Windows 7 crashes on startup. Can't restore, repair or repair install

[Mattressi]

All of a sudden, my computer crashes every time when starting up the computer. When it gets to the "Windows" screen with the small moving dots that form the windows logo, it crashes just as they start their animation.

I've tried using Startup Repair, as well as command line repair (possibly the same thing?), but they are telling me that they aren't finding anything wrong. Also reverting to a previous state results in an error and I can't do a system restore because I have no system restore points. I was able to backup all of my most important files, thanks to that excellent guide on here which tells you how to use the "load driver" window to do it. So, I'm confident that my hard-drive is still mostly functional, since searching through it went fine, with no corrupt files or anything noticed. At first I thought the problem was something other than my hard-drive/installation, so I put my hard-drive into another computer (which was working fine) and experienced the same problem.

I read about the "repair install" option and got really excited that this might fix my problem. However, I read that you can only do it while logged in (which, again, I cannot do) and this was confirmed when I tried to do it anyway. This sounds like the perfect option for me, but I can't get the computer to let me log in, whether in safe mode or not.

Does anyone have any other ideas about what I can do? I'd really like to avoid doing a fresh install of Windows 7, if at all possible. I'm sure there has to be some way to fix this, since I'm able to access all of my files on the hard-drive.

Thanks very much for any responses.

 

[braddersz]

Have you tried running a sfc\ scannow from command prompt?

 

[Mattressi]

Have you tried running a sfc\ scannow from command prompt?

Yes, sorry - that was the command prompt thing I was talking about. I copied it from a guide. It said there were no errors (or something along those lines).

 

[braddersz]

Can you boot in safe mode?.

Tap F8 during start up, and it should give you more options. Select boot in safe mode

 

[Mattressi]

Can you boot in safe mode?.

Tap F8 during start up, and it should give you more options. Select boot in safe mode

Unfortunately that doesn't work either.

 

[braddersz]

Can you boot in safe mode?.

Tap F8 during start up, and it should give you more options. Select boot in safe mode

Unfortunately that doesn't work either.

In that case. Try run a chkdsk /f/r in a command prompt.

 

[Mattressi]

Can you boot in safe mode?.

Tap F8 during start up, and it should give you more options. Select boot in safe mode

Unfortunately that doesn't work either.

In that case. Try run a chkdsk /f/r in a command prompt.

Ok thanks, I'll give that a go now.

 

[Mattressi]

It's saying
"The type of file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected."

Not sure what that means :S

Edit: nevermind; typing "chkdsk c: /f /r /x" worked. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Mattressi]

It took a while to complete, but it finally completed and said that there were no bad sectors and basically made it sound like it was fine. I restarted to see if it did anything, but the same crash at the same point occurred. Are there any other things I can try? Thanks very much

 

[braddersz]

It took a while to complete, but it finally completed and said that there were no bad sectors and basically made it sound like it was fine. I restarted to see if it did anything, but the same crash at the same point occurred. Are there any other things I can try? Thanks very much

It's a positive thing that it passed. That means there isnt any bad sectors on the HDD.
On which screen exactly does it freeze on ?.

 

[braddersz]

Can we go back and run another start up repair?. Try that.

 

[Mattressi]

It's on the first Windows 7 screen - the one with a black background which says "Starting Windows" and has 4 balls of light which turn into the Windows logo. It crashes as soon as the first two balls of light appear and start moving. I think I just noticed a BSOD screen flash up extremely briefly before it restarted.

Edit: ok, I'll try that again.

 

[braddersz]

Have you installed anything new recently?.

Any updates?

Have you got any usb devices pluged into it?
like a printer, or storage device?

If so, disconnect them.

 

[Mattressi]

Ok, Startup Repair now says
"Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically
Sending more information can help Microsoft create solutions"

The problem details say
"Problem event name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 21200089
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
..."

There's more if you'd like me to type it. It was weird; Startup Repair didn't even seem to take any time this time - it ran for maybe 2 seconds and popped up with this error.

Edit: No new updates in a while (I turned auto updating off) and no new USB devices plugged in. Right now only a mouse and keyboard. Come to think of it, my computer was knocked over recently and I might not have started it since then, but I don't know if that matters.

 

[braddersz]

ok. I suggest we now re-run a sfc \scannow from command prompt

 

[Mattressi]

ok. I suggest we now re-run a sfc \scannow from command prompt

Ok, I'm using this code: sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows
which I got on these forums (sorry, I'm not very experienced with command prompt).

It's still running; I'll let you know when it's done.

 

[braddersz]

Ok, Startup Repair now says


"Problem event name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 21200089
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
..."

.

I've just been re-searching the Problem Signatures.

a lot of post are relating them to be Driver related?.

Have you installed, or updated any drivers recently?. Installed any new hardware?.

Are you sure we can not access windows Via safe mode?.

 

[Mattressi]

I've just been re-searching the Problem Signatures.

a lot of post are relating them to be Driver related?.

Have you installed, or updated any drivers recently?. Installed any new hardware?.

Are you sure we can not access windows Via safe mode?.

I've definitely tried before, but it was before I posted on here, so I'll try booting it in safe mode again once this sfc /scannow is finished. I haven't installed any new drivers, but I am currently running the hard drive in my other computer (not it's regular one). This hard drive's regular computer is so much slower and louder (it has fans running at 100% until it gets into Windows - so the entire time I'm doing this). I was getting the same problems in the old (regular) computer, but if these are new hardware issues, should I just put it back into the old computer?

Sorry, it completely slipped my mind that this might be an issue.

Edit: The scan just finished and said "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations"

Edit again: Safe mode still didnt work. It went through a few different lines of writing and then BSODed again.

Edit again again: The line it freezes on ends with "drivers/CLASSPNP.SYS" (not sure what the something was)

 

[braddersz]

I could have done with knowing this at the start.

You can't just take a OS hdd out of one machine and expect it to boot in another, It has all the wrong drivers trying too boot, Hence why it hangs.

You should definetly plug it back in the old machine.

 

[Mattressi]

I could have done with knowing this at the start.

You can't just take a OS hdd out of one machine and expect it to boot in another, It has all the wrong drivers trying too boot, Hence why it hangs.

You should definetly plug it back in the old machine.

Ah, sorry about that. I figured it wasn't an issue since the same error seemed to be occurring on both computers, so I figured I use the quieter one. I mentioned in the OP that I was using it, but I guess I wasn't clear that I was still using it. Sorry, I'll switch it over now.