Windows 7 Windows 7 Unable to boot, restore tools dont work

[adharris]

Hey all,

I've been running win7 since the beta release, and i've been having this reoccurring problem where win7 will randomly not boot, necessitating a reinstall or an restore from image backup.

What happens is that the bios will boot fine, I will see all the bios messages. Then when its time for windows to do its thing there is just a black screen and nothing happens. I cannot get into the boot options to get into safemode or startup repair.

If i run startup repair from the install dvd, it tells me there are no startup issues.

If i run system restore from the DVD, it tells me it completed successfully, but this does not fix the issue. Furthermore, if I run system restore a second time, the list of restore points are the same, it's as if system restore reports success but actually fails.

The only way i can get the computer working again is to reinstall or restore from an image backup. The computer will then work fine for a couple of weeks before having the same issue again.

To me its obvious that because it will boot fine most of the time, there is something that I am doing to cause this behavior, but I cant for the life of me figure out what it is. Anybody know or have any ideas? Id like to be able to prevent this from happening in the future.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[Wardo]

Windows 7 will not boot.

I have the same problem. I was able to get it up and running once but not this time. The only thing I havn't tried is to run a restore from my Windows Home Server. When I get time......

So I guess posting it got my butt in gear, I did a restore from my WHS and am up and running again!!
Thats twice that my HP mediasmart server saved my butt!!
It still does'nt solve why it is crashing, hopefully whatever glitch it is will be solved in the public release.

 

[reghakr]

Sound like a problem with bootmgr or the MBR.

Do you have multiple partitions or more than one drive on this machine?

 

[adharris]

Yes, there are three physical drives in the machine. One drive is partitioned, with one partition being used for as the system drive. The other partition is used for large, but not mission-critical, files. The second physical drive is used for media. The third drive is disconnected physically, and has my old XP install on it. I back up mission critical stuff to an external harddrive which i connect/disconnect as needed while windows is running. I never boot or shutdown with it connected.

Save for the disconnected physical drive, win7 is the only OS on any of these drives; I am not dual booting.

Would you suggest running something like fixmbr (is fixmbr still in use?) from the command prompt from the install DVD? Is there anyway to tell what would be causing this?

 

[reghakr]

Well that;s odd.

I assume like most others, you're running a higher build? have you performed "clean" installs or did you upgrade?

Have you tried a complete format and "clean" install?

Fixmbr and fixboot were in my mind, but I don't want to be responsible for hosing someone else's computer

Actually, I don't think these options are available, no recovery console as in previous versions.

You don't have to worry about your ND partition on the main drive, as a clean install will leave those files intact and just format the C: partition.

Again, don't want to see you loose anything so will all that space you have, you could always copy these files to another drive.

 

[adharris]

I am currently running 7068. I have had this same problem with versions 7000, 7057, and 7068. When i install a new version, i always format the drive and preform a clean install. When the problem presents itself, I will first try to restore from an image backup i keep on another drive. If that works, i can usually get another week or so before the same problem presents itself. About 50% of the time, the image restore will not solve the problem, and I perform a clean install.

I think you can get to the recovery console by booting to the DVD, then selecting repair computer. That will give you access to the command prompt, though i dont know if fixmbr and fixboot are options there.

I'm not worried at all about losing data, all of the important stuff is either on a different physical drive, on an external backup, or in dropbox. Its a pain needing to reinstall every couple of days, but all i lose is my time.

 

[reghakr]

The only thing that comes to mind is possibly your computer specs and/or hardware.

It's not listed under your profile name. Could you provide them?

Yes, you can get to the command prompt, but that's it, the only thing you can do is navigate drives or directories and use the typical built-in DOS commands but fixmbr is not one of them.

 

[adharris]

mobo: Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
RAM: 4 gb DDR, Not sure of brand
Video Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT and Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT

oh ya, im running the 64 bit version as well.

As for fixmbr, i know theres somewhere to build a boot disk from win7, ive never done it, perhaps that will have it on it. I'll test it and post results....

 

[aimar]

so did anyone succed to finaly find a solution??
i have tried many many things...
but nothing worked...

 

[Saltgrass]

Are you sure it isn't booting? I can't check right now, but if you know the key sequence to shut it down from the logon screen you could try that to see what it does. Are you running two monitors? Set the power switch to put it to sleep then wake it up.

Any chance of a boot virus?

Some AMD processors have had problems running hot. Maybe after a period of usage the system is getting corrupted.

Maybe the hard drive or it's controller is having problems.

*********************
The only three other things would be to run the SFC /scannow from the command prompt as part of the recovery sequence and the memory Diagnostic. Maybe try unplugging the second drive or moving it if there is a possibility of heat in the drives causing a problem.

 

[aimar]

hmm, i dont think its a boot virus as boot disk starts normally, also i checked a linux live destribution which also runs ok
however when i tried spinrite to check the disk more, it wooldnt boot!!!