Urgh, no luck either...

The sata controller was set on RAID.
I changed it to IDE, but when I let the system boot, it gives a very quick bluescreen and reboots.
In Safe mode it does nothing, just starts to boot and shuts down and restarts.

I created a recovery disk (vista x64) and it immediatly said "problem while booting, searching for solution". I've let it run for a half hour while saying "attempting repairs" and then it says "Cannot repair automatically"



Then I went to the prompt via the recovery disk and did "bootrec /fixmbr + /fixboot" again.
Nu luck either...

Is there anything else I could try ?

Originally Posted by richc46

OK
If you install Ubuntu, it will serve two purposes
Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek
If it cannot install, you have a hardware problem; you may have to bring it in to be fixed.
If you can install, save your stuff. Then report back.

I've runned the Linux CD.
First I tried to boot it up live.
It's stuck at the point he's loading the display drivers.
But I just putted the GParted live in and when I see my drives there is a problem at my /dev/sda1 (boot partition).

When I review the problem I get the following message:
Warning: The disk has bad sector. This means physical damage on the disk surface caused by deterioration, manufacturing faults or other reason. The reliability of the disk may stay stable or degrade fast. We suggest making a full backup urgently by running 'ntfsclone --rescue...' then run 'chkdsk /f /r' on Windows and reboot TWICE! Then you can resize NTFS safely by additionally using the --bad-sectors option of ntfsresize.

This is the computer of a friend I'm looking at, he told me he was repartionning his drives when this happend.
I'm going to run the chkdsk /r again now and then going to try to resize the bad sectors.

Or should I try something else ?

Originally Posted by richc46

It sounds like the hard drive may be failing. His stuff may be lost, already. If it is the hard drive all that you could do is get a new one. If there is a way to save his stuff do it as soon as possible.. You could run the chkdsk, but the results are not significant. Chkdsk is not always accurate.

When I'm in the prompt screen I can access the C: disk and cd my way true the files. Also I've got the HDD out and put it in an external case.

There I copyed the most important files (documents, music, photo's, ...)
But the drive is still working.

Wouldn't I get a message in sort of "no drive found" if the disk was dying ?

I'll run checkdisk /r for a moment and will check back with GParted live to see if the error still occours. I'll have to try to reïnstall Windows.
If the problem still occours, I can call the hard drive dead.

I'll let you know how it went !

As suspected, no difference.

I'm going to reformat the disc and if that doesn't work replace the HDD.

Thanks for the help tough !

For everyone, thestartup with vista black screen wwindows about 30-90 seconds, replace the SATAcable! That's all! It follows a normalbootup, about 15-30 seconds. Only good!