I've searched the web for three days trying to figure something out. Posting as a last resort.

A few days ago, Vista would not boot on my Dell laptop. Ran startup repair - no help. No system restore points could be found (even though I had set some in the past). Appeared to be booting to the recovery partition, but could not find any Windows installs. I did all I knew how to do. Did some internet research, tried some things, no solutions.

Somewhere as a result of one of the attempts (not sure which one), Vista is now in what seems to be a boot loop and will only boot to the stand alone memory test/diagnostics menu. (It's a window with "Choose an Option" in the header, and three choices: Test Memory, Test System, Exit). Test Memory, runs the memory test (it passes). Test System, runs the diagnostic test (it passes). Exit, exits the diagnostic test menu and reboots the system which goes back to the diagnostic test menu.



F8 not working. F12 takes me to BIOS, but I can't boot from disc/USB, it keeps going back to the test menu. I cannot bypass it.

Any ideas? I'm helpless and clueless.

Thanks, AC, but I've tried that. My boot order is set as: 1) USB, 2) CD, 3) Hard Drive. System goes to the Test Menu every time.

Hi mumbles, now I did the same as you and I have the same problem.
How did you fix it finally?

Thanks
I know that this is an old thread but, considering that don't have any solution...

What did you do to get yourself into a loop?

What kind of loop is it?

So I had an Partition table issue, that I fixed using Testdisk on a Ubuntu live CD.
Then I boot the computer and It appears Choose An Option: Test memory, Test System, Exit. After doing all the tests, when I click exit it reboot the computer and brings me again to the Choose an option window.

When I did the Test system it appeared a: error code 0F00:065D disk_0 self-test read error

Easy to make mistakes with Testdisk.

I would boot up partition wizard boot cd free , try partition recovery with that.

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

Yes, it often means the hd has problems.

But because it appeared after using Testdisk, it is possible the error message might be incorrect.

If you have data on there you want, worth checking with something else (eg partition wizard ) just to make sure.

Otherwise, if you are covered by SGA or guarantee - might as well just get a replacement as Madhur suggests.

You are helpping me so much:
So the first thing, I don't thing that the hard disk will be dead because the first time I run Ubuntu I could access to C: and all of my files (unfortunatelly I didn't copy my files...).
After using testdisk (I did something wrong) so now when I run Ubuntu it appears Unlabeled with anything.

So, now I'm on the MiniTool partition wizard and there I can se:
Disk 1:
*: Capacity: 70.57Mb Used:7.81Mb FileSystem: Fat Type:Primary Status:Active
*:*Capacity: 32Gb Used:26.79GB FileSystem: Fat32 Type:Primary Status:None
*: Capacity: 564GB Used:0B FileSystem: Unallocated Type:Logical Status:None

Ok, so with the 564Gb disk most of the options are disabled.

I remember that during the TestDisk process there was a Step that was:
Choose your disk as primary, logical...
I keep it as it was maybe this was the mistake, so:
I try to fix it with Partition Wizard, or with TestDisk?

Thanks!!!

PD: the fact that it appears: Used 0B it means that all the data has been deleted (ot not necessarily)