can use my Vista 32 recovery disks and my Win 7 64 Home Premium disk to install windows on a new HDD or do I have to buy a full version of Win 7? Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated and I apologize if this thread is too long considering the lack of information.

Steve

 

[wilywombat]

First thoughts..Looks like virus /malware attack..Have you done any checks and what AV / firewall /anti-malware are you using?

 

[ERrorMACro]

Windows Defender and Ad-Aware were the only things I was using on the PC in question. Its a gaming machine predominantly and never ventures into "questionable" net territory. I realize that you don't have to go looking for virus/spyware/malware, but I was comfortable using minimal security. I DID get hit some months ago, I think from using Curse Client (auto updater for World of Warcraft addons from Curse.com), but Malwarebytes was able to get rid of it. After having some issues with Win 7 acknowledging the Vista recovery partition of my HDD I was able to make recovery cds from that, reinstall Vista and then reinstall the Win 7 Upgrade. I generally take that route after recovering from anything serious for my own piece of mind.

I've not run any scans since my inability to boot to Windows. If I am able to, I have no idea how to go about doing so. My knowledge of the boot process and what I can do from CMDPrompt is spotty at best.

 

[kword88]

you dont have to buy a new version of windows if your hard disk died (which is what seems to have happened). that is my first thought, since chkdsk kept finding bad sectors.
can you boot to the win7 disc and run "startup repair"?

try this: How to Manually Repair Windows 7 Boot Loader Problems - How-To Geek

if that doesnt work, keep checking back here for other ideas.

 

[ERrorMACro]

you dont have to buy a new version of windows if your hard disk died (which is what seems to have happened). that is my first thought, since chkdsk kept finding bad sectors.
can you boot to the win7 disc and run "startup repair"?

try this: How to Manually Repair Windows 7 Boot Loader Problems - How-To Geek

if that doesnt work, keep checking back here for other ideas.

I can boot to the Win 7 disk fine, but everything but CMD Prompt gives me an error. Startup Repair gives me the StartupRepairOffline error with options to send info to Microsoft or not. Here is the full error report for Startup Repair both from reg boot and Win 7 disk boot:

Problem Signature
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 0.0.0.0
Problem Signature 02: 0.0.0.0
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 0
Problem Signature 05: unknown
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: unknown
Os Version: 6.1.76002.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Also, when I boot to Win 7 disk and choose Install > Custom and try to format the drive it tells me that drivers cannot be found and gives me the option to load them from a disk/thumb drive etc. Also, my HDD is not actually in the list and one of my mem card slots has been assigned as C:.

As for following the instructions in the link...I just noticed that when I get to the System Recovery Options dialog there is NOTHING in the Operating System box. I assumed that there was since I could click the upper radio button and proceed to the next dialog.

 

[kword88]

have you tried booting in safe mode? (restart and keep tapping F8 until the menu appears) then choose "last known good configuration".

 

[wilywombat]

Try booting from your installation dvd and select install langauge and country then “Repair your Computer” when the options come up. I don't think your disk is fried because you have managed to at least got it to do something when you tried to do sfc command. I'm still looking towards virus damage to system files and the "Repair your Computer" is your best bet to recover the damaged installed files.

 

[ERrorMACro]

have you tried booting in safe mode? (restart and keep tapping F8 until the menu appears) then choose "last known good configuration".

After choosing that option it goes to the Starting Windows screen for a bit, then restarts and gives me the Launch Repair and Start Normally options. Chose Repair, goes to the same Repair options screen which shows no OS installed. Funny thing is that when I hit F8 to get to the Safe Mode and other options screen it clearly states Options for Win 7 at the top.

 

[ERrorMACro]

Try booting from your installation dvd and select install langauge and country then “Repair your Computer” when the options come up. I don't think your disk is fried because you have managed to at least got it to do something when you tried to do sfc command. I'm still looking towards virus damage to system files and the "Repair your Computer" is your best bet to recover the damaged installed files.

Repair causes a bluescreen and restart.

 

[ERrorMACro]

Another quick note to add:

From the System Recovery options dialog I can click Load Drivers, hit okay and then navigate to My Computer in the Open Files dialog, which tells me that the only HDD installed is Boot ( X: ) and shows my DVD drive as well as my mem card reader.

Whether or not my disk is actually fried Im ready to toss it and buy a new one. If anyone suspects anything other that the HHD, fried or corrupted, then I'll keep going to avoid wasting money on a new drive.

If I DO get a new drive though, would someone be so kind as to tell me or point me in the direction of a tutorial on how to install windows on a new HDD without having the original Vista partition or install CD? All I have are the Vista recovery disks I made from said partition and my Win 7 Upgrade disk.

And thanks for the replies and suggestions.

 

[ERrorMACro]

Sorry to keep bumping this, but I've just tried swapping hard drives between my "broken" and working PC's with both expected and unexpected results. I did expect the "broken" drive to not work on this PC. What I didn't expect was for the working hard drive to NOT work on the "broken" PC.

On the first boot of working HDD in "broken" PC it bluescreened after the initial loading screen then restarted. I was able to get into BIOS setup after the restart to ensure that the new drive was the one detected in the boot sequence, and it was. Subsequent attempts to boot/ start safe mode ended in bluescreen restarts as well. Does this mean that my problem is beyond the HDD? Or does it mean that there is a problem somewhere in the BIOS or some such trying to put a XP Home 32bit HDD in a Win 7 Home 64bit machine?

 

[SIW2]

Is it a Stop 7b bsod?

If you transferred an HD with XP installed to different hardware - it is unlikely to boot.

 

[ERrorMACro]

Is it a Stop 7b bsod?

If you transferred an HD with XP installed to different hardware - it is unlikely to boot.

Honestly I couldn't say for sure. It flashes very quickly and restarts the system.

 

[wilywombat]

From another site:-

Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

The Stop 0x7B message indicates that Windows XP has lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process. Installing incorrect device drivers when installing or upgrading storage adapter hardware typically causes stop 0x7B errors. Stop 0x7B errors could also indicate possible virus infection.

The second parameter is very important because it can indicate whether the 0x7B Stop message was caused by file system issues or problems with storage hardware and drivers. Values of 0xC000034 or 0xC000000E typically indicate:

• Disks or storage controllers that are failing, defective, or improperly configured.

• Storage-related drivers or programs (tape management software for example) that are not fully compatible with Windows XP Professional.