Win 7 stubborn boot loop when user login is displayed

[essenbe]

I may suggest to backup your personal files before doing much to the OS.

 

[Megahertz07]

--- Would your trick to enable the built in Administrator account give us a fresh account to play with? And if so, how to repair the other accounts? (And why would they both go bad at once?)

Don't think that the Buit in administrator account will help as it restart before you choose an account, unless you have set to auto login in one of the two accounts (JANE or Maintenance).


A silly question: Is the laptop fan working?

 

[KGHN]

https://www.sevenforums.com/members/megahertz07.htmlMegahertz07, This machine has the personal files of the person who gave it to me - about 1TB of them, between the two drives. I'm on the road, and don't have more than a couple of 128GB flash drives. I may have to go buy a 2TB external...
--- not a silly Q at all. (I serviced a different machine that was misbehaving due to overheating recently.) Yes, I can hear the fan, and the bottom of the machine feels nice and cool. Another tech asked whether the CMOS battery might be failing, but I have had no time/date loss, so there's no obvious symptom of that.
--- I wish I had the resources of my own workbench/office. I may just ship this machine home, and try to find a different one to use here. I tried to use this one because (apparently) the airport scanner fried the memory in the Dell e6400 AntiX Linux laptop I brought in my carry-on - it now has a massive error count in Memtest86.
--- Also, I want to use a Brother printer/scanner here that has Win drivers available, but not Arch Linux drivers.
---
--- Thank you for your kindness and deep thinking on my behalf. If I do a backup here, I'll report in. If you have a brilliant idea, I'll probably check on this thread from time to time.

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Oops, sorry essenbe, I should thank you for the backup nudge. Always good policy.

 

[essenbe]

It's also a way to preserve the data in case you lose it in the original drives. With Macrium you can mount the backup image and copy from it.

 

[KGHN]

essenbe, I looked at the Macrium pages. Nice tool if it works as advertised. The page promises new instructions for the new version but it seems that hasn't happened yet (understandably with COVID around; everyone is scrambling).
--- First, I'm unsure how I could use it on this Win7 that can't boot. It needs to be installed, right?
--- Second, I don't see an assurance that it can span media, though its offer to use optical media implies that. Can it do a single backup to multiple flash drives? This machine has at least 1TB to back up, and probably a bit more than that.
--- The ability to use an ISO as a source drive sounds super. Does that work with a multiple-optical backup?
--- Finally, is there a Linux version? I can boot this machine on an Arch Linux bootable flash drive.

 

[essenbe]

I don't know about split media. I've never tried to do that. I suspect it wouldn't backup to multiple drives, but again, I don't know.
Yes, Macrium should be installed, but the recovery drive made from an installed version is a fully operational Macrium, meaning you can boot into the recovery drive and make backups as well as restore backups.

There is no Linux version as far as I am aware.

 

[Megahertz07]

The vers 7 has a guide macrium_reflect_v7_user_guide.pdf
The on line manual Macrium Reflect v7 User Guide

You can download only the rescue boot able iso
How To Create Macrium Reflect Bootable Rescue CD/USB - YouTube

Chose to download PE10

You should buy a 1T External drive to make the image backup.
External SSD

 

[KGHN]

The Macrium video says the "recovery CD" can make a backup, nice, and I'm hoping it can do so for a machine that doesn't have Macrium installed. I don't have another Windows machine to play with here. I did not find a link to download only the rescue boot able iso, though I read the description and comments. Did I miss something?
--- With the Arch Linux System Rescue CD I could use the NTFSclone command to do full partition backups, without having to install anything in Windows. It doesn't have the nice ISO access tool, but it should do the job in a straightforward way. I'm happy Linux is getting more NTFS friendly as time goes along.
--- I'd still like to get the Win7 back to boot-ability, as so much of the data is special formats that need their non-free software applications to see. Music, graphics, video, etc. As I am trying to evaluate content that I don't know what-it-is going in, having those applications would be very useful.
--- I would also like to run Belarc advisor to find out the Windows 7 key, and identify installed applications, so I can reinstall Windows if I need to. There is no sticker on the machine, though I'm sure it is a legitimate copy. The machine was built for my user by AVA Direct, a reputable company (with great support.)
---
--- Thanks again for helping me strategize.

 

[Megahertz07]

OEM computers also comes with a Factory recover that you can launch from BIOS to restore as it came from factory.
It will format C: partition so you must backup first.

OEM computers comes with SLP license. When you retrieve using Belarc advisor or similar, the key it finds it's generic. Won't work for reinstall and activation. Under the battery or under the computer you should find a COA sticker with a Win 7 license to be used for reinstall.

Before you go with a reinstall, I would like to try another trick but you have to backup first.

 

[KGHN]

This is not a big brand OEM, so there is no factory restore partition (I checked with GParted.) Next time I have it turned off, I'll check the battery compartment for a Windows key sticker - good suggestion. I'm working on getting a backup medium big enough for this beast, and looking forward to your "another trick". Thanks, Megahertz07

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I have been loaned another Windows (10 this time) machine to try to get the scanner going. This Win7 repair project will be on hold for at least a couple of weeks. I hope to be posting again after the logical next step - a good backup. Thanks very much, and I hope the thread will not time out. I'm not sure how long SevenForums gives me.

 

[essenbe]

The thread will not time out. Just come back and post when you are ready. Good luck with the backup.

 

[KGHN]

Thank you essenbe, that's good news. In the meantime, may the force be with you.

 

[essenbe]

and with you.