W7 will not start, various errors

[Maesen]

Hi everybody,
I am here today in need of help.



First, let me say that I never shut my computer down. The last time I went on the computer was last Wednesday and everything worked as usual.


Yesterday, when I got home from work, I went to my computer and turned on the screen to notice my background was gone and replaced by a black wallpaper with a message saying my Windows 7 Ultimate is not genuine (Been using this genuine copy since it came out). So, I went ahead and clicked the link it gave me to activate it. It sent me on a page to install a patch or something and then confirm on the website when the install is completed. So I installed it and went to confirm but then when it tried to activate, I got a message saying "Windows Activation Technologies plug-in crashed". I retried many times with different browsers, nothing worked, WAT plug-in always crashed.


So I then tried to do a System Restore to last Wednesday (which is my last known working state). Restore completed succesfully, yet now computer will not boot; Windows cannot start. So it sent me into its Startup Repair and tries to repair many things, but nothing yet worked.


-I ran Memory Test, everything is OK.
-I tried booting on Windows 7 DVD, got the same repair screen
-I tried cancelling restore from Repair Menu; Restore failed to extract a file in Mozilla Firefox and got me an "unspecified error occured during System Restore (0x80070017).
-I tried restoring to many other points; Restore failed with error (0x8000ffff) (if I recall correctly)
-I tried going in Safe Mode; cant even reach Safe Mode, it throws me back at the Startup Repair menu.
-I tried doing a "Upgrade Install" from W7 DVD Boot, but it tells me that I need to boot normally the computer in order to proceed to the upgrade. Which I cannot do.


So I decided to re-run the Startup Repair, which still didnt change anything, but this time I read the results. It says:
-Hal.dll is corrupted
-Mountmgr.sys is corrupted.


I dont know what to try next. I cannot afford formating my computer, I have too many important documents in there that I just cannot lose. I believe all of this began with a Windows Update, because last critical security update was Thursday and it worked fine a day earlier. Now I am stuck there.
If someone can help me, I'd really appreciate your input.


Thank you,
Maesen

 

[marsmimar]

Hello Maesen and welcome to Seven Forums.

One of the Forum experts prepared this troubleshooting guide that may help. Follow the steps exactly as he lists them even if you've already done some of them. Each step builds on a previous step. It's time consuming but has helped many.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

If the troubleshooting guide doesn't help you might consider a repair install since you don't want to format your machine. A repair install will try to fix your currently installed Windows 7 while preserving your user accounts, data, programs, system drivers etc. The repair should take about an hour or so. After it's finished you'd have to visit the Windows Update site to reinstall updates. That could take a couple of hours.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[Maesen]

Hello Maesen and welcome to Seven Forums.

One of the Forum experts prepared this troubleshooting guide that may help. Follow the steps exactly as he lists them even if you've already done some of them. Each step builds on a previous step. It's time consuming but has helped many.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

If the troubleshooting guide doesn't help you might consider a repair install since you don't want to format your machine. A repair install will try to fix your currently installed Windows 7 while preserving your user accounts, data, programs, system drivers etc. The repair should take about an hour or so. After it's finished you'd have to visit the Windows Update site to reinstall updates. That could take a couple of hours.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

First of all, thank you for your reply.

I tried all the suggested steps that I hadnt tried already:
-I tried burning Windows Defender Offline and when I went to boot on it, I got the error message (0x8004cc01).
-I then tried burning Kasperskey Rescue DVD but it wont even boot correctly on the CD, it gives me an error about finding root or something.

I cannot do the Repair Install because it's the same steps as doing the "Updated Install" that I first described in my original post.

So I am still stuck at the same spot, what do I try next?

Thank you,
Maesen

 

[VistaKing]

Hi Maesen

Try this below

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

 

[Maesen]

Hi Maesen

Try this below

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

Already tried many times. All unsuccesful.

 

[VistaKing]

What error messages do you get ?

Hal.dll is corrupted is from a booting issue. Have you tried bootrect.exe /fixboot ? from the command prompt?

 

[Maesen]

What error messages do you get ?

Hal.dll is corrupted is from a booting issue. Have you tried bootrect.exe /fixboot ? from the command prompt?

I tried these 4 commands from the command prompt:
-BOOTREC /FIXMBR
-BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
-BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD
-BOOTREC /SCANOS

All of them were completed with success. So I went ahead and rebooted. No boot. Still brung to Startup Repair.

 

[VistaKing]

Check your BIOS settiings

 

[Maesen]

Check your BIOS settiings

What am I supposed to check exactly? If you could be a little more precise I'd appreciate. I never played in BIOS settings.

 

[VistaKing]

What does it say under your Boot settings and your SATA configurations.

 

[roboticarm]

Did you try running chkdsk command?

Boot using Win DVD, after reaching setup wizard press Shift+F10 to bring up cmd prompt.

Assuming you have Windows on C:, enter this command and press Enter:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Now restart and see if it helps.

 

[Maesen]

What does it say under your Boot settings and your SATA configurations.

I'll have to check this tomorrow.

Did you try running chkdsk command?

Boot using Win DVD, after reaching setup wizard press Shift+F10 to bring up cmd prompt.

Assuming you have Windows on C:, enter this command and press Enter:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Now restart and see if it helps.

I just did a chkdsk, it completed successfully and it said it fixed some files. I rebooted, still no boot at all. Now what?

Thank you,
Maesen

 

[gregrocker]

You need to be able to boot a disk so you can run the AV scans you gave up on when you couldn't boot the disks. How to Boot A Computer from CD or DVD - YouTube

You should be running Startup Repair from the Win7 DVD or Repair CD. DVD is provided in the Troubleshooting Steps.

Again you need to be able to boot a disk and not just give up. You've not even begun until you do.

Why do I assume you're not booting the disk correctly? Because of the carelessness of not even having your valuable files backed up, which is totally reckless.

Once you boot the Win7 disk (with our help if necessary) you can rescue your files using the methods in the tutorial, then do the necessary repairs or reinstall.

 

[Maesen]

You need to be able to boot a disk so you can run the AV scans you gave up on when you couldn't boot the disks. How to Boot A Computer from CD or DVD - YouTube

You should be running Startup Repair from the Win7 DVD or Repair CD. DVD is provided in the Troubleshooting Steps.

Again you need to be able to boot a disk and not just give up. You've not even begun until you do.

Why do I assume you're not booting the disk correctly? Because of the carelessness of not even having your valuable files backed up, which is totally reckless.

Once you boot the Win7 disk (with our help if necessary) you can rescue your files using the methods in the tutorial, then do the necessary repairs or reinstall.

I am able to boot on a disk. I can boot on Windows 7 DVD and reach its menu, I can boot on the Windows Defender Offline disk. It just doesnt change anything. The only disk I wasnt able to boot correctly on is the Kaspersky Rescue one for some reason.

Also, I appreciate your care towards my valuable files not being backed up. Lemme say that most of em are on my secondary disk, which is not the one with Windows installed. So I believe even if I format and do a clean install of Windows 7 on main drive, I could still use my data if I leave the 2nd drive untouched. But I would rather not format anything.

Thanks for input, I will retry solutions tomorrow because I have to sleep for now.

 

[roboticarm]

What does it say under your Boot settings and your SATA configurations.

I'll have to check this tomorrow.

Did you try running chkdsk command?

Boot using Win DVD, after reaching setup wizard press Shift+F10 to bring up cmd prompt.

Assuming you have Windows on C:, enter this command and press Enter:

chkdsk C: /f /r

Now restart and see if it helps.

I just did a chkdsk, it completed successfully and it said it fixed some files. I rebooted, still no boot at all. Now what?

Thank you,
Maesen

Means some files are corrupted to such an extent that they can't be repaired. Follow what gregrocker says.

 

[gregrocker]

Good, with the the second HD you can easily more your files over using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console so they are safe.

Then I'd unplug it to run the repairs as it says in the tutorial Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start . There are many of the repairs which can be run from the Win7 DVD and Partition Wizard bootable CD which is easy to burn and boot.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Faladu]

Don't forget the yank out the C: living HD and put it on another PC and backup what you need there, then wipe and drop a fresh windows install once returned to it's original fun time computer.

I use an affordable EIDE/SATA to USB adapter, or if it's a lot of data, swap it for a SATA DVD drive in another PC temporarily, this assumes you are using modern equipment.

 

[Maesen]

Good, with the the second HD you can easily more your files over using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console so they are safe.

Then I'd unplug it to run the repairs as it says in the tutorial Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start . There are many of the repairs which can be run from the Win7 DVD and Partition Wizard bootable CD which is easy to burn and boot.

Let us know how it goes.

Hi,

alright, I went back to the computer and retried the steps. This time I unplugged my 2nd hard drive and ran the Startup Repairs. Now it wont even repair, it scans for problems and after around 8 seconds it tells me it cannot repair this computer automatically.

I retried the Startup Repair from the W7 DVD but it does the same thing. I did not try the Partition Wizard although I tried an alternative: Marking partition as Active in the command prompt from W7 DVD. I did just like the steps suggested but Windows still wont boot.

Should I try burning the Partition Wizard or will it do the same as the command prompt did?

I also retried booting the Windows Defender Offline CD. It boots, starts to load up then crashes telling me the program couldnt start. It might be due to bad drivers or a Windows installation issue.

Is there anything else that I missed?
Thank you very much for all the help so far,
Maesen

EDIT: I just noticed something. I am currently in the System Recovery Options and it says "Operation system: Windows 7 on (D: ) Local Disk".

(D: ) is supposed to be my 2nd hard drive. Windows is installed on (C: ). Is something wrong there?

 

[gregrocker]

It's giving SysREseved C since the letters in WinRE can be different which is normal.

It would be good to get at least one of the bootable AV's from the list in tutorial to run a full scan so you know it isn't infection that's blocking repair. Can you get into Safe Mode to run Malwarebytes? Did you run SFC from the Win7 DVD command Line yet? This will tell you if its bad system files.

 

[Maesen]

It's giving SysREseved C since the letters in WinRE can be different which is normal.

It would be good to get at least one of the bootable AV's from the list in tutorial to run a full scan so you know it isn't infection that's blocking repair. Can you get into Safe Mode to run Malwarebytes? Did you run SFC from the Win7 DVD command Line yet? This will tell you if its bad system files.

Unfortunately, for now I dont have any empty or rewriteable CDs that I can use to burn another bootable AV other than the Kaspersky that I already have (that doesnt boot correctly).

I also cannot boot into either Safe mode or Safe mode with network.

I hadnt try the SFC but I just did now. I ran it 3 times in a row (all 3 times it couldnt fix all of them), I then rebooted and re-ran the command 2 more times. Still couldnt fix all of the corrupted files.

I really dont think it is an infection doing anything because I am pretty sure the culprit would be a bad microsoft patch that was updated Thursday. But you probably know better than me so I guess I should try to get some CDs tomorrow and try to get a bootable AV scan going.

As of now, nothing worked and I cannot burn any CDs. Any other ideas that I could try?

Thank you again,
Maesen