Win7 fails to boot

[Bsmooth]

After a recent power failure while the PC was on, I've had various problems with my PC booting up, but its been intermittant.
A few nights ago when I tried to start the PC it sometime went to the Win7 startup screen and other times just froze.
I had made a Win7 repair disc before just in case, so I got the the repair and tried that, with no sucess.
Also tried at the prompt bootrec.exe /fixmbr and although it said it was successful, nothing happened.
I also tried bootrec.exe /fixboot, but I keep getting a message that something is missing.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Kaktussoft]

After a recent power failure while the PC was on, I've had various problems with my PC booting up, but its been intermittant.
A few nights ago when I tried to start the PC it sometime went to the Win7 startup screen and other times just froze.
I had made a Win7 repair disc before just in case, so I got the the repair and tried that, with no sucess.
Also tried at the prompt bootrec.exe /fixmbr and although it said it was successful, nothing happened.
I also tried bootrec.exe /fixboot, but I keep getting a message that something is missing.
Any help would be appreciated.

The bootrec commands try to fix the MBR and partition bootsector. Those 2 are not faulty.... the win7 logo appears on screen.

but I keep getting a message that something is missing.

Exact error message please.

Also tried at the prompt bootrec.exe /fixmbr and although it said it was successful, nothing happened.

What did you expect to happen?

A few nights ago when I tried to start the PC it sometime went to the Win7 startup screen and other times just froze.

Computer freezes while win7 animation is running? It animates forever, or animation stops?

 

[Bsmooth]

Sometimes it did go to the win 7 screen , but now it doesn't. I'll have to get the exact message I get.
I did create a system image on another internal drive I have in the PC.
Should I just get a new HD and do a transfer somehow ?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Boot from the Win7 repair disc you created earlier.
Does it see your WIN7 installation? Select "command prompt" from the recovery options. Then:

dir  c:\users
dir  d:\users
dir  e:\users

Which of the commands above shows your user account?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Sometimes it did go to the win 7 screen , but now it doesn't. I'll have to get the exact message I get.
I did create a system image on another internal drive I have in the PC.
Should I just get a new HD and do a transfer somehow ?

First prove the internal disk is faulty!

 

[Bsmooth]

I'll get the specifics as far as error messages. But so far trying fixmrb hasn't worked and I was hoping that would get it to boot. I still think its the partition bootsector thats giving me the issues.

 

[Kaktussoft]

post output of the bootrec commands. And answer #4

 

[gregrocker]

Work through the steps for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start
which try everything possible to start Win7, or test the hardware if it is in doubt.

 

[Bsmooth]

OK these are the results from last night:
As far as Windows install per answer #4 and users I got file not found on C and D and my user account on E.
As far as Bootrec.exe, results were:
/fixmbr - operation completed successfully

/Fixboot - Element not found

/scanos - Total identified windows installations : 1
[1] E:\Windows, operation completed successfully

When I try and boot my PC I get eithet of these two messages:
Reboot and select proper boot device, insert boot media and press key
Or
A disk error occured

 

[Kaktussoft]

in same command prompt:

diskpart
select  vol  c
detail part
exit

What is the purpose of this partition?

chkdsk/f  c:
chkdsk/f  d:
chkdsk/f  e:

No disk errors found? If found.... are the errors repaired?

 

[Bsmooth]

What is the purpose of diskpart and chkdsk ? Not familiar with these.

 

[Kaktussoft]

also in command prompt
is volume C active?

diskpart
select  vol   c
detail  part
exit

check some files

dir/a  c:\bootmgr
dir/a  c:\boot\bcd

Both files are found? What sizes are the files?

 

[Kaktussoft]

What is the purpose of diskpart and chkdsk ? Not familiar with these.

diskpart is to show and edit partition characteristics
chkdsk stands for check disk. It checks the disk for logical errors. And /f fixes it.

 

[Kaktussoft]

OK these are the results from last night:
As far as Windows install per answer #4 and users I got file not found on C and D and my user account on E.
As far as Bootrec.exe, results were:
/fixmbr - operation completed successfully

/Fixboot - Element not found

/scanos - Total identified windows installations : 1
[1] E:\Windows, operation completed successfully

When I try and boot my PC I get eithet of these two messages:
Reboot and select proper boot device, insert boot media and press key
Or
A disk error occured

Element not found=>There's something wrong with the boot menu.
/scanos found E:\Windows. It's quite normal it isn't called C in this recovery environment. But normally this entry is already in boot menu and it won't list it as a new found win version! It's new because it's not in the boot menu.

You don't have a dual boot system do you?
This command fails as well? Normally it lists the bootmenu and all it's cryptic settings

bcdedit/enum all

 

[Bsmooth]

I'll run diskpart and chkdsk tonight and let you know what happens.
Thanks very much to all for the help.
Yes this is a bit frustrating, especially since I have to go to work and use there PC to report all this to you on the forums.
But as you say in your posts: "Look on the bright side of Life" I'm learning more about my PC and how it works, or in this particular case why it doesn't work !

 

[Kaktussoft]

Most likely the problem is with file C:\boot\bcd . That's the boot menu. It's simple to delete that file and regenerate the bootmenu. But maybe whole C partition is faulty(?) Or even the whole physical disk.

Depending on your results, I can conclude what component is in an incorrect state and how to rebuild it.

 

[Bsmooth]

Diskpart Vol C is Volume 2

Detail part Volume 2 C New Volume NTFS Partition 931GB Healthy

dir/a C:\bootmgr Volume is new volume Directory of C:\ file not found

dir/a C:\boot\bcd System cannot find file specified

chkdsk/f C: 6656 records Windows found no problems
Failed to transfer logged messages to event log status 50

chkdsk/f D: 8368 USN bytes processed, no problems found


chkdsk/f E: 202240 files processed,chkdsk discovered free space as allocated in master file table bitmap, corrected errors in volume bitmap.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Do again

chkdsk/f e:

No more errors?

diskpart
select  vol  c
detail part
select  vol  d
detail part
select  vol  e
detail part
exit

Is C, D or E marked: Active: Yes?

dir/a  c:\boot
dir/a  d:\boot
dir/a  e:\boot

where is the folder called boot?

 

[Bsmooth]

I'll try and write as much information as I can, after I check those again tonight and find a PC I can post on.

 

[Bsmooth]

chkdsk/f E: found no problems

diskpart select volume C active no 931GB label New volume partition 1

select volume D active yes Letter D 100mb Healthy label System Rese

select volume E active no 465GB Healthy label none

Volume D is active

D is boot