Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

There is a folder named Danny on the C drive of the HP laptop...there is not one on the enclosure drive. There is a Windows.old folder on the enclosure drive. There is a system folder named Danny on the Desktop of the HP laptop, but I only just now saw it when I got the dialog to browse for files to upload to this reply, and there should be 2 attachments. Otherwise, the system folder named Danny on the Desktop does not show?!

I think I know what happened...I don't think anything ever transferred to the enclosure from the sick laptop, even though the Paragonn program told me everything had. I had named a new folder ds, the owners initials, and designated it as the folder to transfer Danny to...that folder did create on the enclosure HD, but it is empty!

Are you saying that, because there is a Windows.old folder on the enclosure drive, the boot disk for the installer never worked, even though the system clearly showed that it was working, clearly asked me to tap any key to begin the installation from the bootable. If that's the case, then I'm completely lost :/

s the case

FWIW, I also remember something else that happened as installation was beginning:

I was asked to identify into which partition I wanted to create the new installation. I had remembered reading something about not needing any partitions if I so chose, so prior to installation beginning I was offered to delete all the partitions and leave just one, and that's what I chose to do. Perhaps that is the cause of some of this mess?

gregrocker said:

Would you please explain what is the F drive on the Compaq in first screenshot? In fact it has the windows.old I just told you would be there if the installer was run from an OS and not booted to run. If it's the PC in question then all of the old OS installation will be in the windows.old folder.

If you click on the dropdown arrow on the top right toolbar and choose details you should get some dates so you can see which folders were created yesterday.

The Danny shown in the second screenshot is the User account you set up when you installed.

In addition to explaining that please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map and listings.

The F drive in the Compaq in the first screenshot is what was created in a different Win7 clean installation with a 32-bit installer, in fact it's the drive in the former computer from the first clean install you ever walked me through...that's why the contents of that Windows.old folder show a User folder named Mark, but not Danny...b/c that was the name of the previous owner before he gave the system to me, Mark. I had to subsequently remove the drive from the old tower because the 775 socket had sustained damage and the tower is history. My idea was to use that drive just as a temporary harbor of Danny's files until I could transfer them back to the clean install on the HP laptop. I'm now convinced that nothing ever transferred yesterday using Paragon, probably b/c the laptop HD was so badly damaged from the three infections. Unfortunately, my first clean install, which I performed about a month ago with your expert help, served to do nothing but confuse the two of us because of similar terminology and names, except for the folder named Mark. I did, in fact, boot from the installer this morning under the impression that I had saved Danny's files to the enclosure, but they actually never budged, and how they're gone for good...only good thing about that is that he really doesn't care, b/c he maintained all along that there was nothing on the HP laptop infected HD that he absolutely couldn't live without, pardon the grammar.

Does that all make sense now?

Yeah, it's probably better that infected files are wiped anyway. Otherwise be sure to always confirm rescued files are in fact copied over before moving on.

It sounds like you got a pretty good install otherwise. Are all updates done, no drivers missing, performance panning out okay?

gregrocker said:

Yeah, it's probably better that infected files are wiped anyway. Otherwise be sure to always confirm rescued files are in fact copied over before moving on.

It sounds like you got a pretty good install otherwise. Are all updates done, no drivers missing, performance panning out okay?

Yes, perfectly fine, all of the above correct and complete -- and I agree with you: what if, after all the trouble (IF it had worked), files that Danny tried to use again were tainted from one or any combination of the 3 infections confirmed by WDO to still be active?

Things worked out better this way, and I have you to thank for all the man-hours you spent dealing with my exasperating sometimes-drama. I do work for Starbucks part-time, after all, so if there's any product that would qualify for an early Christmas present, just let me know.

Glad to help any time. You are learning a lot.

While trying to boot up windows I got this blue screen, I am just wondering if it can be fixed or not. This is part of the Windows looping problem I am having .

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