Vista Home Premium 64bit Boot Loops

V

virtualdiablo

New Member
I have a 4 month old HP desktop running 64 bit Vista Home Premium. Historically its been running great. This could be unrelated, I loaded Norton 360 on it a week ago and its been nagging me to set up the backup. I set it up the other night and it failed. Being tired I decided to look at it the next day. The next day it would not boot. It goes through the bios and as soon as it gets to windows it loops back and starts over. I have run the F9 diagnostics and all the hardware checks out. I can't F11 into the recovery partition so I have ordered the recovery cd's from HP. I have checked all the connections to the mother board, memory, HD's, cabling etc, with no luck. I can't imagine what would have happened other than Norton overwriting something on C drive when it tried to backup. (who knows with Norton). If anyone knows anything for me to try please let me know.

BTW, I can't boot into any safe mode, nor restore last good settings, etc.
 
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My Computer

System One

Is saving your personal files a concern or not really necessary?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
sounds like norton messed up another computer,

if you dont have anything on it that you really need just do a clean re install of vista
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    CUSTOM BUILT BY ME
    CPU
    AMD PHENOM II X3 710 2.6GHZ Overclocked to 3.25GHZ Stable
    Motherboard
    Ecs Gf8200a Phenom-2 X4 Quad Core Mboard
    Memory
    8BG PC5300 4 x 2GB OCZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI-E ATI HD 4670 1GB Overclocked 4GB Total
    Sound Card
    Onboard 7.1 HD AUDIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    55" Vizio LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 1200 HD
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate, 1TB Hitachi, 250GB Maxtor, 250GB Seagate
    PSU
    Kingwin ABT-610MM Maximum Power 610 Watt ATX 12V
    Case
    GENERIC
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS7500-AlCu LED Universal CPU Cooler, 4 CASE FANS
    Keyboard
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS KEYBOARD
    Mouse
    MICROSOFT WIRELESS MOUSE
    Internet Speed
    CABLE 15MBPS
You could try running the vista repair diagnostics if you have a vista disc. You should also contact Norton. Support is included in the price. I'm installing 360 soon but can you be sure it was Norton?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Z46GDU
    CPU
    [email protected] w/6MB L2 cache 1066MHz FSB
    Memory
    6GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    9300M GS 256MB + Intel Integrated 4500MHD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.1" WXGA True Colour Tough
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    320GB SATA 7200RPM
    Internet Speed
    1MB/s
No, I don't know for sure it was norton360, could be a coincidence but the failed backup was the last operation before shutdown. Also, I can't boot to anything, safemode included. I have actually tried the NeoSmart recovery disk and it allowed me to get on but could not do much from there as it could not recognize my harddrive. I don't know why. I know my hard drive spins on startup which I realize is no indication of it being good. But again when I use F9 and it checks the hardware it reports my hard drive as being fine. I should get my restore disks in a few days and probably will have to reinstall. i was just hoping for a cure I had not thought of. Thanks for all the help everyone.
 

My Computer

System One

As in my previous post,if you need to salvage personal files
before they are lost due to the reinstall - there are ways.

Ardneh
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Ardneh, please let me know your method to keep the personal files. I was hoping that the restore/recovery disks would have a option to recover without loosing all my data. If not yes I would like to know how to keep my personal information.
 

My Computer

System One

There is more than one way of doing this. The way I'm used to is with
a Ubuntu Linux Live CD and copying files onto a USB Flash Drive.

Download site:

Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu

Choose Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
After downloading the file,burn it as an image to a CD or DVD.

I use Imgburn for this.

ImgBurn - Download

In Imgburn use the top-left option --- Write Image File To a Disc
 
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My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Once you've made your Ubuntu Live CD you can boot to it the same way you did the NeoSmart disc. Ubuntu is a graphical interface similar to Windows but with some differences. With luck within 10 or 15 minutes of exploring the new OS you will be roaming through your file system and copying files to the USB stick.

The NeoSmart disc is a hardware diagnostic disc,not capable of file access.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Ubuntu will load into memory before Windows MBR is activated.
It doesn't install to disc at all so long as you leave it at its default
Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer on its initial boot screen.


Windows will lie dead and Ubuntu will be walking thru Windows'
library.

64 bit won't matter.
 
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My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
All, I wanted to get back with the solution in my case. I ordered my restore disks and got them today. I also burned the neo disk and the ubuntu disks. Neo did not work for me. I tried ubuntu and it was useful and I would have been able to move my files. However I tried the restore disk and tried to fix the startup which failed. I restored to an earlier version, no good. I found that the error had to do with a missing boot.mgr. I know that Vista boots differently and now uses the boot mgr. Many articles talked about it being corrupt or deleted. Finally I hit an article that mentioned that it might be the boot sequence. I took the Ubuntu disk out and went into the bios and sure enough the boot sequence was changed. I had put my old hard drive from my old computer in my new one as soon as I bought it. We had a storm the night before it went south but I have everything on a surge protector. I actually have two and the only thing on the other is a external disk. The only thing I can think of is when the power went out 'somehow' the boot sequence got changed. I can't explain it but two seconds in bios and it now boots fine. I feel somewhat stupid for not checking that. The boot hardware listing was actually backwards to what I had. It listed my old hard drive (xp), the external drive and then the right hard drive. THanks for all the help everyone. I should have thought of that first.
 

My Computer

System One

Congrats! Good to see that you've succeeded.

Ardneh
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq/SR5130NX
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64x2 3800+
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
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