Solved Dell XPS M1530 Startup Repair Loop, Offline SFC does NOT function

[writhziden]

It does sound like there are hard drive issues... In the time you have had the computer, have you run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html with both boxes checked? I think you had planned to at one point, but you never said whether you did or not or what the results were. It would probably be worth doing.

If the install gets stuck long enough due to a hardware fault, it will stop and throw up an error. The only concern you should have is if it freezes completely and there does not seem to be any graphical activity to the installation.



What is the current status with the system? Given the short turnaround you had to get it finished, thought I would check in and make sure things are running smoothly.

 

[Z92435]

It does sound like there are hard drive issues... In the time you have had the computer, have you run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html with both boxes checked? I think you had planned to at one point, but you never said whether you did or not or what the results were. It would probably be worth doing.

If the install gets stuck long enough due to a hardware fault, it will stop and throw up an error. The only concern you should have is if it freezes completely and there does not seem to be any graphical activity to the installation.



What is the current status with the system? Given the short turnaround you had to get it finished, thought I would check in and make sure things are running smoothly.

Writhziden,

Sorry for the delayed response, but given that I'd been through hell and high water with that computer, I sort of just gave myself a break after getting everything done and getting it back to my uncle. Now, I'll be absolutely honest in saying that it is not exactly what I wanted to accomplish at the very end, but given that everything major was taken care of, I'd decided to just pull a "real artists ship" and get that nasty cat back to where it belongs.

As a final update, I did manage to finish the Windows Repair Install, which was apparently stuck on one big @$$ file, but did go through the process. And, even though I know I sort of fought against it, I'll go on the record to tell anyone else who wants to Frankenstein their OS that the repair install at the end is CRUCIAL. Once that install completed, a lot of interesting things happened, such as a customized Dell XPS "Welcome" screen for Windows 7 Ultimate, which did not pop up which I updated it way back. Also, a lot of the processes now runs a bit smoother. In fact, I can probably attribute a lot of the weirdness to the Franken-OS in the middle parts. Nonetheless, a lot of the things that I wanted the repair install to take care of, it didn't, such as making SFC work again or correcting that crazy path in CMD whenever I launch it as Administrator. At this point, I'm regarding all of these issues as pre-existing from before I got a hold of it, since I'd like to think that most issues should have been taken care of by the numerous re-installs I've done.

I've gone ahead and marked this thread as solved, so I'm hoping that it'll go down in the annals of this forum as some sort of obscure and absurd "last trick" before nuking everything via a clean install, which is not bad of an accomplishment to confirm that such a process does exist, and that it actually works somewhat decently, although at the cost of oodles of time and effort. Here's hoping that, for those who have nothing else to lose, it may become a lifesaver.

Oh, yeah. If you guys ever write a guide about how to make a Franken-OS, I reserve my rights at being attributed, and I want to be part of the editing process before it's published. Haha!

 

[writhziden]

Glad things worked out (for the most part) in the end. I will keep this in mind for anyone having similar problems who has the patience to try it, and I will link to this thread so you get credit for the patience to do it first.

I have added the thread to my bookmarks as Franken-OS.