Windows 7 PROBLEM WITH SYSTEM START UP. CAUSED BY RECENT HDD FAULT ? PLEASE HELP

[Ascii]

A couple of days ago my OS hard drive has failed. I was using Ableton Live and it crashed, so had to reboot the computer. But instead of loading windows, I got "0xc000000f -- The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible" error. In addition to this I have noticed that it was taking too long to show my available drives on a first start up page.

I swapped around my hdd with other 2 drives I have, but it was still taking over 5 min to load them on a start up screen. Even after reading them I got boot mgr missing error .. Then I thought I will simply get a new hdd and will do a clean install, and it should solve my problems . So I bought a brand new caviar black, and managed to install win 7. But it took me a while to load them. First it was stuck on the first start up page for about 5 min, then on windows logo for another 5. Before I have installed windows I have also tried start up repair, but no success. I have attached pictures of start up repair analysis ..

Anyway once it reaches windows, everything seems to be fine, at least for now. I can use my pc. But if I have to reboot it, it is really a pain. It takes about 10 min to load windows, which is far from normal with my pc specs.And it always stops before loading drives, and on windows logo (I have attached pictures, just in case) Now I am affraid to plug my old drives to get the data out of them, just because I don't understand what is causing problem. I hope there's nothing wrong with my motherboard .. ?

My PC is : Gigabyte G41M-Combo / Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz / 4GB RAM - Ocz Reaper / Graphics - ATI Radeon HD 5670 / WD Caviar Black 1.0 TB ...

I also have those 3 drives which I used before it crashed .. 2 samsung f1 , 320GB & 750GB , and samsung f3 1.0TB my OS drive.

Please anyone has any idea what could have caused this system error, or how to solve it .. It is very expensive to get you computer for diagnostics, so If I'd knew that my MB needs fixing/changing etc I would rather buy it, than spend same money for someone telling me that..

Thank you in advance

 

[Saltgrass]

Are all of the drives still on your system? It might be trying to deal with a bad drive and causing the system to slow down. I would suggest removing all other drives and see if it helps. Many times this will show in the bios, but maybe not in your case.

If you get a chance, you might get a Disk Management picture and attach.

 

[Pauli]

I agree with Saltgrass. Disconnect all drives but the major, try that, then re-connect them and check where the problem may be. About the Startup Repair, I wouldn't give a dime about it. It hasn't helped me one single time. It always comes up with "Cannot solve the problem", and what would be the use of that?

 

[Ascii]

No guys .. I have only one drive running. And it's brand new, with a clean install of windows .. that's why smth suggests me that it is not just drives ..

Saltgrass, what do you mean exactly with a disk management picture ? Do you want it from BIOS, or the list of my drives when the computer starts ?

 

[Saltgrass]

A Disk Management is just the window (diskmgmt.msc) of it with its graphical representation. Take a picture with the snipping tool.

If you only have the one drive and a DVD, it should not be taking that long. Possible the new install was influenced by something on the system.

In the last 1 1/2 years, I have gotten 2 bad WD Caviar black drives...they even installed, but when rebooted, showed signs of problems.

The drive controller might be having a problems.

Do you have any media in your DVD drive?

 

[Ascii]

The problem started before I have put this new drive & the windows in. It sarted after my system crashed, I think I mentioned that earlier. So I don't think it has anything to do with the problem .. Maybe for you it was Caviar, but for me it is Samsung drives that are crashing all the time ... I have 4 drives that failed over the last year, all of them are samsung f1, and the last one f3, that failed now (it is only a month old !!). Well maybe they are not completely dead yet, but I was so attracted to the performance review by the experts that did not pay any attention to reliability.

I know it may be a different subject, but it is related in a way .. All those drives have those errors like "boot mgr missing", "ntldr missing" or "inaccessible" , but I may have caused some of them myself by formatting them not the right way. I simply can not get my head around, how to prepare a drive for windows installation if you have windows already running on it. I could never do that, it never boots from a cd..! But if you get a new one it is configured the right way.. How to do that with the drive that has been used for OS already ? If I would have asked this question earlier, maybe I would have avoided many problems. Because after every fault, I kept using drives as a storage space, as they were not bootable , not an exception is this case . I had 2 drives with a fault running together with a new drive !

I still need that data that I keep in them, so at some point I'm gonna have to try to put them in ..

And no, I don't have anything in my dvd drive. I have only my keyboard, mouse, wireless adapter and my caviar black connected to pc. I am writing from my computer, as I said once it boots after 8-10 min, it works fine, that's really weird.

 

[Pauli]

I have some problems with understanding your problem. "Boot mgr missing", "Ntldr missing", are problems I've had, but they usually disappear through one or two reboots. "Inaccessible", I can't remember.

0xc000000f may indicate that you have tried to start two Operative Systems. That symptom may occur even if you only have one drive running BUT you have previously had others running. It only means that marks have been made on your Disk. And such marks are known to disappear quite hardly.

The way I would choose is, to install only one empty drive where you don't have data you may loose, format it, and install Windows on it. Regrettably, I don't have a very high regard of Windows' formatting abilities, I would recommend gParted here, http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Once you get it running, you can add one disk at a time. Be careful, though, I lost more than 200Gb, and I have a friend who lost 4Tb.

Hope for the best is many times what we have. Cheerio.

 

[Ascii]

Titanic, thank you for your replay. And sorry for making it so confusing.

The problem I have to deal with is mentioned at the very top. My computer boots only in 10 min, with a NEW drive, and CLEAN windows installation . That is my headache at th moment. I can't just leave it, as it is well annoying. If I have to change my MB to sort it out, I'll do it, but first I need to get as close as possible to the sollution.

I am a music producer, and this is my main working computer. I can not start installing all my software, as it will take a couple of weeks AGAIN I have done this only a month ago, twice. You know that feeling when you get everything right in you computer, and it suddenly crashes, and all your work installing and putting stuff back in places is WORTHLESS !


Regarding other drives : It is certainly my fault, playing with multiple installations. Faults don't just disappear, trust me . I have benn fighting with "boot mgr is missing" and "NTLDR is missing" for a while now, with no succes. And evrytime I end up getting a new HDD for my OS. I makes me sad to read those simple explanations on how to repair those problems, and I can say now : NONE of the methods ever worked for me.

 

[Pauli]

I can understand your pain, Ascii. I'm a photographer, and I've been very careful with relying my work on computers. My heart goes to you.

I would suggest what I would find wise for myself: concentrate on what you do well, and leave other expertise to those who do it well. Find a good person to deal with your it-issues. Instead of trying to find out about it yourself. It'll cost you a bit, but it'll pay you in the end.

And guess what - not all that trouble to think about it.

God bless - if you accept it.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

One thing you can do is download and install EasyBCD...

EasyBCD - CNET Download.com

It will let you see how your boot management is set up and fix it if there is a problem.

Have you checked your ram?
If you have multiple ram sticks one of them might be bad and cause the long boot times and other errors.

Here's a link to information about how to find where boot delays are coming from.

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Mike

 

[Ascii]

Thank you !!!

It wasn't exactly the way I planned but I got it sorted ... There is allways a way

I have played around with easy bcd and got a fault 0xC0000098 (Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry).

So to solve this I have searched online and downloaded ebcd (emergency boot cd) , and guess as soon as I booted that CD is sorted my slow start up problem automaticly. Funny isn't it I have also used it to solve 0xC0000098 error.. So now everything works fine !


I was just wondering can you use EBCD or EasyBCD to solve issues like boot mgr missing or ntdlr missing ?? That would be absolutely brilliant if there's some article about it.


So I could get my friends computer sorted as well ... And my other hdd's ..

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Yes EasyBCD will create a complete boot setup and boot.ini file.

If you have an operating system on another drive all you have to do is select it and it will set it up to boot to it, and allow you to set the boot sequence etc.

Mike

 

[Ascii]

And if I don't have any OS .. Any way you could use Emergency BCD programme .. Because that one boots even when there's nothing that boots .. So maybe it is possible to bring some drives that I have to life .. Mainly boot mgr missing error is what I am interested in .. No other methods helped .. And later install windows on them ... I've got my friends pc at home that I'm trying to fix ..

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

If you want to access drives in your computer and don't have an OS the easiest way would either be to use a Ubuntu disk, or as I just had to do buy a USB converter so that you can plug the drives into another computer.

This worked great...
Link Removed

The Ubuntu disk would let you copy and save any data on the drives prior to installing a new OS.

Home | Ubuntu

Mike

Ps: I don't think you have a boot manager if you don't have an operating system.