Can't start win7 outside safe mode

[KaneChaos]

Got a nice comp about a year ago off craigslist and havent had a single issue with it until now. I am not your typical "oh-you-mean-I-have-to-plug-it-in-to-work" end user, but neither am I an "expert".

Especially in this case I'm in way over my head; a few days ago I went to slave up a buddy's HD. The mistake here was that I had always worked with ATA, not SATA. Yes, I was a temporary idiot, and no, I don't remember WHAT I was thinking. Whatever was or wasn't going through my head, I hooked up the second drive to the second clip on the (belt?). Everything started as usual until the windows loading bar; after the bar, I got a black screen, and then the computer shut itself off. Uh-oh.

On attempt #2 to startup (and removing the second hard drive), before the loading bar, I get a prompt for "Windows startup repair" or "Start windows normally". Option #1 results in "windows is loading files" for about 10 seconds, then black screen, then computer shuts itself off again. Option #2 just results in windows loading bar, black screen, then computer shuts itself off.

So far I've managed to start it in Safe Mode, but little else. I've ran the diagnostics from what looks like DOS, including the 12-hour long diagnostics, and the only error thus far is this:

Error Code: 4400:11A
Msg: SCSI_0-000_DISK_GENERIC-_SD/MMC - Target not ready

After running diagnostics specifically towards this, it consistently fails the Confidence Test and consistently passes the Device Self Test (the Read Test and Verify Test options are greyed out).

I've defaulted everything in the BIOS (although it says my HD is in a Raid setting, which as I understand it is for synching multiple HDs together, but the only option to change it to is ATA, which I know my HD is not). I have tried bare-bonesing the startup as well, but running only microsoft stuff I still get the same results as above, and I dont know enough to risk turning off anymore startup stuff.

The most confusing part of all is when I broke down and just decided to reformat the drive and start from scratch. Again, I could only boot from the Windows 7 CD in safe mode, and while in there I reformatted the main drive (there are 3 partitions; OEM, Recovery, and the Main). I have done this process multiple times, but the only thing I get even after reformatting the drive is more OS to choose from when starting the comp.

I am very much out of my league here, and humbly ask for help. Please save my baby!

PS
As for computer stats I dont remember everything off the top of my head, and can't get past the setup screen now on windows, so I dont know how to check. From the dell website comes this mess: Dell Technical Support Home Page / Dell Troubleshooting Search
Other than that what I can remember is:
8gig ram, quadcore (cant remember gHZ), 1mb ATI Radeon vid card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Sorry if this isn't enough, if anyone knows of a way I can check for further info I'll be happy to oblige.

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Do you have a set of Dell recovery discs to get you back to factory state if need be?

When you try a Startup Repair you need to do it at least three times with a reboot after each attempt.

If that doesn't work, I'd be inclined to boot into Partition Wizard and completely wipe the hard drive by deleting the current partitions and creating a new one.

Once you've done that you should be able to boot into your Windows 7 DVD and reinstall Windows.

To use Partition Wizard you need to download the ISO and burn it to a blank CD then boot into it, as this tutorial explains.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

 

[KaneChaos]

Thanks for replying!

I'm not certain that the dell system restore is on seperate discs (seems computer companies are trying to outdo each other on cheapness). I do know that trying to do the "Dell Factory Image Restore" from the f8 advanced boot menu also results in "Windows is loading files" for a bit, then black screen, then shuts itself off. I don't know if this is the same thing, but thought I should mention it.

As for the startup repair, it also does the whole "windows is loading files"-black screen-shuts itself off, thing. Do you mean to do that three times? As I understand it there's supposed to be another dos-based screen after "windows is loading files".

In regards to the partition deletion, does that mean also getting rid of the OEM and RECOVERY partitions? Also it seems to be I can only boot in safe mode, will that partition wizard work in safe mode or DOS?

 

[brady]

If it's booting in safe mode... attempt removing the majority of startup services/applications from Msconfig (Startup Menu). then booting regularly.

 

[KaneChaos]

Brady~

If I understand you correctly I've done that, and still can't start it up outside safe mode. Unless you're talking about disabling EVERYTHING (I left all the microsoft startup services enabled).

 

[KaneChaos]

Bump

Also, the most frustrating part of all this is I don't understand what caused this total meltdown. The only modification was from the additional hard drive, and the first thing I did when it gave me errors was remove it.

 

[KaneChaos]

Bump again,

Going to try the secure erase from the Partition Wizard mentioned by Seavixen32

 

[Britton30]

"Bump" is not needed with every post.

Error Code: 4400:11A
Msg: SCSI_0-000_DISK_GENERIC-_SD/MMC - Target not ready

Is there a SD or some type of flash memory card plugged in somewhere?
I would suggest while you can still boot to Safe Mode to burn a Win7 DVD with the Dell tools.

 

[KaneChaos]

The bump was to signify what the post was mostly about and to explain the double posting.

As for the SD memory card, no, not that I'm aware, never even heard of it till I went googling this error. And I already have the windows 7 restore disk (or are you referring to something different?).

 

[Britton30]

If it is the restore disk that has Windows 7 installer, yes. There are also recovery disk(s) which will boot you into repair options, which you say are snookered.
I was going to suggest you save all of your data and do a fresh. clean install. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html#post16008

 

[Tae Song]

Run Startup Repair again.

When you ran it first time (when you tried to boot with your slaved buddy's HD tow) it made some changes to accommodate the 2nd hard drive which is now causing problem.

Run Startup Repair without the slaved drive to fix the problem.

 

[KaneChaos]

Britton30~

Clean install is what I indeed tried;

"The most confusing part of all is when I broke down and just decided to reformat the drive and start from scratch. Again, I could only boot from the Windows 7 CD in safe mode, and while in there I reformatted the main drive (there are 3 partitions; OEM, Recovery, and the Main). I have done this process multiple times, but the only thing I get even after reformatting the drive is more OS to choose from when starting the comp."

The main partition is 917.7 MB total, yet even after formatting it, it's says 917.6 MB free. I can get through the first part of the windows install in safe mode, but the second cannot be in safe mode (apparently).


Tae Song~

The first thing I did when the errors started happening was unhook the second HD. It seems I can't actually run startup repair; it does the whole "windows is loading files", black screen, then shuts itself off after 10 or so seconds. It's still driving me nuts that I still can't pinpoint where the problem occurred; I defaulted everything in the BIOS and unhooked the second hard drive, and I've gone through and shut off everything in the startup config except microsoft stuff. The whole thing just baffles me, and has been quite humbling.

 

[Britton30]

Kane does the Win7 DVD you have say something like "Operating System Already Installed on your Computer, Reinstallation DVD (or CD) Microsoft Windows 7 xxxxxx Edition"?
If you followed the clean install tutorial from my post #10 link, it should be fine. If not try it and forego the 3 partitions until you have a working system again.
One other thing could be your buddy's HDD could have some kind of virus which infected you. Try using Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta | Microsoft Connect and run a scan.

 

[KaneChaos]

The DVD says "Operating System Already Installed On Your Computer. Reinstallation DVD Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit" and it's Dell-based "The software is already installed on your computer. Use this DVD only to reinstall the operating system on a Dell PC."

As for the clean installation, I can't run it outside of safe mode. I get as far as step 9 of your tutorial in safe mode, but after that its either black screen and shuts-itself-off in normal mode or can't continue in safe mode when it restarts EDIT: Correction; it never turns itself back on even for restart, it has to be turned on manually every time. Don't know the significance of this, but thought I should mention it.

Also, what do you mean "forego the 3 partitions" ? Formatting the main partition has obviously got me nowhere, but there is an option to delete, but I haven't done it because frankly at this stage of the game I haven't got a clue what I'm doing. Do you mean to delete the partitions, including OEM and Recovery?

As to the virus thing I've wondered that myself, but good lord that transferred over FAST; I didn't even get to the OS before when I first started, and the first thing I did after first shutdown was disconnect the thing. Going to run the sweeper program you linked, will be back shortly with edit for the results.

Edit 2: Apparently the prehistoric fossil I'm on now hasn't been updated in awhile, and apparently I need to run this program to create the disc. When this relic manages its way to XP service pack 3, I'll try again.

 

[Britton30]

OK, that's good, put the Dell DVD in and reboot, it should boot to the DVD which is what we want. You may have to "Press any key" to do so. When you get to where you're asked about where to install, delete all the partitions and let it do a full format. The Dell DVD should re-create 3 partitions, OEM recovery, System Reserved and the C:\ drive. Did I miss something about XP SP3?

 

[KaneChaos]

Deleted all the partitions, let it run, still nada, but at least I don't have 4 OS's anymore. Still can't do jack outside safe mode, and safe mode is too limited. It would seem like this problem is in the BIOS, but I defaulted all of those values.

In short: *facedesk*

In regards to the XP service pack 3, I was referring to the computer I am posting and burning .iso 's from, not the computer I'm trying to fix. Apparently the system sweeper you linked requires the computer to be at XP service pack 3 or later.

 

[seavixen32]

Check out this Dell tutorial for a factory restore.

How To Restore or Reinstall Microsoft Windows on a Dell Computer | Dell

 

[KaneChaos]

Look I appreciate someone taking the time to try and help here, but it's a waste of both our time when you just post tutorials without reading the rest of this thread; I've already tried the factory restore and it just black screens, then shuts itself like every other solution so far.

I don't wish to insult anybody, just trying to get some help here.

 

[Britton30]

Tutorials are quite useful because someone has taken a great deal of time to write it thereby negating the need for us to re-write the same instructions.

Perhaps you could try the diskpart clean all approach from the cmd prompt which will write 0's to your entire HDD. Then you can do a clean install. This will destroy everything currently on the drive so back up first. tuts are available, but I won't waste your time.

Your HDD might be defective. There are testing/repair tools for different brands. http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html

 

[seavixen32]

Look I appreciate someone taking the time to try and help here, but it's a waste of both our time when you just post tutorials without reading the rest of this thread; I've already tried the factory restore and it just black screens, then shuts itself like every other solution so far.

I don't wish to insult anybody, just trying to get some help here.

Then I wish you luck in your quest.

I'm obviously wasting my time so I'll leave you to it.