Solved Will Not Boot Even With Disc

[boweasel]

Friend of mine gave me his Dell tower to check out. I know it's a 64 bit system but I don't know the model (don't they put model numbers on the chassis anymore?).

I just goes into a perpetual boot loop when you turn it on. Hitting the Repair Your Computer (instead of Start Windows Normally) option just takes me to a grayish screen. So I put in the Windows Home Prem. 64 disc getting the 'press any key.... Then I get the 'Loading Files', I get the Starting Windows and then the Install Windows screen. If I select 'Repair' it just goes to that blueish screen with the branch and the little bird, and stays there. Two hours later and it hasn't moved.

If I select Install (instead of Repair), it takes me to that same blue screen with the white words 'Setup is starting'. This screen also never goes away.

If it was a hard drive problem wouldn't it have taken me to the OS screen selection where it would normally display Windows 7 Home Premium, but in the case of a bad drive it would say no OS found?

 

[samuria]

Boot the dvdand instead of install goto the repair cmd prompt then type chkdsk c: /r see if it will check the disk for errors

 

[SIW2]

Check if the install media will boot without the hard drive attached.

 

[boweasel]

Boot the dvdand instead of install goto the repair cmd prompt then type chkdsk c: /r see if it will check the disk for errors

AIAS, "I put in the Windows Home Prem. 64 disc getting the 'press any key.... Then I get the 'Loading Files', I get the Starting Windows and then the Install Windows screen. If I select 'Repair' it just goes to that blueish screen with the branch and the little bird, and stays there. Two hours later and it hasn't moved."

 

[boweasel]

Check if the install media will boot without the hard drive attached.

If I disconnect the HDD and boot from the disc I do get the System Recovery Options page. Of course there is no operating system listed, but the page does display. Reconnecting the drive and restarting yields the same results as above - no System Recovery Options ever shows up.

 

[SIW2]

Tht indicates a problem with the drive, the controller, or (possibly) the connection.

You could try reconnecting the drive using a different sata port and lead. If you still have the problem, your drive/controller is bad.

Simplest is then to get a new hd and clean install. If you want to get data off the old drive you could attempt slaving it and using various file recovery programs. Failing that, if the data is very important you could consider a specialist company who do that stuff ( expensive).

 

[boweasel]

Tht indicates a problem with the drive, the controller, or (possibly) the connection.

You could try reconnecting the drive using a different sata port and lead. If you still have the problem, your drive/controller is bad.

Simplest is then to get a new hd and clean install. If you want to get data off the old drive you could attempt slaving it and using various file recovery programs. Failing that, if the data is very important you could consider a specialist company who do that stuff ( expensive).

I tried a different SATA power connector without result. I have to look around to another SATA data cable. If I connect the drive to another PC with a USB caddy I can read the data and save it to an ext. drive. But at this point I don't know if the problem is the drive itself or something faulty on the motherboard. I'd certainly hate to buy a new drive and be unable to install the OS because of a mobo problem.

 

[SIW2]

I don't know if the problem is the drive itself or something faulty on the motherboard

You could try connecting any other hd you have using the existing cable and port.

Or you could try the (possibly defective) disk in another pc. See if that prevents your boot media from loading.

 

[jumanji]

I tried a different SATA power connector without result. I have to look around to another SATA data cable. If I connect the drive to another PC with a USB caddy I can read the data and save it to an ext. drive. But at this point I don't know if the problem is the drive itself or something faulty on the motherboard. I'd certainly hate to buy a new drive and be unable to install the OS because of a mobo problem.

If you could access and read the HDD on another PC, I would say that the HDD itself is OK.

What is left for you is to try it in its original location - the Dell Tower -with another SATA Cable and another port. If it wouldn't boot still then most probably the motherboard is faulty.

Try with another HDD and with the good HDD also it exhibits the same problem, it would confirm the motherboard is defective.

Contact DELL support and check whether they would undertake motherboard repair.If not another professional service agency.

 

[Megahertz07]

You can try to read the disk with Linux on a USB flash disk.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/artful/release/lubuntu-17.10-desktop-i386.iso

To make a USB flash boot able use Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

 

[boweasel]

If you could access and read the HDD on another PC, I would say that the HDD itself is OK.

What is left for you is to try it in its original location - the Dell Tower -with another SATA Cable and another port. If it wouldn't boot still then most probably the motherboard is faulty.

Try with another HDD and with the good HDD also it exhibits the same problem, it would confirm the motherboard is defective.

Contact DELL support and check whether they would undertake motherboard repair.If not another professional service agency.

Okay.... I disconnected my friend's drive from a working tower where it had been set up as a slave drive. I disconnected the good drive from that working tower, connected my friend's drive as the primary, inserted the W7 Home disc and booted.

Selecting repair did give me the System Recovery Options page and the Windows 7 OS did display. This page did not display when I used the disc in his tower. I clicked on the OS and it took me to that repair screen (Windows could not start, etc). The repair has been running for about an hour so far.

While that continued to run, I took my good drive and connected to my friend's tower and started it. It booted successfully, bringing me to my Windows password entry screen. I assume that means that the mobo on my friend's tower is okay.

Meanwhile, my friend's drive in my computer 'finished' its repair, telling me that Windows could not automatically repair this computer (or something like that). I hit the advance options, went to the command prompt, and am now running chkdsk /r /f

 

[boweasel]

The chkdsk on my friend's drive (in my tower) finally finished. In stage 3, I was told it was Repairing the USN Journal File record segment. Nothing through stages 4 & 5, but at the end it said Adding 703 bad clusters to the Bad Cluster file, Correcting error in Volume Bitmap and Windows had made corrections to the file system.

I put the drives back into their proper towers and everything now works. Thanks, guys.

 

[jumanji]

Glad you managed to resolve the problem. In a real sense, no one else can take or claim credit for it.

It is really strange that that HDD would not boot from the optical media in your friend's tower but could do so on your tower to carry out any repairs. And check disk did repair it.

I am not sure what lesson we have to learn from this .

In any case, run the manufacturer's diagnostic/repair utility on the HDD and check its health to make sure it is healthy.

 

[boweasel]

It is really strange that that HDD would not boot from the optical media in your friend's tower but could do so on your tower to carry out any repairs. And check disk did repair it.

I found that incredibly strange as well. I have several 64 bit Windows 7 Home discs and I tried all of them. I tried a different SATA connector, and a different data cable. No luck with any of them.

I am not sure what lesson we have to learn from this .

That computers are sentient beings with a warped sense of humor. Or else they're just spiteful bastards.

In any case, run the manufacturer's diagnostic/repair utility on the HDD and check its health to make sure it is healthy.

Will run the Dell utility.