Windows 7 Startup Repair Help

[SeventhSun]

Please, I need help. For some reason, my computer has gotten to the point where I had to run Startup Repair. However, nothing I do has worked. I tried to Restore, but it said an error occurred and after that, no operating system would appear on the options. Then, I attempted to run sfc scannow in the Command Prompt, only for it to say that there is a startup repair pending that requires reboot, which there is not, and I have already rebooted several times. Nothing is working, and I do not know what else to do, short of re-installing Windows 7, and I can't even do that since I have no installation disc. What can I do? What am I doing wrong?

 

[kemical]

Hi,

if you recently purchased the machine and Windows 7 was already installed the seller may give you a disk if you ask nicely. Do you have a product key at least?

 

[SeventhSun]

I've had the laptop for over a year, and Windows came pre-installed. Now, I'm just looking for solutions of what to do. I'd rather not have to get a new disc and reinstall the program, and I'd like to avoid having to go to have it looked at if I can fix it myself

 

[Saltgrass]

Most laptops have there own recovery/restore utilities with the necessary files already on the hard drive. Have you checked to see if you could use any of those?

Could you explain the problem that made you feel you needed to do a Startup Repair? And are you referring to the Windows 7 Startup Repair from the Windows Recovery Environment? But have you tried running a Chkdsk to see if it would help with some type of corruption?

Can you borrow a Windows 7 Install DVD? You can download and burn one from the link. You could use that to boot into the recovery environment and run some utilities from Offline.. Using it to reinstall would still require a key of some type, so if you do reinstall, try the factory supplied one.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

 

[SeventhSun]

Most laptops have there own recovery/restore utilities with the necessary files already on the hard drive. Have you checked to see if you could use any of those?

Could you explain the problem that made you feel you needed to do a Startup Repair? And are you referring to the Windows 7 Startup Repair from the Windows Recovery Environment? But have you tried running a Chkdsk to see if it would help with some type of corruption?

Can you borrow a Windows 7 Install DVD? You can download and burn one from the link. You could use that to boot into the recovery environment and run some utilities from Offline.. Using it to reinstall would still require a key of some type, so if you do reinstall, try the factory supplied one.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

I have a repair disc. Yesterday, my computer suddenly started acting slowly, and so I restarted it, and then got the message that Windows failed to start, and so I launched recovery. When I attempted a repair, it said it could not do so automatically. When I attempted to restore, it failed; the message saying there was some type of error. After that, I restarted again, using the repair disc, and when I went to try restore again, it could not locate my operating system and therefore, I could not do a restore. Then, I tried using the command prompt command sfc /scannow, but it claimed there was a repair in progress, even though there was not. So, now I am at a stalemate. My only options seem to be to come here to ask for aid, take it to someone who could repair it, or try to reinstall Windows 7 and see if that works. Id that enough information?

 

[SeventhSun]

Okay, I launched chkdsk in the command prompt and after it concluded, it said it checked the file system and found no problems. I'm confused on what to do now

 

[Saltgrass]

Try running the SFC from Offline.. You can use the downloaded and burned DVD.

How to Run the System File Checker (Sfc.exe) Offline in Windows 7 and Vista - The Winhelponline Blog

Have you run any virus checks?

Do you have any options to start Windows in Safe Mode, or can you type msconfig.exe in the command window or taskman.exe and and use it?

What options do you have the manufacturer gives you for recovering a system?

When it doesn't start, exactly what happens? A black screen with some type of cursor, a message of some type?

 

[SeventhSun]

Try running the SFC from Offline.. You can use the downloaded and burned DVD.

How to Run the System File Checker (Sfc.exe) Offline in Windows 7 and Vista - The Winhelponline Blog

Have you run any virus checks?

Do you have any options to start Windows in Safe Mode, or can you type msconfig.exe in the command window or taskman.exe and and use it?

What options do you have the manufacturer gives you for recovering a system?

When it doesn't start, exactly what happens? A black screen with some type of cursor, a message of some type?

A message said "Windows failed to start, a recent software or hardware change may be the problem". I keep on trying to run sfc, but it fails, saying Windows Resource Protection cannot complete repair. I can only boot up the Recovery; I have no options for Safe Mode.

 

[Saltgrass]

One of the repair options you might see is "Last Known Good .." That will replace the registry with the last one that successfully booted the system.... Hopefully that will roll back any device driver changes or some other problematic changes.

 

[SeventhSun]

One of the repair options you might see is "Last Known Good .." That will replace the registry with the last one that successfully booted the system.... Hopefully that will roll back any device driver changes or some other problematic changes.

I tried that, too. It failed

 

[SeventhSun]

Okay, when I boot up the Recovery, I notice that when Windows 7 is listed, it says there are 0 MB and that the installation is on an unknown local disc. Is that normal?

 

[Saltgrass]

If the boot files are missing or corrupt, hard to say what might be reported.

You might want to try something like downloading and burning the bootable Home version of Partition Wizard. With that you could see what the drive was doing and what partitions is shows. A digital camera works well for taking pictures you could attach using the paperclip.

You could try running a bcdboot c:\Windows command to see if it would help. But if your system does not know what C: is, it probably won't work.

 

[SeventhSun]

Thank you all for your help, but it is fixed now. I did repair one last time and it finally worked. It would appear the cause was a recent download as said download was deleted when I checked the folder. Thank you all for your help