Windows Explorer fails to start with possible other problems

[ricksavery]

Apologies for the possibly misleading title, but it all started with Explorer failing to start automatically in Windows startup.
All that was happening was a very small command prompt window appeared on my screen - typing in 'explorer' did the trick but had to do this every time, obviously something isn't right,.

Trying to research and figure it out lead to a few discoveries which are:
Command prompt always now starts small and can only be resized by altering the windows properties - rather than using the cursor - these properties are not retained for the next time.
There is no 'repair computer' option in the startup options when pressing F8.
My Windows installation disc says it can't start the repair tools as it is for a different OS - even though that is the disc I used to install it in the first place.
The OS title appears to be ' Windows 7 Home Premium (recovered)' and I don't know why there is '(recovered)' involved.
Finally (hopefully), there does not seem to be a System Reserved partition when I check in Disc Management.

I have no idea whether these are related to the original problem with Windows Explorer, but they do seem to be connected to me not being able to use Windows repair tools.

Would really appreciate any and all help with this, as I am clearly out of my depth.
Oh, and the original problem happens in safe Mode too.
Thanks
Rick

 

[Megahertz07]

- To use repair on a Win 7 installation disk it must be same bit version.
- System Reserved partition normally is only on OEM computers disks. Disk management doesn't show M$ Reserved partition (120M RAW)

Lets do the basic fist.
Open a CMD window as admin and type
chkdsk c: /f
It will say the disk is in use and if you want to schedule on next startup = YES
Reboot
Pay attention on the results, specially bad blocks or bad clusters.


Once back to windows, open a CMD window as admin and type
sfc /scannow

Report

 

[ricksavery]

Cheers for replying Megahertz. Did all that - no problems at all with the chkdsk, and scannow says 'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations' - so all good there too (I assume)

The Windows installation disk is 64 bit as is the OS - sorry, should have said that, so still confused by that

 

[Megahertz07]

There are 2 ways to boot the win 7 installation disk IF your BIOS is UEFI: Legacy and UEFI mode.

Anyway, don't think that a Win 7 installation disk will help you with a boot repair.

Recover indicates that your windows was once back to a restore point.
Restore can be a good point to start. Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Recovery and see if you have a restore point to a date where it was working well.

Run msconfig and see if:
- On General tab you have it set to normal startup
- On Boot tab No GUI isn't selected

 

[Snick]

Is you drive GPT or MBR?

This is a pain MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record - Windows 7 Help Forums

This is simpler, just a couple clicks, you can run EaseUS Partition Master Free to rebuild MBR. If your drive is GPT you can convert it to MBR, rebuild MBR and convert to GPT.

 

[Megahertz07]

Snick, he can boot so I don't think there is anything wrong with MBR.

 

[Snick]

Thanks Megahertz07, yes I understand that OP can boot that is why I didn't go into working from DVD or USB. I provided that for informational purposes and if you and OP determine that may be the cause, it will then be of value in this situation.

Repair Install maybe if the issues isn't corrected otherwise.

 

[Megahertz07]

From post #3 "no problems at all with the chkdsk, and scannow says 'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations' - so all good there too"

So there is no disk or system problem.
As re described, it seems that he is booting without GUI.
That's why I thought of a configuration and asked him to run msconfig and see if:
- On General tab you have it set to normal startup
- On Boot tab No GUI isn't selected

 

[Snick]

That's where I would go as well. If those setting are as they should be then, it seems to me that the bootloader is missing the file/folder that initiates the GUI or is corrupt or damaged, thus OP is getting the issue described, but not damaged to the point that it won't boot. Makes sense to me.

 

[ricksavery]

Recover indicates that your windows was once back to a restore point.
Restore can be a good point to start. Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Recovery and see if you have a restore point to a date where it was working well.

Run msconfig and see if:
- On General tab you have it set to normal startup
- On Boot tab No GUI isn't selected

Looking at System Restore there are no restore points and I haven't restored since I installed the OS so there is no joy there I'm afraid

Msconfig - settings as you suggest

No change to problems

 

[ricksavery]

That's where I would go as well. If those setting are as they should be then, it seems to me that the bootloader is missing the file/folder that initiates the GUI or is corrupt or damaged, thus OP is getting the issue described, but not damaged to the point that it won't boot. Makes sense to me.

Thanks for helping Snick.

would that also mean that Command Prompt would start small as I describe ?