Windows 7 Startup Repair cannot fix problem...

[CodeNinjaSD]

Ok, I have a first for Windows 7 that I have seen. My relative has a windows 7 machine that she opened a nasty email on which crashed her PC. After attempting to restart she now gets Startup repair failing to fix the problem message.

Things we have tried:

-boot into safe mode
-enable boot logging
-system restore
-sfc /scannow
-bootrec /fixboot
-bootrec /fixmbr

All have been tried from startup recovery console and booting into Windows 7 install disk.

Now, I was fairly confident that SFC would fix this issue. Problem is, we attempted a System Restore first which failed to complete due to being caught in this startup repair loop. Now when we run sfc we get the message about a System Restore pending and to reboot the machine.

Things we have tried to remedy the Pending System Restore message when trying SFC:
- dism.exe /image:d:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

Results in:
Error: 2


Unable to access the image.
Make sure that the image path and the Windows directory for the image exist and you have Read permissions on the folder.

I'm not sure why I can't get this command to run. We have double checked that the drive letter is correct using diskpart/list volume. Is there a way to manually remove this pending system restore?

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Saltgrass]

If running an actual Startup Repair, it might take 3 or 4 runs, if it can fix the problem.

You might try a bootable anti-virus.

What is Windows Defender Offline?

You can try running the SFC from offline...

Link Removed - Invalid URL

A chkdsk might help clean up drive corruption.

I am not familiar with dism.exe, so probably not something normally used to repair a system.

 

[CodeNinjaSD]

If running an actual Startup Repair, it might take 3 or 4 runs, if it can fix the problem.

You might try a bootable anti-virus.

What is Windows Defender Offline?

You can try running the SFC from offline...

Link Removed - Invalid URL

A chkdsk might help clean up drive corruption.

I am not familiar with dism.exe, so probably not something normally used to repair a system.

What do you mean by "actual" startup repair?

I would love to be able to run sfc but I always get the "Pending System Restore" message...

 

[Saltgrass]

What do you mean by "actual" startup repair?

I would love to be able to run sfc but I always get the "Pending System Restore" message...

Some folks use different terms for repairing there system. But there is a "Startup Repair" option. Just wanted to make sure you were using that.

So you tried SFC from offline and it would not run either?

The fact you can get into Safe Mode suggests this is not a normal Repair Loop. Have you tried running things from there?

 

[CodeNinjaSD]

Some folks use different terms for repairing there system. But there is a "Startup Repair" option. Just wanted to make sure you were using that.

So you tried SFC from offline and it would not run either?

The fact you can get into Safe Mode suggests this is not a normal Repair Loop. Have you tried running things from there?

We are unable to boot into safe mode...